Houses of Worship…every town and city had spires rising into the sky. The onion-shaped spires were shaped like that to represent God is always around you. I don’t remember what the pointy spires meant, other than they were constructed in a later period.
We all know what happened to Notre Dame. She is now all closed up, but you can see from the outside her lovely glass was spared
We went into a lot of churches and cathedrals, but the three that held the most impressions for me were the cathedral in Cologne, the Baroque Melk Abbey, and the lovely church in Budapest. By the way, Budapest also has the largest synagogue in Europe. She is lovely….
The cathedral in Cologne is massive. In fact, that is why it was spared in the allied bombing in WWII. The allies used this massive structure as a landmark for their bombing expeditions. Look at her greatness….I don’t know why I’ve suddenly started giving churches the female pronoun, but there you have it…here’s the Lady Cologne …compare her size to the tiny people.
It started to rain, so Mr. Al and I stopped to have a coffee at a cafe near the cathedral and, there she was, joining us for coffee in her massiveness.
The Melk Abbey church is 100% Baroque style. I dubbed this church the Party Church…gilded and golden with dancing angels on the alter. You couldn’t take pictures. However…..you could buy postcards….check out the party church, thanks to the wonders of postcards….PARTY AT THE ALTER
You’ve gotta get a closer look….check out that crown….
PARTY ON THE CEILING
PARTY AT THE ORGAN…DANCE LITTLE CHERUBS, DANCE!
PARTY AT THE PULPIT….
It was such a happy house of worship. The Baroque era was all about living life now…the best way to worship God…not sacrificing for the afterlife…party now…of course, that era went a bit far…the leaders were so into their creature comforts, they lost touch with reality…think Marie Antoinette. But it was a good time for artists and artisans, you must admit. And gold…a good time for all things gilded.
And the final church I want to share with you is Matthias in Budapest. This church is so lovely. She’s dedicated to Mother Mary…but…here’s the story…she is really dedicated to the Divine Feminine. The Huns who settled there in Budapest (as in all 7 tribes) had a different way of worshiping and were not Christian. St. Stephen, not yet sainted when he was their leader, realized that in order to live peacefully with his neighbors, he needed to make friends with one of the two great powers at the time: the Ottoman Empire or the Holy Roman Empire. He chose to make friends with the Holy Roman Empire because the Huns loved alcohol and well, the Turks frowned upon imbibing. The Matthias church had already been built, but to make it Catholic, it needed to be…well…Catholic and so, to keep the Divine Feminine Essence, St. Stephen asked the Pope if it were okay to dedicate the church to Mother Mary and the Pope said okay, that would be fine. So check out this beautiful feminine building…I love her….isn’t the roof incredible?
I love all the scrolling vines and the lovely colors. In fact, I stopped listening to the guide and just soaked up the atmosphere…that’s why I can’t tell you too much about her.
Mother Mary…
The center of the ceiling…
Until our next chat,
Bryn / Cammy
Sent from my iPad
Chronicles of Cammy, my Fool's Journey and Travelogue 
The images will always remain, etched into the recesses of my imagination. Thank you for the shared experiences! ❤️
And thanks for sharing our adventure with our Facebook friends while it was happening.
Looks like a beautiful visit, Cammy. Thanks for sharing.
You are welcome! Hope you are well.