church
Cemetery Church, Vienna
This church is in the middle of the Central Cemetery in Vienna. Its really quiet, not many tourists visit graveyards, but I find them really interesting. In particular I was there to visit Beethoven. But I’m really glad I popped into the church. In German it is called “Katholische Dr.-Karl-Lueger-Gedächtniskirche”, which means the “Karl Lueger Memorial Catholic Church”. Karl Lueger is a somewhat controversial figure, in that he is credited with transforming Vienna into a modern city, but he was a strong Antisemitic, to the point that Hitler credited him as an inspiration for his own Jewish views. I am somewhat baffled to see that this church would be named after him – it is a very sensitive topic in Vienna.
The dome is surprisingly modern, just a simple pattern. No biblical scenes like you see all over the other churches in Vienna. Incidently this is the second dome, the first was destroyed in World War 2.
A view from outside.
Kaplica Gasieniców
This little stone chapel is in the middle of Zakopane. IT’s called Kaplica Gasieniców. It was the first sacred building in Zakopane; it was build around 1800.
Legend has it that the funds raised to build the church come from the booty of robbers atoning for their sins!
Cathedral in the mine
This is the chapel of the cathedral in the Wieliczka Saltmine, Krakow. The mine is so deep that the workers built homes in the mines (the mine is just over 300m deep; by modern standards it is not deep at all, but at the time that was a long way down), and being religious people they needed places to pray. So they build a cathedral under the ground. This is the front of the cathedral, the “choir” from where the services were conducted.
The Chapel on the Water
The Chapel on the Water is on the site of ancient spa-baths in the little village of Ojcow, in the middle of the Ojcow National Park, about 20km outside of Krakow. Dating back to 1901 it is just over 100 years old.
The story goes that the landowner wouldn’t let anybody build a church on his land, but since he doesn’t own the river he could not prevent the church from being built there.
If you want to visit the church, it is on the road that goes through Ojcow, but its about 500m to the north (the far side of the village if you are coming from the Krakow side).
Barcelona Cathedral
The Barcelona Cathedral is a typical gothic cathedral with its tall detailed columns stretching up to the sky, spreading outwards like upside down tree routes to form the vaulted ceiling. When we were in Barcelona I visited the cathedral many times. Partly because it was so awe-inspiring to stand under that roof, and partly because it was about 100m from our apartment. Every hour we heard the bells of the cathedral beat out the time, and after a while it became almost reassuring to hear the bells as I drifted off to sleep after spending an evening wondering around the gothic quarter of Barcelona.
