Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: ship

There are many votive offerings in this church. One of the miracles described dates back to the time of the Spanish Armada. A sailor was hit by a great storm. He confided in the Virgin and asked her to take him to the port. As a thank you, the man gave a model of the ship.

In May 1480, the farrier Andrés Díaz presented a petition in which he said “that he and other persons had gone to Santa María de Sonsoles. The church there was in poor condition and without decoration. The Provisor and Vicar General gave his permission for the establishment of a brotherhood under the name of Our Lady of Sonsoles. The brotherhood was very successful so the pilgrim hospital "Nuestra Señora de Sonsoles" was founded after 1500. As the number of pilgrims grew, the church was extended end of the 16th century. Its single nave was replaced by three naves Seen on the altar is the "Nuestra Señora de Sonsoles". A plane hangs on the left, a ship hangs on the right.

With more than 200.000 inhabitants Rostock is the largest city in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Small Slavic settlements existed already in the 8th century. A settlement named Roztok was founded in the 11th century by Polabian Slavs. This town was burnt down by troops of the Danish king Valdemar I in 1161. Afterwards the place was settled by German traders. After 1226 Rostock became the seat of the Lordship of Rostock. In the 1250s the city became a member of the Hanseatic League. In the 14th century it was a powerful seaport town with 12,000 inhabitants and the largest city in Mecklenburg. Ships for cruising the Baltic Sea were constructed in Rostock. Until the last Hansa Convention in 1669, Rostock took a leading role in the Baltic Sea behind Lübeck. - The museum, founded mid 19th century, is hosted in the "Kloster zum Heiligen Kreuz", that got finally dissolved in 1920. The conversion into a museum began already in 1976, but the restoration of the buildings remained incomplete until 1997. The "Dreikönigsaltar" (Magis´ Altar) is the former high altar of of the church of the Rostock´s "St. Johanneskloster", a monastery of the Dominicans. The winged altar dates from around 1425 and was donated to the Dominicans by the "Fraternitas Trium Regum", the "Brotherhood of the Three Kings". It originally had two pairs of wings. Two of them are in a Berlin museum, while two are still here. The wings depict different scenes from the Magi legend. The Magi on their way home onboard a ship. The city in the backdrop is Rostock. Seems, they did a little detour.

Notre-Dame is the parish church of Biron, a village 6kms east of Pons. Once the church was dedicated to Saint-Eutrope as a relic of "Saint Eutropius of Saintes", who came to the region to evangelize the Gauls in the 3rd century, was kept here. Erected within the 12th century the church got fortified soon after. I had been in Biron a couple if times before. This time I focussed onto the graffiti inside and outside the church. Here are boats /ships a common icon used by pilgrims.

Saint-Palais, the parish church of Saint-Palais (pop. ~500), dates back to the 12th century, when it was dependent of the Premonstratensian abbey in neighbouring Pleine Selve. Two of the many little graffiti, people carved into the walls. A sailing ship to the left and a sole to the right. Such soles can be found everywhere aloung the old "caminoes". Ships are typical for the western side of France, as many people from Britain reached this area by ship and then continued on foot ("sole") or on horse or mule ("horse-shoe").

As I waited for the friendly person to unlock and open the "hôpital", I had time to walk around and see the many graffiti, scratched in by pilgrims centuries ago. I had been here before, but there are so many.. On the walls of the neighbouring building, that once belonged to the "hôpital", are - ships!