Still standing after all these years

I get quite a few cards showing interesting old buildings around the world. Not surprisingly, many of these buildings are churches. Let's take a look at some of them.

 

This is the Petäjävesi Old Church in Petäjävesi, Finland. It was built between 1763 and 1764.

Do you know about Unesco World Heritage sites?  Here is a map showing the locations of all 911 sites. The Petäjävesi Old Church is one of them. You can zoom in on any of the map locations for more information.

This French-Gothic style cathedral is located in northwest Spain, in the little city of León. It was built in 1255 over the ruins of 2nd century Roman baths. Work continued into the 19th century. I'd love to see the inside. There are some 125 medieval stained glass windows, which give the cathedral its nickname the "House Of Light".

On to Freiburg, Germany to see another Gothic cathedral. This one took over 300 years to build and was consecrated in 1513.

All this reminds me of Ken Follett's book (and later TV mini-series) "Pillars of the Earth". It was one of Oprah's Book Club selections. L-o-n-g book, but interesting. It will make you very glad you do not live in medieval times. Lots of disease, fighting, and many other hardships such as no pizza delivery.

This amazes me. See the colorful "carpet" in front of the Grand Cathedral? It is all made of flowers, mostly camellias. This is done every other year, and if you get yourself to Brussels by August 15th of this year you can see it for yourself.  I know there is some concern about whether you will be required to eat Brussels sprouts. Actually, yes. Customs officials will ask for your passport, then hand you a small plate of sprouts. If you refuse to eat them, it's back to wherever you came from.

 

If you get kicked out of Belgium, you could always go to Amsterdam to see this beautiful cathedral, which was founded in 1250.

After all the fancy Gothic cathedrals, I'm going to end with the entirely wooden Uspenskaya Church in Nelazskoye, Russia. This is a Russian Orthodox church, built in 1774 and considered to be a masterpiece of Russian wooden architecture.


I hope you all feel edified after today's trip. What? You feel petrified? Oh come on, it wasn't that boring.