walking through Krakow's old city Oct 2011

 Stained glass window of the Franciscan church in the old city.  Church originally built in 1260, it burned down in 1850  and was completely rebuilt. The amazing interior (photos below) is something I have never, ever seen in a church, designed by a Polish artist. It is something of a miracle that the Franciscans let  Stanislaw Wyspianski, the artist, loose on the entire interior (they did in fact reject some of his motifs for angels, which he wanted to paint as modern day street urchins)!

He designed not only the murals that cover the interior of the church, but also the magnificent stained glass windows, all of which had incredible, colorful flower designs, very much art nouveau. The result is extraordinary. The entire interior is ablaze with bright murals - roses and poppies swirl about in blues, greens and yellows, among the crucifixes, statues of saints etc.

He started his commission on the interior design and the designing of the stained glass in 1897. THe glass was made in Austria from about 1899-1904. wish I had taken more photos, the stained glass was so amazing.

part of a wall detail

another wall, the entire wall was like this inside the church!!

camera couldn't get the crucifix and all the designs in the photo but you get the idea

another part of a wall

one of the beautiful buildings in the old town on Ulica (Street) Kanonicza, a lovely street 

The Church of Sts. Peter and Paul (Kosciól swietego Piotra i Pawla)  is a Baroque Jesuit church known best for the statues of the 11 disciples (minus Judas)  lining the fence at the front. Statues are copies made from the 18th century originals. Church is said to be modeled after the Jesuit Church in Rome (The Gesu'). I must admit there was a resemblance.

 St Andrew's Church, one of the oldest buildings  in Krakow built from 1079-1098  and one of the best preserved Romanesque buildings in Poland.  It is a rare surviving example of the European fortress church used for defensive purposes. Interior (at least what one could visit) is very small and very baroque not nearly as interesting as the outside.

This was a great wall mural on Ulica Kanonicza 

A great, glass sign for a book store (next to the wall  book mural).

Lovely doorway on same street

Pope John Paul lived on this street, (again Ulica Kanonicza) for 16 years and despite the sign Papal knick knacks were not all on display in the city. Rome is inundated with tourist shops with such material.  The Pope lived, studied, was bishop and then archbishop of Krakow before he left for Rome.

Pope's living quarters on this very lovely street.

Krakow on a lighter note: main square and more

inside gothic church in main square.  main altar was very elaborate and had a sculpted altarpiece with about 9 scenes from the life of the virgin, done in the 1400's, took 12 years to do. was made of beautiful oak and linden wood. was very pretty.

brick and stone tower from town hall. town hall was
unfortunately demolished in 1820 to make more room in the square and only the tower remains. first clock in tower dated 1524

view of gothic basilica. Bazylika Mariacka  with double spires, gothic tower 1478 and smaller renaissance tower 1590

Renaissance stone framework  holding the torah in the Remuh synagogue, which is the smallest of about 6 in the city and one of only two which are still in use. it was under restoration when we visited. it only had about 6 pews in it. Synagogue was built in 1558 

cemetery attached to remuh synagogue, in use from 1551-1800. the curved roofs you can see over some of the graves were added to protect the graves. the nazis destroyed the cemetery but it has been restored and they think there still may be many more graves underground.

pretty baroque architecture leading to main piazza

baroque theatre built in late 1800's

city walls and gate

Barbican for defense, late 15th century, used to be surrounded by a moat

mariacka church

pretty building on main square

lovely outside  colonnade of the "Sukiennice", market for merchants, now used as tourist shops inside. Colonade was added to building much later around 1800's.

outside of Sukiennice built in 1555 and was for merchant trading. you can see the arches under which was the colonnade (above photo)

Krakow's main square called  Rynek Główny dates back to the 13th century. It is huge, 40,000 m2 and is the biggest medieval square in Europe. It at least two churches in it, they may have been a third, the town tower, the merchant building and many other lovely buildings which are now shops or restaurants. there is only one statue of a Polish romantic poet from the 1800's. Very pretty to stroll around in.

krakow, poland- auschwitz,a/birkenau and the salt mine. warning graphic images

gas chamber at auschwitz

crematorium auschwitz

auschwitz where rudolph hoss was hanged in April 1947, first commandant of auschwitz

auschwitz barracks

Birkenau entrance at the far end. Train tracks  extended for 1 km. At end of tracks were two of the four gas chambers/crematorii. Two of the four are completely gone, the two at the end of the tracks are still there, in ruins, as the Nazis tried to destroy them at the end of the war. Hideous.

