details of the cathedral

Palermo (Sicily), Italy

funky skies

Erice (Trapani - Sicily), Italy

The Chiesa Matrice (Mother Church or Main Church), dating back to the 14th or 15th centuries, sits high on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea in this charming medieval town called Erice.

 

a solitary Sunday stroll

León (Castilla y León), Spain

Time goes by...

León (León - Castilla y León), Spain

Trinity Church in lower Manhattan

New York City, New York - USA

St. Patrick's on 5th Ave

New York City, New York - USA

villages of Castille

Wamba (Valladolid - Castilla y León), Spain

the land of clay roof tiles

Simancas (Valladolid - Castilla y León), Spain

The tower of the church of El Salvador dates back to the 12th century while the rest of the church was rebuilt in the 16th.

 

Sant Joan

Barcelona (Catalunya), Spain

This church is located in Plaça Virreina, one of numerous squares that can be found in the easy-going Gràcia neighborhood.

San Pablo

Valladolid (Castilla y León), Spain

Built between the 15th and early 17th centuries, this church (San Pablo) represents the Isabelline Gothic-Plateresque style.  For a short time, Valladolid was once the capital of Spain and two of its kings were baptized here, Philip II and Philip IV.

just around the corner

Madrid, Spain

Just around the corner is the fairly "new" cathedral of Madrid - Cathedral of Saint Mary the Royal of la Almudena - which wasn't built until the late 19th century.  Talk of building the cathedral started in the 16th century when the capital of Spain was moved from Toledo to Madrid, but Spain's priority at the time was to expand and maintain the Empire; therefore, the cathedral was put on hold.

 

standing tall

Madrid, Spain

Standing tall, this church grabs your attention on Alcalá Street next to the Retiro Park.

Church of San Manuel y San Benito - Neo-Byzantine style - 1902-1910

18th century wonder

Guimarães (Norte Region), Portugal

Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Consolação e Santos Passos - Church of Our Lady of Consolation and the Holy Steps

 

mountain villages

Lesaka (Navarra), Spain

The northern part of Navarra bordering France is full of villages tucked away in the mountains, valleys, pasturelands and forests.  This area is well worth a visit!

quaint hilltop village

Sare (Labourd, French Basque Country - Aquitaine), France

The 17th century Church of Saint Martin sits in the center of this quaint Basque hilltop village set amid pastoral fields with cows and sheep grazing everywhere.

afternoon walks

Lastres (Asturias), Spain

the Mad Hatter

Winchcombe (Gloucestershire), England

Many people come to Winchcombe to see St. Peter's Church (late 15th century) and its so called gargoyles.  They are actually just grotesque carvings since a true gargoyle has a water spout passing through it.  

Forty of these carvings surround the church, twenty of which represent demonic creatures while the other twenty appear to be caricatures of locally important people who donated money to the church.  The curious figure in this photo is said to be the model for the Mad Hatter in Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland Story.

late Baroque early Neoclassical

Pancorbo (Burgos - Castilla y León), Spain

Driving to the Basque Country of Spain, I would always drive through this curious little town tucked away in a mountain pass, thinking what a beautiful place for a little town to be, but would never have time to stop.  One day, on my way home, having no better place to be in that moment, I decided to stop and check it out.  I discovered the beautiful late-Baroque-early-Neoclassical façade of the parish church of San Nicolás (Saint Nicholas) built, in the early 1700s, over an earlier Renaissance style church in ruins.

The Tagus in the distance

Lisbon, Portugal

Looking down over the Alfama neighborhood and São Miguel church on the right, the estuary of Tagus River can be seen in the distance.  The Tagus River (Tejo in Portuguese and Tajo in Spanish) is the longest river on the Iberian peninsula (1038 kilometers / 645 miles) while the estuary makes up one of the most important wetlands in Europe, hosting a vast variety of fish, other sea life and birds migrating between Europe and Northern Africa.  It is considered the largest estuary in Western Europe.

rising above

Lisbon, Portugal

The Church of Saint Michael (Igreja de São Miguel) sits in the heart of the Alfama neighborhood rising above the Tagus River.  It dates back to to the 12th century, but needed to be rebuilt in the late 17th, now exhibiting a Mannerist and Barroque style of architecture.