Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: lions

The church of the former Murbach Abbey was constructed around 1150 got consecrated 1216 and dedicated to Saint Léger. The naves got knocked down 1738, to give room for a baroque church, that never got built. Since 1760 it serves as a parish church, what did not prevent it from getting devasted by rioters during the French Revolution. So all that left is the transept - and the choir. The place of the former naves, behind the facade, is a cemetery today. The facade is impressive. The choir is "flat", following architecural traditions from Cluny and Hirsau. Some of the carvings are artistic and pretty extraordenary. The tympanum over the left entrance seems brandnew, perfectly produced by a modern CNC-machine. That is the look, but it is more than 800 years old and of course handmade! Well, there is a repaired crack on the right, but the carving itself is perfect. Two rows of nearly identical leaves as a base, vines and grapes all around the semicircle - and then two lions, guarding the door below. The right one shows the tongue. Maybe this tympanum lacks a bit of the creativity, other carvings have show, but the workmanship is absolutely perfect. Chapeau!

The architecture of Notre Dame de l'Assomption, the parish church of Rouffach, about 20kms south of Colmar, is a mixture of romanesque and gothique style. The pretty huge building suffered heavy damage during the French Revolution. There are some interesting romanesque carvings on the walls of the older parts of "Notre Dame de l'Assomption". Here the carver "reused" his idea, using beams protruding out of the wall. This time, there are two (half) lions. The lions are a little clumsy, compared to the man leaning on beams, on the other wall.

Soon after the village was founded 1090 a small, humble single-nave church has been erected right here. Though, this was a small church, it has this large, elaborated portal. The quarries, where the reddish marble was cut, are very close to Villefranche and the workshops working there for Saint-Martin-du-Canigou, Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa or the priory of Serrabone may have offered their masterly work for a "special price" to the local church. Having a closer look to the right side of the portal. Again the masterly carvings seem like model-carvings for the pious investors of they abbeys and priories, placing orders to the artists. Please not the very left animal. I am very sure, this is not a lion, but an ape.