May 13th, 2013 at 3:00PM:
Pope Francis has beatified a long list of religious figures in the first creation of saints of his papacy, the Guardian reports. Included in this list are the 813 Martyrs of Otranto. These were victims of a massacre in the southern Italian town in 1480 when Ottoman soldiers beheaded them for refusing to convert to Islam.
It was common in Medieval and Renaissance Europe to display the remains ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
church posts
Otranto Cathedral: Where You Can See The Remains Of Catholicism's Newest Saints
May 13th, 2013 at 3:00PM:
Pope Francis has beatified a long list of religious figures in the first creation of saints of his papacy, the Guardian reports. Included in this list are the 813 Martyrs of Otranto. These were victims of a massacre in the southern Italian town in 1480 when Ottoman soldiers beheaded them for refusing to convert to Islam.
It was common in Medieval and Renaissance Europe to display the remains ...10 Things To Like About Detroit Now
May 6th, 2013 at 11:00AM:
Detroit is like an empty lot down the street that's sat vacant for years. Some people in the neighborhood doubt it will ever be put to good use. Then one day, you notice that the rubble is being carted away, and there are actually some green shoots popping up from the newly cleared ground. Somebody, it seems, thinks they can make something of it.
That's what's happening with the Motor City ...A Cast-Iron Church In Istanbul
Apr 22nd, 2013 at 10:00AM:
This church on the shoreline of Istanbul looks ornate yet pretty normal – that is until you go up and take a closer look. The Bulgarian St. Stephen Church isn't made of stone but rather of cast iron. It's a rare survival of a 19th-century craze in prefab cast-iron churches.
Also known as the Bulgarian Iron Church, its parts were cast in Vienna in 1871 and shipped down the Danube in a ...Ani, The Ghost City
Apr 20th, 2013 at 10:00AM:
Ask someone to name tourist draws in Turkey and you'll get the obvious: Istanbul, Cappadocia, Galipoli, maybe the beaches of Antalya. Some more familiar with the country might offer up the bizarre calcium cascades of Pamukkale, or the monstrous gods' heads sculptures on Mount Nemrut. Nobody ever mentions Ani, a city that for a brief period 1,000 years ago was one of the cultural and commercial ...Crypts Discovered Under Coventry Cathedral
Mar 27th, 2013 at 12:00PM:
Workers at Coventry Cathedral in England have discovered several well-preserved crypts underneath the ruins, the Daily Mail reports.
A maintenance team has been working to repair a crack in the ruins of the 14th century St. Michael's church, which became a cathedral in 1918 and was mostly destroyed by the Luftwaffe in World War II. When the workers investigated the floor of the cathedral, ...Photo Of The Day: A Plus Cathedral
Mar 14th, 2013 at 6:00PM:
Today is March 14, also known as Pi Day (in case it's been awhile since you took math, pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, 3.14), a day to celebrate mathematics, or just eat some pie. If you are in Cambridge, Massachusetts, today and can remember a good portion of the many digits of pi, you might get to eat some free pie. Today's Photo of the Day by Flickr user ...A Medieval Monastery In Estonia
Mar 5th, 2013 at 1:00PM:
Estonia had an interesting time in the Middle Ages. Along with the other Baltic States of Lithuania and Latvia, they were the last bastion of paganism in a continent that had become entirely Christian.
Various Christian kingdoms decided this was a good excuse for conquest and launched the Northern Crusades. From 1208 to 1224, the Germans, Danes, and Swedes attacked Estonia and eventually ...Tallinn's Medieval Old Town
Feb 18th, 2013 at 10:00AM:
Tallinn is a medieval wonderland. The capital of Estonia isn't on a lot of people's bucket list but anyone at all interested in history, architecture or art will love this place.
The central attraction is Old Town, a medieval walled city filled with old buildings and fortifications. The sheltered bay and the easily defended Toompea Hill made it a natural place to settle. Sometime about 1050 ...St. Andrew's In Tangier: A Church With Muslim Art
Jan 11th, 2013 at 11:00AM:
Being in Morocco, Tangier is a mostly Muslim city. Being a port, it's also a mixed city with a long history of Christian and Jewish influence. That interesting blend comes out in the language, music, art and cooking. You can see Tangier's mix of cultures everywhere.
Even in the churches.
The Church of St. Andrew is an Anglican congregation close to the Place du Grand Socco. The first thing ...Visiting The Christian Community In Iraq
Dec 3rd, 2012 at 10:00AM:
Before Iraq was conquered by the Arabs in the seventh century, it was one of the oldest centers of Christianity in the world. Even after the Arab conquest, Christians made up a sizable minority of the population – sometimes tolerated, sometimes persecuted, but always surviving.
