Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: bow

Mölln is a small town (pop. ~20.000) surrounded by lakes. It was founded in the 12th century by Knight Konrad Wackerbarth by resettling Slavic peasants into today's Old Mölln. Around 1210, the settlement got the first fortifications. First time mentioned was the village 1188 in Barbarossa's privilege for Lübeck. Mölln fell to Denmark in 1201 and was granted "Lübische Stadtrecht" (town charter) by King Waldemar II. 25 years later Mölln fell to the Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg in 1227. In 1230 Mölln was mentioned as the youngest parish in the Ratzeburg tithe register. The church, which was probably built around this time, was placed under the patrocinium of St. Nicholas. Mölln was important due to the Old Salt Route, through which the salt produced in the salt mines of Lüneburg was shipped to the harbour of Lübeck. Although situated in the midst of the duchy of Lauenburg, the town was mortgaged to the Hanseatic town of Lübeck, which ruled Mölln from 1359 to 1683. St. Nicolai, the parish church, is located on the highest point, overlooking the town and the seas around. The construction started probably at the end of the 12th century. The oldest parts can be attributed to the Brick Romanesque period, the south nave to the Brick Gothic period. The choir room was probably finished around 1217, when the Bishop of Ratzeburg held his first synod here. In the 15th century, the church underwent alterations: in 1470/71, the south nave was extended and in 1497, the present baptistery and the sacristy were added. Some of the neoGothic "new" frescoes got removed. The remaining medieval ones are very interesting. The "weighing of souls" (= psychostasia). Archangel Michael holds the scale. The devils try to hold the scale down. Note the musician.

In medieval times the area around was fought for by different parties. In 1232 Konrad of Thuringia, brother in law of Saint Elisabeth, had a fortified complex built here, that dominated the entire middle valley of the Eder river. There were a castle and an ecclesiastical area. Immediately the city was built with a large marketplace. It was obviously planned to have a strong bastion and to take advantage of the favourable traffic conditions. The inhabitants of the new town were composed of the inhabitants of the surrounding villages and hamlets, who were resettled or voluntarily left their old homes. Frankenberg was soon surrounded by a mighty wall. Of the 25 towers and gates of the old town, only one still exists, the five city gates have disappeared. The Liebfrauenkirche was built in 1286 according to the model of St. Elizabeth's Church in Marburg, one of the very first churches erected in Germany in Gothic style. It is believed that the entire "Bauhütte" moved from Marburg to Frankenberg to work here at the request of Landgrave Henry I , the grandson of St. Elizabeth. In 1476, when a fire destroyed the entire town, the Liebfrauenkirche also burned out completely, which led to the loss of the precious original equipment. The church got rebuilt. After the Reformation, the church became a Protestant church. An iconoclasm started, under Landgrave Moritz (aka "Moritz der Gelehrte", "Maurice the Learned"), who, due to his Reformed confession, rigorously enforced the biblical prohibition of images. During this fury statues of saints and other Christian representations and artistic treasures were irretrievably lost in 1606. When the Liebfrauenkirche had been completed, Johannes von Cassel donated his fortune for the construction of a pilgrimage chapel in honor of the Virgin Mary. This chapel was designed master builder Tyle von Fankenberg built 1370 to 1380 on the floor plan of an irregular octagon. The chapel was added on to the southern transept the church. The Marienkapelle is an early testimony of the high gothic and a unique construction. The altar got mutilated during the iconoclasm in 1605. The angels of the altar´s long frieze, making music, were not spared out. The iconoclasm was a mob action by Calvinist crowds. In German it was (and still ist) called "Bildersturm" ("image/statue storm"). The "pious vandals" will have been as furious as the Taliban crowds who destroyed the giant Buddhas of Bamyan in 2001 in Afghanistan.

Notre-Dame de Surgères was erected in the center of a large castle in the 12th century. The fortification, founded in the 9th century as a motte, when the area was raided by the Vikings, then guarded the border of the historical province of Aunis once. When the church was built a small town had developed around the defence already. Later a small priory and a "hopital" existed, as this was a halt on the Via Turonensis. The pilgrims had a lot to gape here, the facade is stunning 23 meters wide. Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry II of England in 1152, so the area changed hands and was ruled by the House of Plantagenet. During the Hundred Years' War Surgères experienced a long period of decline. Louis XI´s troops conquered the town in 1472 and the fortifications got destructed. During that time Notre Dame lost the tower and large parts of the nave, but not the facade! There are more than 100 capitals and corbels all over the facade, a kind of a medieval encyclopedia. A nice example of "profane music", that was often frowned upon. The musician plays a rebec, while in the backdrop a very flexible dancer performs.

