Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar
The large tower to the right is the Torreón de la Zuda,
Search Results for: cathedral
Amazing roadside cathedral in Schwyz
Continuing the series, the magnificent Swiss canton of Schwyz has marvels that could easily cause the eyeballs of outsiders to explode, as this snap of a roadside cathedral shows:
Cathedral Symmetry
In a few other blog posts I’ve complained that the great European cathedrals are simply the wrong size to photograph well. But more than this: they present a conflict situation between the needs of the human brain and the needs of the camera. The cathedrals are too large: no problem for the human brain but the […]
Bulgarian Cathedral
You can’t make a trip to Sofia without seeing this incredible church, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral: It’s a fairly modern cathedral, as far as cathedrals go – built around 1870 I think. This was always one of my “jumping off” points for long walks around Sofia, where the ancient and glorious architecture could still be […]
Most incredible cathedral so far!
This is the late artist M. C. Escher: And this is one of his lithographs, from 1955, entitled Convex and Concave: If you think this complicated and impossible, and if you worry whether seeing something like this in real life could make your brain explode . . . then AT ALL COSTS you should avoid […]
Why are cathedrals visible from tiny streets?
The wonderful thing about blogging your travel photos is that you can begin to see similarities that might otherwise not have been obvious. While travelling recently in Santiago de Compostella, in the region of Galicia in Spain, I took this snap, which showed the tower framed very nicely by the narrow street:
It’s hard to take good photos of big cathedrals
This photo of the Saint-Étienne de Metz cathedral in Metz isn’t too bad – but it’s not great either. It’s just darned hard to take good photos of big buildings using mobile phones. I wonder if this is something modern architects are aware of and try to account for in their designs? Of all the […]
Strasbourg houses
I wish I knew more about medieval cities, because when I look at scenes like this I don’t understand them. The buildings are narrow but tall – and that suggests to me that land was expensive so they wanted to keep the footprint small but then build vertically. But they are all quite different in […]
Russian church – guarded by vicious attack rabbits
Dating back to around 1912 as a gift from a Russian Tzar, this is a rather famous Russian church in the southern French city of Nice, It’s pretty impressive, to be sure, but what’s even more impressive is that they’ve stolen an idea from Monte Python, and in fact this church is guarded by a […]
Church in the winter Provence sunlight
I really like the way this snap turned out, I did not post-processing on it whatever. It captures the L’Église Saint-Baudile de Nîmes in the southern French city of Nimes. I especially like the way that the yellows of the building contrast with the grays of the sky. It’s quite a new cathedral, as far […]
Béziers bridge for boats
As artistic a snap as I thought I could take of the Canal du Midi, which at this point crosses the River Orb in an aquaduct. Yes – that’s right! – that is not a bridge for cars or people but a bridge for boats! This snap was taken in Béziers, with the famous Cathédral […]
The Rhine Rider at Béziers
Here is the Rhine Rider, taking a break at the top of a hill in the southern French city of Béziers, just in front of the Cathédral Saint-Nazaire,
Old bridge over the River Orb
Hold on to your hat: the name of this bridge in French (and I am not making this up) is Pont Vieux. This is translated as Old Bridge. It’s either the world’s most dumbest name (implying the locals could not think of anything better) or the world’s most artistic name (using a humble self-explanatory moniker […]
Clermont-Ferrand – 1
Here is the Auvergne city of Clermont-Ferrand, looking down from about halfway up the famous Puy de Dome volcano that sits just outside the city. That black spot in the center is the city’s cathedral – and it’s black because Clermont-Ferrand is located right smack dab in the middle of a volcanic park, so all […]
Incredible, spectacular Konstanz building
Very similar to this, here is an artistic a snap as I thought I could get of the magnificent Konstanz Münster cathedral (dating back to around the tenth century!) in the city center of the southern Germany city of Konstanz:
Helsinki Church – Helsingin tuomiokirkko
Quite a new church, not yet more than two centuries old:
Milan Panoramic
Taken with the famous Duomo di Milano at my back, the Galleria is on the left: Interestingly, this hidden cathedral behind me, which you cannot see in this shot, is the largest cathedral in Italy, the third largest cathedral in Europe, and the fourth largest cathedral in the world! You can get a sense of […]
Three views of Bamberg’s magnificent “Altes Rathaus”
Bamberg in Germany’s Franconia region is an amazing UNESCO village. The centerpiece is a stunning building that straddles the river – and although it’s not usual to find churches and cathedrals this old, in fact the Altes Rathaus dates back to the fifteenth century, which is quite amazing for a building. Here is one view: […]
Tripping over the Jakobsweg in Bamberg
On a recent trip to the Franconian village of Bamberg I stumbled across this while on a long hike in the woods: An old and often historically old marker like this, with a shell, symbolizes that you are on the world famous but “Ken disappointing” religious pilgrimage route, dating back to the early Middle Ages […]
The amazing, incredible Kirchenburgs of Germany!
I’ve lived in Germany and Europe for a long time, but I never stop learning new things. While driving aimlessly around the German countryside near Bamberg I was attracted to cathedral I spotted from a distance, nestled in a sleepy farming village of very few inhabitants but very many tractors: It turns out this is […]
How the wonders of the South French countryside are linked to the development of human intelligence
The fellow with the circle around his head is Saint Laurent – but not THAT Saint Laurent that you are thinking about! But what does Saint Laurent have to do with Southern France, you might ask? While driving across a lonely rural road from Nimes (a French village that a lot of tourists visit) to […]
Schwabian Fish
A big schwabian fish in a stream next to the amazing Baroque cathedral at Zwiefalten,
Two AMAZING ways that old meets new!
This is the Münster, a Catholic cathedral in the Middle Age village of Villingen in Southern Germany: It dates back to the year 1130. It is very, very old. And this is one of the doors of the cathedral: Created in the late twentieth century out of bronze by the artist Klaus Ringwald, it is […]
Half of the Apostles – and a Holy Grail Mystery!
I don’t know if they are or if they aren’t, but I took this snap in Paris at the famous Cathedral of Notre-Dame, and they have circles around their heads, so it is not unreasonable to think this: As you can see, the second one from the right (oddly) sports no beard. Could this perhaps […]
The amazing history of the Jews in Switzerland – 1
There have been large communities of Jewish people living in Switzerland since the Middle Ages. Sadly, there were also large pogroms, so their history was hardly a pleasant one. I’ve shared some information about the Jewish community in Zürich in a recent blog post. During a brief period in the eighteeenth and nineteenth centuries, the […]