Adam Nathan’s site on the Camino de Santiago just posted a nice article on Via Lucis at Camino de Santiago Photo of the Week – September 15, 2013. Thanks, Nathan. And for all Via Lucis readers, his site is a great resource for information on the Camino.
Originally posted on Life is a Camino:
Greetings from Chateaumeillant, an outpost about 20 km East of La Chatre, my next stop on the Camino de Santiago. I don’t have a place to plug into today, so this post is being written against the clock–approximately 30 minutes left of battery, at last glance, so please…
The Cousin River in the department of the Yonne rises in the lake district of the Morvan National Park about 3 miles southwest of the medieval town of Saulieu. It wends its way about 45 kilometers as the crow flies to the town of Sermizelles where it joins with the Cure. One of its most […]
I should let everyone know right now that they can hold Gordon Stewart accountable for this post. The blame is entirely his because he should know by now the fascination certain phrases have for me and how they lead me down arcane and convoluted passes. On a recent post he wrote “As I read your […]
To honor Easter Sunday, we’ll post a selection of shots of Christ in Majesty from various Romanesque portals in France. The first is the exquisite centerpiece of the north portal tympanum at Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire. Sophisticated and elegant, the sculpture still has traces of the original polychrome paint. The following image from the western portal tympanum of […]
We have written many times about the devastation experienced by so many churches in this region. Three great convulsions did most of the damage – the Hundred Years War, the Wars of Religion, and the French Revolution. Sometimes it seems miraculous that anything survived, but survive these churches did. The architectural glories of the Charente-Maritime, […]
Many scholars believe that the origins of the Romanesque style are found in the French department of the Pyrénées-Orientales, part of ancient Catalonia. The abbey churches at Saint Martin-du-Canigou and Saint Michel-de-Cuxa are part of this architectural renaissance. Hand-in-hand with the architectural innovation were developments in sculpture. This post will discuss two small fragments of […]
The Charente-Maritime can be difficult for explorers of churches like PJ and myself. While there is a wealth of Romanesque churches, many are closed and accessible only a certain times of the day or even the week. Some are not open at all except for services. In addition, it is heartbreaking to see so many […]
We always think of Dijon in the legendary Côte d’Or as the home of the the great wine domaines of the Cote-de-Nuits; of famous mustards; of kir, the aperitif made with crême de cassis and bourgogne aligoté, a local white wine; and of course, MFK Fisher. Architecturally, it is rich with the contributions of the […]
Christian monastic churches were often found in the most remote and inaccessible areas, partly because of the early Christian hermits and their monasteries. One only has to look at the Cenobic monasteries in Egypt and Cappadocia, Greek churches in Meteora, or the Syrian churches in Maalula to see that this is a long-standing tradition. These […]