Now it's facing its biggest threat in centuries.
The Christian Community in Iraq is a lot smaller than it ...Naughty Women, Leafy Men And Shameful Anti-Semitism: Church Art The Church Would Rather Forget
Oct 9th, 2012 at 5:00PM:
Historic European churches and cathedrals are high on many travelers' to-see lists. People admire the soaring vaulted ceilings and richly colored stained glass windows. Look closer, though, and you'll see things you weren't expecting.
Like this lovely lady at the Romanesque church of Saint Mary and Saint David in Kilpeck, Herefordshire, England, shown here courtesy Wikimedia Commons. Yes, ...Uppsala, Sweden: A University Town With Viking Roots
Oct 7th, 2012 at 12:00PM:
Uppsala University in Sweden is 535 years old today, having been inaugurated on this date in 1477. As one of the older universities in Europe, it has quite a few sights to see and is located in a town of ancient importance.
The city started as a religious center for the pagan Vikings and the location of their Thing, a general assembly. An ancient temple at Uppsala was said to have had statues ...Archaeologists Search For Lost Grave Of King Richard III
Aug 28th, 2012 at 3:00PM: Archaeologists in Leicester, England, are looking for the grave of a king – in a parking lot.
The grave of Richard III is believed to be beneath the parking lot of a local government building, according to analysis by the University of Leicester.
Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, the decisive battle of the War of the Roses. The victor was Henry Tudor, who became ...A Drive Through Rural Oxfordshire And Buckinghamshire
Aug 25th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
England is so much more than its cities.
Most itineraries take in London and one or two more: Oxford or Cambridge, Brighton or Bath. While I love all these places, and live part time in Oxford, it's the countryside that I truly enjoy. Glimpsed from the motorway it makes a pretty backdrop, but get off onto the country lanes and you'll find villages filled with history, old inns with great ...Amazing 3-D Laser Scan Of Lalibela Rock-Hewn Churches In Ethiopia
Aug 23rd, 2012 at 9:00AM:
Of all the incredible monuments in Ethiopia, the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela are by far the most impressive. Starting in the 12th century A.D., Ethiopian rulers dug a series of churches out of the solid bedrock.
This architecture-in-reverse creates a bizarre and otherworldly scene. As you walk along the exposed rock, you come across giant holes in the stone filled with churches. Narrow ...
Overlooked London: Saint Bartholomew The Great Church
Apr 25th, 2012 at 9:00AM: London is a city full of historic churches. Some can be a bit hard to find and get missed by the casual visitor. One of these is Saint Bartholomew the Great in West Smithfield.
Built by a courtier of King Henry I, it has been open for worship since 1143 and was the center of a large complex of church buildings before the Dissolution of Henry VIII took away most of its lands and two-thirds of ...Archaeologists Discover York Minster's Earliest Church
Apr 7th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
Archaeologists digging in the medieval foundations of York Minster in York, England, have found evidence for an early building that may have been the first church on the site.
The team examined a trench from the original medieval construction site of the present building and found the remains of at least thirty people. They also found two large postholes. These are filled holes in the earth ...Medieval pilgrims journeyed deep into Africa, archaeologists discover
Nov 6th, 2011 at 10:00AM:
The Kingdom of Makuria is the quintessential forgotten civilization. Very few people have even heard of it, yet it ruled southern Sudan for hundreds of years and was one of the few kingdoms to defeat the Arabs during their initial expansion in the 7th century AD. Makuria was a Christian kingdom, born out of the collapse of the earlier Christian kingdom of Axum. Makuria survived as a bulwark of ...Antwerp: Belgium's historic and modern port
Oct 27th, 2011 at 2:00PM: I've often wondered why Belgium is such a rich country. Its main claims to fame--chocolate, beer, Tintin, and a heroic fight against the Kaiser's army in World War One--are all noteworthy but hardly the stuff to earn billions. Some background research for this series taught me that Antwerp has a lot to do with Belgium's wealth.
It's the second largest port in Europe, and one of the top ten in ...David's Discoveries: A tale of two labyrinths: Chartres
Oct 20th, 2011 at 10:00AM:
Outdoors in a panoramic park behind the famous cathedral of Chartres a teenage girl skipped along the concentric pathways of a grassy labyrinth. Other kids shouted and kicked a soccer ball. Young lovers simultaneously pecked at each other and the touchpads of their handheld devices, observed by curious onlookers.
Most such onlookers in Chartres are day-trippers from nearby Paris: The ...
