Yesterday afternoon, we walked past 3 churches. We could not resist the temptation to push open the big heavy doors and have a look. However, we did resist the temptation to take a photo. Over the next 12-months, we will walk past approx p1,500 churches (5 per day for 300 days). Clearly, the novelty of photographing the gold leaf wood carvings around the altar will wear off at some stage. I thought I had detected the first signs yesterday afternoon. You see, our visit to a monastery dedicated to St. Joane put us off Inquisition memorabilia. From what we can gather, Joane was made a saint because she was good at needle work (and she was a favourite sister of the Portuguese king at the time). (Next time I see Joanne Griffiths, I must remind her to keep up her needle work.) One of the displays in the monastery showed a collection of crucifix miniatures. (I included a photo in yesterday's blog.) Which one was your favourite? So much effort and skill put into dramatising pain and suffering! The one that really put me off was very small and showed poor old Jesus spread out on glass like a lab rat about to be examined under a microscope. After St. Joane's monastery, I couldn't photograph another church... or so I thought.
Today, the assault on the senses from miniature crucifixes must have worn off a little. We climbed the river bank into the main section of the old Moorish region. There are lots of churches there. Immediately upon winning a city from the Moors, the Christians would carefully demolish the mosques and use the materials to construct a church. I was told that the blue tiles found in old Portuguese churches arose because the Moors had made widespread use of tiles in their mosques. Anyway, we came upon some of the bigger and older churches in Porto in this old part of town. We opened the door expecting to make a quick 'photo free' exit. However, we weren't sufficiently strong to resist the lure of Gothic drama.
The first church predated flying buttresses and had its towering columns very close together. The effect is to emphasise the height of the ceiling. Click! Before we knew it, our old habits had returned. Like a lapsed smoker, the second and third indiscretions evoked less feelings of guilt.
So, we are not as advanced in our church resistance as we may have thought.
To see more photos, enter the following URL into your search engine :
https://picasaweb.google.com/111868867433725063586/20130319JoaneThePatronSaintOfNeedlework
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