NIGEL'S RAMBLES: 2025

Saturday, August 9, 2025

Lake Como Romanesque

After finishing a site meeting in Como, I had time to explore some Romanesque monuments on Lake Como, that I have wanted to explore for some time. The lake was crowded, but the monuments were mostly deserted.

Basilica di Sant'Abbondio, is on the outskirts of Como, next to the railway sidings. The present building dates from 1095. It has like all these churches, been modified over the centuries, and was restored to the Romanesque style in the la Ninetieth Century. Entering the building, we see the two column capitols with two cats staring down at us. A window on the Apse, also depicts a ferocious cat.

Basilica di Sant'Abbondio, Como

The interior is very simple, plain and elegant, but one is immediately struck by the frescoes at the end of the church. I liked the Three Kings, sharing a bed, with an angel telling them to go.

Basilica di Sant'Abbondio, Como

The Twelfth Century "Chiesa di Santa Maria del Tiglio", in Gravedona, at the North end of the lake is worth fighting through the horrific traffic on the narrow road to reach. It served as a Baptistry as well as a church. The walls of this building are over two metres thick at the base. It is in a lovely location by the lake.

Chiesa di Santa Maria del Tiglio",Gravedona.

The Last place I managed to fit in on my Architectural tour of Lake Como, is the splendidly isolated Abbazia di Piona, like many religious buildings it is in a wonderful spot on the lake. It was founded in the Twelfth Century, and is mostly late Romanesque.

The outstanding part of the complex is the Cloisters, with some nice decorated Column capitals. The church is not rectangular, but grows narrower as it proceeds towards the Apse, to give an optical illusion of space. The Cloisters are irregular too.

One of the monks saw me taking pictures, and stopped to show me some little details that I would have missed, including the builders initials carved on the last column to be completed.

Abbazia di Piona

Abbazia di Piona. The initials of the builder

Abbazia di Piona

For this series of pictures I used my Nikon 24PC and a Laowa 15mm shift lenses. Details were shot on a Z28-400, which is brilliant for this task. It was a good day. I used my tripod for these shots and in this and the other places, nobody objected.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Vézelay

On the way back from our recent holiday in the UK, we stopped off at Vézelay, a Romanesque abbey in the Burgundy region of central France. It is considered to be a masterpiece of Romanesque Architecture. It is an UNESCO site.

Vézelay, is now a sleepy little hilltop village. The Abbey dates from the Twelfth Century and was an important pilgrimage destination in its early days. Thomas Becket, in exile, chose Vézelay for his sermon in 1166, announcing the excommunication of the main supporters of King, Henry II, and threatening the King with excommunication too.

Its importance started to decline in the Thirteenth Century, and it was badly damaged during the French Revolution. The important relics said to have been removed from Mary Madeleine's tomb, were burnt by the Huguenots, in the Sixteenth century.

After the Revolution, Vézelay was in danger of collapsing. The young architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was appointed to supervise a massive and successful restoration, undertaken in several stages between 1840 and 1861, during which his team replaced a great deal of the weathered and vandalized sculpture. The flying buttresses that support the nave are his. The front façade, is mostly a reinvention carried out by the Architect.

Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine,Vézelay

The inner central Portal is the most important artwork in this building. It is an allegorical depiction of the Crusades. The tympanum was completed in 1130.

Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine,Vézelay

Fifteen years after its completion, Bernard of Clairvaux chose Vézelay to call for a Second Crusade. Vézelay was even the staging point for the Third Crusade. It is here that King Richard the Lionheart of England and King Philip Augustus of France met and joined their armies for a combined western invasion of the holy land. It is appropriate, therefore, that Vézelay's portal refers to the crusades.

The lintol depicts the inhabitants of those lands beyond Christendom. They are depicted as being sub human, with some having pig like snouts for example.

On our visit the inner doors were closed, which robbed us of the vision of the Nave behind it.

The column capitals are superb, some have been restored. There are 100 column capitals in the Nave.

Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine,Vézelay

We were lucky that the Church was almost deserted on our early morning visit. We were able to soak up the majestic atmosphere of this monument, in silence.

Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine,Vézelay

This little village and its abbey are well worth a visit, if you care for historic monuments. We visited late in the evening for a brief look, and the next morning for a slower visit. Both times there was nobody about. ( I believe it gets more busy later in the day).No entry mouth watering entry charge like we found in Ely Cathedral. No hectoring guardians, souvenir stall and none of the other trappings of todays tourism.

I was able to use my camera on a tripod with my shift lenses, to explore the visual splendour of this abbey.

Saturday, August 9, 2025

Lake Como Romanesque

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Vézelay

Copyright 2023Nigel Voak