This church, dedicated to St. Christopher, is the last remaining building of a monastery founded in the 11th century, and belonging to the Canons Regular of St. Augustine. The earliest reference to the monastery dates from 1103. The monastery existed upto 1443, when it was dissolved The present church is the result of a rebuilding carried out in 1151, as indicated by an inscription on the apse. The western facade was probably created late 12th century. The corbels under the roof my be a bit older. Here is musician, probably playing a very sentimental and romantic melody, so his listener is very relaxed and dreaming away.

Saint-Genès, erected in the 11th and 12th century, was the church of the priory Saint-Etienne, dependent from the important Abbaye Notre-Dame in Déols. This abbey, now in ruins, had been founded in 917 and developed into one of the most powerful regional institutions. It was one of the first in the Cluniac network. Odo of Cluny (+ 942) was abbot of three monasteries: Cluny, Massy and Deols. This is important, as Saint-Genès has architectural parralells to Cluny II and Cluny III. The building got severely damaged, when Louis VII (aka "Louis le Jeune", 1. husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine) burnt down the town in 1152 during a feud with Abbo II de Déols, a supporter of Henri Plantagenêt (aka Henry II, "Curtmantle", 2. husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine). In 1569 the Huguenots set fire here - and many restorations followed that. During the French Revolution the bell tower was destroyed and the church became a "Temple of Reason". The carvings inside were created by (at least) two different workshops. There are rough and archaic capitals, that are probably older than the more elaborated, "sophisticared" ones. On the left a guy with bow and arrow, who may hunt the dog(?), goat(?) or sheep(?) protected in the center by a huge person with the elegantly combed beard. What is below the quadruped? A net? Branches?

Romans had been here during Hadrian´s time and where they had erected a temple, a small church got built mid 10th century. This structure got rebuilt and enlarged already within the 11th/12th century. Looted and damaged a century later, it got rebuilt, altered, enlarged, extended and strongly fortified. Within the structure, some parts of the 12th century structure survived the times. Despite the many alterations undertaken, many of the Romanesque capitals can still be found in the nave and the choir. An accidental combination of bad light conditions and a personal hypoglycemia lead to blurry photos. Sorry! This capital differs clearly in style and material from the others inside the church. It may be carved by the master (or the workshop) who created the four capitals outside the choir. A flock of birds is feasting in a vinyard. The owner of the grapes is not amused and tries to chase the birds away. He does not try to kill a bird, as the arrow he uses has no arrowhead.

The first church here was founded by William V, Duke of Aquitaine, (aka "William the Great", "Guillaume le Grand") around 1000. He was the son of William "Fierebras" (= iron arm). His daughter Agnes of Poitou was the wife of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor. As a widow she was known as "Empress Agnes". William the Great was a supporter of the abbey in nearby Maillezais, so it is no surprise, that a priory was founded here. "Notre Dame" the former church of that priory now serves as parish church of Vouvant, a village of less than a thousand inhabitants. The church was erected within the 11th and 12th century - and very soon after in was completed, the western front got demolished and the nave got enlarged. Obviously a great number of monks and laybrothers lived here at that time, reclaiming land in the swampy "Marais Poitevin". Just like the abbey in Maillezais, the priory in Vouvant suffered great damages during the 100 Year´s War. It got later looted and ruined during the Wars of Religion. The priory went under - and the church crumbled until the first restaurations were done in 1882. The works ended the same year due to lack of funds. After a recent renovation, the church now is in a good condition. There are many capitals around the portal and the apse. Two centaurs, bound together, armed with bows.

The Basilica of St. Sernin in Toulouse, built from red bricks about 1080 - 1120, is the largest still existing Romanesque church in France. It once belonged to the abbey of St. Sernin, that had existed here already within the 5th century near the grave of St. Sernin (aka "Saint Saturnin"). The church, replaced a smaller, carolingian structure, and was erected to accommodate the many pilgrims, as Toulouse has always been a very important stop on the way to Santiago de Compostella. The "Via Tolosana", one of the many ancient pilgrim routes, was named after Toulouse. It is said, that pilgrims, who, for what reasons ever, could not make it to Santiago, tried at least to reach St. Sernin in Toulouse. This capital, seen from the nave, depicts two monkeys (?), bending the bow of a very large crossbow, with great effort. A kind of "cupido" stands in the center, holding the arrows.