Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: stoning

Candes-Saint-Martin lies at the confluence of the Vienne and the Loire and is considered to be the place where St Martin died in a monastery he founded himself in 397. The pilgrimage church of Saint Martin stands on the site of the house where he died. Based on the architecture, sculptural decoration and iconography, it is likely that the collegiate church was donated around 1180 by King Henry II of England, who ruled the area at the time. It was built at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th century. In response to the Hundred Years' War the church was fortified in the 15th century. The boundary between the territories controlled by the French and the English, which was shifting, passed not far from Candes in the first part of the 15th century. The towers flanking the façade and the other ones, at the north porch, had their summits taken up and crowned by machicolations. The fortified towers are connected by a patrol path that climbs the slopes of the roof. The atlas (or Neptun?) on the lower level is flanked by two lions devouring people. Above is the scene of the stoning of St Steven

Many churches, chapels and abbeys all over continental Europe claim to be founded by Charlemagne. Saint John Abbey in the village of Müstair (= monasterium) is - most likely - founded in deed by Charlemagne or a bishop under Charles´ order around 774. At that time Charlemagne fought war against the Langobards in Northern Italy and needed save and secure passes over the Alps for his army. Fortified monasteries played an important role in this strategy. Dendrochronological surveys found out, that some of the beams used for the construction cut around 775, what is, when Charlemagne´s soldiers conquered the Lombardy. The "Benediktinerinnenkloster St. Johann", today still a Benedictine nunnery, is since 1983 a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most spectacular is the interior of the convent´s church, that meanwhile serves the parish. It was constructed in Carolingian times, but remodelled later, when it got a late Gothic vaulted ceiling. Around 1200 all the walls of the church and the apses were covered with Romanesque frescoes. 300 years later, they seemed "old fashioned" - and the walls got whitened. End of the 19th century art historians discovered not only the fresco paintings from 1200, there were wall paintings even from the Carolingian times, dating back to 800. The central part of the right apse has this fresco painting depicting the martyrdom and burial of St. Stephen.

Isolated, surrounded by an old graveyard, near the village of Valcabrère (pop. ~150) stands the extraordinary Basilica Saint-Just, erected within the 11th and 12th century for the pilgrims walking the "Chemin du Piemont". The basilica is only about half an hour walk east of the Cathedral of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, the seat of an ancient diocese. In Roman time the area was densely populated and the settlement may have had about 30.000 inhabitants, before it got looted by the Vandals within the 5th century. When the building process of the Basilica started, there were still lots of Roman ruins around. These older material got reused here. The portal of the basilica has impressive carvings. Four lifesize jamb statues flank the entrance. Three men (of which two hold a book) and one woman. All are standing on hellish creatures. Above their heads are very large and elaborate capitals. Here are the (nicely combed) heads of the two jamb statues of the left side - and the capitals above them. Seen on the capitals are to martyrdoms. On the left somebody gets decapitated, while on the right the stoning of Saint Stephen is seen.

A Benedictian monastery, with strong ties to Cluny, existed here in 958, after the Reconquista had reconquered the area about 50 years earlier. There are hints, that a convent may have been here already in Visigothic times. The monastery offered a "hopital" to the pilgrims already in 1054, when nearby Estrella was not even founded. The large church was erected in a Basilica-style within the 12th and 13th century on a the floorplan of a "Latin Cross". The keystone depicts the lapidation of Protomartyr Saint Stephen (Stephanus, Esteban, Étienne). One stone has just hit his head.