Friday, August 29, 2008

"They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse." - Emily Dickinson

***

Baltics trip
Day 7 - 22nd May - Dome Cathedral: Riga, Latvia
(Part 3)

As you might have realised, in both the Baltics and Japan travelogues, very often pictures of artefacts and/or buildings are presented without explanation. Most of the time, this is not from lack of trying on my part, but due to lack of signposting (usually at all, let alone in English). In Western Europe, because the languages are related to English I could transcribe captions more easily, or make an educated guess as to their meaning, but not so in these 2 trips.



Dome Cathedral, the largest house of worship in the Baltics. It was founded by a missionary from Germany.







Art exhibition in the square


Flag hotel. My theory is that the more flags a hotel flies, the more expensive and atas it is. This has 6 visible flags (and maybe 1 or 2 more hidden by the other building)


Memorial to some guy with a German name (you see the German influence and all that)

We went into the Cathedral's cloisters.


Cloister


Grave steles


Various bells


Bishop Albert, founder of Riga.


Cathedral inner wall.


Romanesque Cloisters


Coat of Arms of Riga


Huge Cock (Weathervane of the Dom spire)


Castle of Riga reliefs with images of the Virgin Mary and Master of the Livonian Order


Cannon and cannonballs


Riga. Craftsman Reynken from Lubeck. 1522. Doorside stone from House of the Blackheads.


Tower from Cloisters


Random sculptures


Stone head from Salaspils, buried in the cathedral yard for some reason




Monument to Peter I of Russia, plaster of Paris model


Seal


Renovations

The we re-entered the cathedral-proper.


Awakening of Lazarus, mid-18th century.
"Sad to say, Baltic art is always substandard" - nw.t


Nave




As surely as every sperm is precious, this is some nonsense about abortion.


More memorials. Note the pseudo-caduceus in the second - a snake twirled around a cross on top of a skull.


19th century stained glass. You can tell it's not medieval with one look - it's too clean, there's too little lead and it's too well-executed artistically. With the same look, you can tell it's not 20th century - it looks too good, the figures are too realistic and something is actually happening.




Grave


Altar. Very underwhelming compared to the rest of the cathedral.




Pulpit


Simple Vaulting. The beams were discomfiting - perhaps without them the roof would collapse. Maybe the instability was due to a missing keystone - notice the gaping hole where (perhaps) an all-seeing eye would be

Unfortunately the organ was under repair so I didn't take a picture.

All in all, visiting the Dome Cathedral was a reminder that Eastern Europe was not always part of the Third World.
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