Emperor Constantine

Statue of Emperor Constantine by Philip Jackson.  The statue is outside the Minister in York.

—-Stephen—

Statue II

—Stephen—

Corinthian Capital

—Stephen—

Balustrades

Bridge balustrades – Plaza de España in Seville, Spain.

—Stephen—

Majestic

One of the lions at the base of Nelson’s Column in London

—Stephen—

Holy Trinity Church…Florence, Italy.

We went for a saunter away from the main tourist routes in Florence early one evening, as the light was fading.  At one particular road junction, I looked down the road and my immediate reaction was ‘There’s a church!’.  A bit of stupid thing to say really when we’d been looking at some beautiful religious building over the previous couple of days. What I meant, I suppose, was an ‘English Church’, if that’s sufficient to define the architectural character of a building.  As we walked towards it, (I couldn’t not after all) I could see it had many of the external features of the churches I visit.  It was an English Church – totally unexpected.  It was too dark to get a decent photo – I managed to get one of a statue high on the tower by resting my camera at an angle on a wall.  (ISO 800 and pushed a couple of stops in pshop).   Niches on most of the churches I visit are usually empty, so it was unusual to see this statue.

The statue is of St. Alban – I couldn’t see that when I took it – St. Alban was the first British Christian martyr (wiki).  The church is now known as Chiesa Evangelica Valdese, the church was bought by the Waldensians in the 1960s.  I’d not heard of them before but it seems they are Protestants with a long history.  (Reading up about them reminds me of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man under the justice of religion.)

—Stephen—

David (Imposter)

Replica outside Palazzo Vecchio

—Stephen—