Very lovely, long stone monument at end of train tracks birkenau. Is in between  the two ruined gas chambers/crematorii. Would like to find out more about the stones. They looked like egyptian granite.

UNESCO salt mine  10 km outside krakow. Walls all made of salt

Nativity scene made entirely of salt in huge chapel room in  mine

Part of huge chapel area, everything was made of salt with exception of the table cloth, even the chandelier was coated in salt

The depth on this salt "last supper" was really amazing, again on chapel wall

and of course a salt sculpture of Pope John Paul II, who visited the mine twice as a student and once as archbishop of krakow. he was due to visit as Pope but it was a trip that was cancelled when he became sick.

entrance to the salt mine

Friends of mine were going to krakow so at the last minute I joined them. While I am glad I went it was a type of tourism I have never done.  We all know our history but visiting the concentration camp of Auschwitz and the death camp (only purpose was death) of what is called Auschwitz/Birkenhau was awful, to say the least. I did not made the above photos any larger as it is too much. One can never forget the visit, the scenes, photos, display objects, barracks, prisons; all of it horrific. One cannot imagine how humans could be so atrociously cruel to other humans. Everyone should have to tour these camps. I have many photos but they are all extremely disturbing so I have only posted a few.

On a lighter note after visiting the camps we ended the afternoon with a trip to the Wieliczka salt mine just outside krakow, a Unesco designated site. One has to go on a tour of the huge facility, which is no longer functioning. Tour lasts 2 hours. You walk down A LOT of stairs to reach 64 meters down and eventually you end up 135 meters under ground. Place is enormous, supposedly the (about 3 km)  tour only covers 1% of the mine. There are a number of impressive sculptures throughout the mine, made entirely of salt but we were slightly disappointed as there were really no "natural" scenes. Of course lots of walls of salt, two salt lakes but no stalactites or stalacmites as one would expect in a cave. Of course we weren't in a cave but a mine so that may explain it. There is an absolutely huge salt sculptured chapel which was very impressive, was sculpture by 3 of the actual miners, never working together, one followed another. The mine has produced table salt from the 13th century until 2007.
That was day one.

tuscany aug 2011 - poppi and stia

castle dei Conti Guidi in Poppi

covered streets of Poppi

Poppi walkway

a tuscan view from town of Poppi

inside Poppi's castle, castle is datable back to 1191 and possibly much earlier as the Guidi family dates back before that time.

great staircases and loggia in castle, castle was never sacked or ruined

Poppi Castle from a distance

lovely medieval church in Stia, dating to mid 12th century

Byzantine capital in church

pretty town of Stia which is known for its wool. 

Had the good fortune to spend some more time in the casentino valley in Tuscany in August at the invitation of a good friend. I was able to explore the lovely towns of Poppi and Stia which are well worth spending time in.  Stia was known from the 14th century for its wool trade. the wool mill and factory have now been turned into a museum. Town itself is quite charming.

Back to a different world -Doha, Qatar June 2011

all the pieces are from the Islamic Museum of Art in Doha

no more kangaroos!

an iranian ceramic cat from the 1200's

wonderful bird plate

Egyptian hanging mosque lamp 1200's

Islamic Art Museum, designed by I.M Pei

wonderful fruit drinks

We were lucky enough to have a 20 hour layover in Doha. We landed at 6 a.m from Melbourne, took a taxi to Matthew's house, and got ready to go to museum. We had slept fairly well on the plane so we enjoyed our museum morning and lunch at the souk. We had been to the museum before but it is well-worth numerous visits. The inside of the building is beautiful to the eye, sleek modern designs, lots of glass, light, flowing water, views of downtown Doha. All very pretty. Was a bit tough hanging on till 2 a.m. when we left for Rome. Great to be able to see our two sons in one (?) day on two different continents, especially when we live on a third continent!