Aachen

From Eupen we were only a short distance to Aachen, a town I had always wanted to see but never quite got around to seeing. We got to Aachen by 9 Sunday morning and easily found a parking place on the street just 3 blocks from the main square and cathedral. But the cathedral was in service, so to speak, and not open to visitors until 12:30. So we strolled about (shops were open), bought some of the decadent local gingerbread cookies, and bided our time.

Why Aachen? you ask. Several reasons. Aachen (aka Aix-la-Chappelle) was Charlemagne's capital; the "father of Europe," he who battled the Moors in Spain and who conquered and unified much of Europe late in the 8th century. The Aachen cathedral is also the oldest around in this part of the world, dating from 800, and it is widely regarded as the beginning of truly European art and architecture; the Carolingian Renaissance. Its central structure was Charlemagne's royal chapel, copied very closely on what he and his artistic advisors had seen at San Vitale in Ravenna. So we had to see it.

But first, Aachen's Rathaus...

The right tower of which is thought to have included (up to

13m), part of Charlemagne's great hall and throne room

The cathedral itself, although relatively small, is difficult to
see and photograph

The brass model helps; it's the central dome that is of chief

interest, being the oldest (although the rest is pretty old too);
the tower and choir are later add-ons; truly a hodge-podge, but
an understandable one

In a 2009 excavation, two large wooden pegs were found in

the cathedral's foundations; dendrochronology showed them

to be from c. 781

Inside the dome; very similar in lay-out to San Vitale; mosaic

and gold everywhere; but little of the mosaic is more than

geometric design...almost more Islamic than Christian; see our
posts from June 27, 2011, or search vitale

Later Medieval windows near the altar

Altar; lots of gold; Pantokrator and 4 evangelists

Mosaic over the altar area; no Pantokrator!

More mosaic designs; no Bible stories going on here; could
just as well be Islamic...

This mosaic by the entrance was of great interest...Roman-

looking figures, all of them Roman river gods...Tigris,

Eurphrates, etc.

Pulpit of Emperor Henry II; (looks gold but is
actually copper); 13th

12th century chandelier, a gift of Frederick Barbarossa, whose

coronation occurred in Aachen, as did those of most of the

Holy Roman Emperors

In the narthex, a She-wolf, 2nd century

Colmar

We drove into nearby Colmar the next day to see the old Medieval town, its Eglise and Unter Linden Museum.

In the Eglise St. Martin, looking toward its masterpiece

Martin Schongauer's Virgin of the Roses; we'll see more of 
Schongauer, a predecessor to both Durer and Michaelangelo

On the back side of the triptych, an image we liked

Colmar's cathedral

One of the many big squares

Along a canal

In the Little Venice district (what, your town doesn't have a
Little Venice district?!)

Ditto, with an ultra-quiet electric-motor-driven gondola ride

So we walked past this restaurant and watched this guy making 
tartes flambees and we were hungry and one thing led to another 
and

Voila! Tart flambee; sort of an Alsatian pizza, tomato sauce replaced by onion 
and lots more meat and cheese than any Italian pizza would include; another 
dish to add to our home repertoire

A beautiful old town, very walkable, scenic, well cared-for; 
and quite affordable, compared with some of the places we 
have visited recently

Autun, 2011

We first visited Autun in 1979, probably en route to the Cote d'Or. I remember visiting the Roman amphitheater at Autun, but not much more. This time we camped across the lake from the amphitheater (in the city's free camperstop) but came to Autun to see its 11-12th century cathedral and in particular the reliefs that adorn it.

But first, another random Burgundy chateau from the road

At Autun, another hemmed-in city cathedral, difficult to get

any full view

As I said, it's mostly the reliefs that are of interest, 12th

century; this the west door tympanum, a Last Judgment

Hellish detail (Heaven is so boring)

Interior; great light and color, not huge, but very old

Very old windows

I love these older buildings; you can look up

and nearly everything you see is architectural,

and there is little mystery in how everything

fits and hangs together

The reliefs at Autun are some of the earliest intact in

Medieval Europe; here, Simon Magi falls as Paul and Peter

(keys) and Satan look on with satisfaction (we last saw

Simon Magi in a 12th century mosaic in Palermo)

A few other examples: Cain killing Abel

Judas hanging (with devilish assistance)

An angel tells the three kings that mum's the word with

Herod

Amazingly, the reliefs apparently all are by the same hand;

and, most amazingly, we know his name: "Gislebertus hoc

fecit"--"Gislebertus made this"--the first time in the Middle

Ages that an artist signed his work

View of Autun from the cathedral

Autun was founded by Augustus; here the remains of one of

the Roman gates

But before Romans, there were Gallic Celts; here is the ruin

of the so-called Temple of Janus, an apparent Celtic temple

Cluny

Cluny was on the way to our next destination, Autun, so we dropped by. Its abbey was one of the greatest of the middle ages, whose leaders could intimidate kings and popes alike. The great church--the largest in Christendom until the present St. Peter's was built--was laid low, destroyed nearly entirely, by the Revolution. Atheists do bad things too. Rebecca and Rachel may remember Cluny as the site of France's national equestrian school. We visited in 1989.

And on the way to Cluny was Macon, and the Rhone



And the first of many beautiful chateaux

From a book cover, this is what the great church looked

like at its height; really a hodge-podge...

And here you are standing at the entrance to the narthex

of the great church

Not much remains

Ditto

Just a transept tower or two; sic transit,

Gloria

Naples Archaeological Museum: Pompei Mosaics And Other Items

The Naples Archaeological Museum's Pompei collections are divided into several sections: mosaics, the "secret chamber" (porno stuff, at least in the eyes of the 18th and 19th century princes, dukes, kings, cardinals, et al.), the Villa of the Papyri, and the frescoes. The frescoes, we thought, are by far the best, porn notwithstanding, and so I will leave them for the next post.

First century Roman mosaic: Durer would have been proud...

Vicki is buying me one of those double-flutes for Xmas

The Faun, the real one, from the House of the Faun

The real Alexander mosaic, from the House of the Faun; Darius' troops already 
are beginning to flee...

One of many portraits in mosaic

Captain's Plate; micro mosaic: sometimes you have to stand right next to these 
things to see that they are mosaics and not oil paintings

The secret chamber has a number of fairly explicit sculptures, mosaics, frescoes, 
and other things, porn, at least by 19th century standards; we thought the phallic 
wind-chimes were the only thing of great interest; classical attitudes about sex

were a bit different from today's; in Roman times and places the phallus was a 
symbol of good luck and prosperity, seen everywhere; alas, none were for sale i
n the trinket shoppes outside the museum

Glass from the huge "everyday objects" collection from Pompei; there were 
also plumbing and illumination and kitchen displays, among many others, 
almost like Home Depot

In the Villa of the Papyrus section; so-named because some 
1,000 carbonized papyrii were found there; many have been 
unrolled and translated, but, alas, rather than a general

library of the classical world, they are merely the works of 
obscure Epicurean philosophers



Bronze athletes from the Villa of Papyri

One of the athletes; bronze Roman copies of Greek originals

Face of one of several bronze dancers

Me, in bronze; I swear I was only drinking tonic water