Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: St. Christopher

Approaching the small, unimpressive village of Altenstadt the visitor will find a really impressing romanesque basilica. The church is way too big for the village. The original name of the village was "Scongoe". Founded on a hill over the river Lech, it controlled the old roman "highway" from Augsburg to Italy - and over the time got wealthy and proud. So they started to build this St.Michael-church between 1170 and 1220. Just after the church was completed, discussions started and the whole village moved (for strategic reasons) to a new place, just a few kilometres away and started the (still existing) "Schongau", naming the old place "Altenstadt" (= old town). As there were no people to care for the abandoned church, and over the many years (fortunately) no money, to change it into gothic, baroque or rococo style, purity has survived here. I have uploaded already many photos taken in Altenstadt during prior visits. So just a few "new" photos now. St. Christopher must have been even more gigantic before the gallery was installed.

St. Peter Mistail is the church of a former nunnery, located very secluded near the entrance to the "Schinschlucht", a 9kms long gorge. The building is (one of only two) Carolingian "three apses"-churches in Switzerland (Muestair is the second). It is known since 823, when it was mentioned in a letter to Louis the Pious. The nunnery existed here upto 1154. the church is owned by the parish of Alvaschein since the 14th century. The buildings of the convent got lost over the centuries. Archeologists proved in the 1960s/1970s, that the existing church was erected on the foundations of an even older one around 800. Even some Carolingian frescoes were found. That means it is about as old as the buildings in Muestair. The frescoes seen inside the church today are not Carolingian, but younger. A few older traces can be found behind the altar. The pretty complete frescoe in the central apse is dated to the early 14th century and is Gothic. The frescoes on the left including the (7 meters high!) Saint Christopher are even younger. They were all created, when the church was used by the parish.

Taufers im Münstertal is just 6 kms east of Müstair. Between the villages runs the border between Switzerland and Italy, so Taufers is the westernmost village of South Tyrol. There are eight churches or chapels in Taufers, what is a lot for a population of less than 1000. Seen here is the western facade of St. Johann, the oldest church in Taufers. Probably already within the 9th century a convent existed here. It is known that the Benedictine monks gave that up in 1035. The church was ruined but got rebuilt in the early 13th century by the Knights Hospitaller. They run a hospice to provide refuge for travelers and care for the ill between 1264 and 1509. In 1790 the church got deconsecrated and was used as a stable. This caused a lot of damage, as walls covered with fresco got demolished over the next decades. The restoration of the church started 1951. The church is very long as it has a kind of two storey narthex, where the hospice once was. On the wall here is a fresco of St. Christopher, painted in the early 13th century.

Muenster, the cultural centre of Westphalia, is a city with a population of more than 250.000 of which nearly 50.000 are students at the University of Muenster. This surely helped Muenster to gain the status of the "bicycle capital of Germany". Charlemagne sent out St. Ludger in 792 to evangelise the area, so Ludger built a school here. When the Diocese of Muenster was founded in 805, Ludger the first bishop here. He had the first church built at this place, named "Ludgerus-Dom", that existed upto 1377, when it got demolished and replaced by a gothic cloister. Next to the "Ludgerus Dome" a new church was built, when Dodo was bishop in Muenster 967-993. This one got the name "Ottonischer Dom". Bishop Hermann of Katzenelnbogen added a westwork to this building in 1192, that got integrated into the third chathedral built here 1225 - 1264. This cathedral still exists, though it was a ruin after WWII and the old westwork never got rebuilt. The cathedral is a mixture of late romanesque and early gothic style - and it is huge. The cathedral is 109 meter long. The nave, seen here, is 28,30 meter wide - and 22,50 meters high. I could not find anything about the gigantic St. Christopher, but (not counting the tree) the statue is at least 6 meters.