A cacophany of churches

In my last post, I mentioned how much I liked the interior of the Sacre Coeur. In general, the beauty of churches is something that even I can comprehend about religion. It reminds me how much of the great works of art have been dedicated to religious subjects. In both cases, I am glad that it's possible to appreciate the passion and the art without agreeing with the message.

Sacre Coeur remains a stand-out favourite. The Sistine Chapel is also impressive - and the fact that it was much smaller than I had expected did not detract from its beauty (although again, we were not allowed to take photos). The fact that it is smaller than you might think was probably fortunate for Michelangelo, as every surface is covered with his beautiful, detailed frescoes. That photo of God and Adam touching fingers is on one of the ceiling panels. A depiction of the last judgment (including a self-portrait) occupies one end. And much more... but you can read much more detail about all of this somewhere else if you're interested - and probably find some photos of it all as well.

In Perugia, Italy, C. and S., a couple of girls from my hostel, had heard that the Basilica di San Pietro held a Caravaggio and we wandered down to take a look. The church is part of a very old abbey, which is fascinating in itself, and the interior has many beautiful panels. We couldn't find the Caravaggio, so S. asked the drowsy guardian. First he told us that the room was locked - then took another look at us and decided that he would open it just for us. We followed him in single file, stood for a couple of minutes in front of a simple but beautiful painting, and then followed him out.

In general, I'm probably more of a fan of simple churches. The Duomo in Padua, Italy was one of these - white, simple, full of light:


Still relatively simple, but with a bit more colour, was the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig:


Here's a bit more detail of the tops of those columns:


They also have a sample column outside the church - for when the church is closed, I suppose. But they look better in context.

By far the most interesting-looking church I saw (from the outside, at least - I didn't go in) was the Duomo in Florence. When I was wandering around in the evening, it jumped out at me from around the corner.