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| Inside the church courtyard A Christian church has been on this site since at least the 1100's. This whole area has been settled as long as people have been in Europe. Stone Age settlement from at least 2000 B.C. have been found in the valley, with successive layers of artefacts and construction remnants and burial tombs above the lowest layers, from "Ice Age" to Bronze Age and Iron Age to our time. |
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| Next to the Church is a pretty cemetery with fine stone work tombstones. |
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| The church is named Santa Maria Assunta Calanca, meaning The Assumption of the Virgin church in the Calanca region. It has Baroque overlays of decoration on a medieval form, with a few glimpses of old frescos still visible on some walls. |
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| The Pulpit is quite unique, not a type I have seen before, with trumpeting angels, but highly appropriate to a pulpit. |
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| The ceiling is one of the most noteworthy parts of the church, a remnant of earlier days. |
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| The pulpit canopy, to deflect the preacher’s voice down and outward. |
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| Part of a side altar |
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Some of the multitudes of cherubs |
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| Where one can give his pinch of incense to the secular Emperor, to be worshipped first and foremost, we are told... From the Baptismal font, no less |
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| A very large wall mural |
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| A disturbing painting, by someone who tried hard to copy the Renaissance style, but was not quite competent enough. That baby's head is larger than the mother's and the limb proportions..... Well, we all have made such dreadful works, but at least ours were not on display at a church for centuries for reverence. |
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| How many of us would be happy to have just one of the art works in this random corner? |
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| A fine wood sculpture |
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| A floor tomb |
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| The light was lovely |
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| ... despite certain paintings |
To Be Continued...
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