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Post by MourningIreland on Sept 9, 2017 20:46:55 GMT
American conservatives have a saying, "Europe is a museum."
Such sublime beauty - such a shame about so many of her people:
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Sept 9, 2017 20:50:24 GMT
I have to admit I'm relatively oblivious to this heritage. In fact, I'm rather more drawn to the jejeune architecture of America.
However, I do very much cherish the non-physical heritage of Europe-- folklore, literature, custom, tradition, and so forth.
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Post by Antaine on Sept 10, 2017 7:18:57 GMT
such a shame about so many of her people: I thought this thread WAS about the people for a moment. Well, a lot of Europe is very bland these days (globalism and all), but there are still nice places. How ironic you use a picture of Belgium, which is fast becoming an absolute hole of a country. |
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Post by Séamus on Sept 10, 2017 7:38:03 GMT
I'm sure St Bavo's cathedral is very beautiful, but the picture looks a bit too photoshopped. If you want nice sunshine like that,Australia probably has more of it... but, unfortunately, little else worth seeing. Praise God at least that after the destruction of two World Wars Belgium still has intact it's beautiful cathedrals in Brussels, Tournai and Antwerp also.
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Post by Séamus on Sept 10, 2017 7:51:24 GMT
Ps
I'm not sure if anyone has read the religious/dystopian novel THE MOSQUE OF NOTRE DAME? As with most religious novels it's very poorly written, at least in translation (it was written in Russian, if I remember correctly). In the end the traditional Latin massers (the Novus ordo goers seem to have died out, but that was only a sub-thread) blew NotreDame, Paris, up rather than see it continue as a mosque. One priest and one woman stayed inside, having one last Mass. The moral theology...?
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Post by kj on Sept 10, 2017 9:23:56 GMT
Ghent and Bruges are very beautiful. The latter particularly, especially on a quiet, dreamy Sunday.
Although I did have a symbolic experience there. I was walking along the canals one Sunday morning and there was no one around. The bells were tolling, and if you half-closed your eyes you could imagine yourself back in fin-de-siecle period where Bruges was the focus of a lot of literary attention.
As I was indulging this fantasy, the peace was abruptly shattered by a door opening in a side-street and a dozen or so bearded Muslims spilled on to the main road laughing and in high spirits. The sign above the door they had exited said 'Europe for Muslims'.
I moved along....
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Post by MourningIreland on Sept 10, 2017 12:43:40 GMT
Ghent and Bruges are very beautiful. The latter particularly, especially on a quiet, dreamy Sunday.... Ghent, Antwerp, and Bruges are all spectacular, but completely different one from the next. If someone offered me a free house in Belgium, of the three I would choose the Gothic jewel that is Ghent. |
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Post by MourningIreland on Sept 10, 2017 12:51:09 GMT
I'm sure St Bavo's cathedral is very beautiful, but the picture looks a bit too photoshopped. If you want nice sunshine like that,Australia probably has more of it... but, unfortunately, little else worth seeing. Praise God at least that after the destruction of two World Wars Belgium still has intact it's beautiful cathedrals in Brussels, Tournai and Antwerp also. Walking through Ghent at night, crossing bridges with the Dutch gable houses on the river and the silhouettes of numerous Gothic spires lurking majestically overhead, is the most enchanting travel experience I have ever had. Granted, I haven't travelled much, but Ghent feels very unspoiled. It's a college town/workingman's town with a vibrant cafe culture that spills out onto its various squares at the end of the working day, but without too much tourism. |
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Post by MourningIreland on Sept 10, 2017 12:58:24 GMT
such a shame about so many of her people: Well, a lot of Europe is very bland these days (globalism and all), but there are still nice places. How ironic you use a picture of Belgium, which is fast becoming an absolute hole of a country. I was referring to the Secularist Materialism that has engulfed Ireland and that characterises most of Western Europe today. Eastern Europe seems to be resisting this self-chosen tyranny at least somewhat, because of its recent memories of suffering through Communist oppression. |
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Post by kj on Sept 10, 2017 14:41:17 GMT
Mourning Ireland, if you ever get to Ghent again there is a magnificent Augustinian monastery slightly northwest of the centre, along the canal, with a magnificent church, St Stefanus. I found something about it very haunting in a beautiful, melancholy way.
I'm very pleased you share my enthusiasm for that town. The canals, cafes and architecture make it a very special place.
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Post by MourningIreland on Oct 6, 2017 13:33:21 GMT
Found on Westland Row:
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Post by Séamus on Oct 7, 2017 4:22:01 GMT
My father was baptized there despite the parents living a distance away. He was born in the adjacent hospital and his mother instructed nurse to bring him down for baptism that day as he seemed frail. He's now 82. Whatever one thinks of the theology, it shows what the priority was at the time |
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Post by Séamus on Oct 7, 2017 6:08:39 GMT
Family that have returned from Europe recently commented on the beauty,Catholic patrimony in particular,of Salzburg and Vienna.
Oh Vienna.
I only read recently that the (rather strange, in the style of the time) original Ultravox music video was made on a budget and mostly filmed in England. When they actually brought a cameraman to Vienna to get some shots,the city's buildings were largely closed for the Winter season, when repairs were often done there. They ended up in a place called Zentralfriedhof taking shots of a piano-builders tomb. Carl Schweighofer. The tomb ended up being the single-cover( something currently extinct.) It's probably a positive thing to say about a place, that you can end up at a grave yard and somehow the photos still "work" and still become classic.
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Post by kj on Oct 7, 2017 9:25:10 GMT
I'm in London for a week - that's one place you won't find any European beauty. Each time I go there it seems more soul-crushing than before.
Europe's Catholic patrimony is enchanting but I confess to also finding it a little sad. The churches seem like dead shells, reminders of an era gone and dead. The worst is when you see tourists mindlessly snapping away before heading off again.
I'd still live in Ghent or Bruges, though....
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Oct 7, 2017 10:59:29 GMT
kj, that's exactly how I feel on both topics-- London and the sadness of our Christian architectural heritage becoming a museum.
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