The Bishop's Palace at St Davids

The remains of the Bishops of St Davids principle palace are located alongside the cathedral in the tranquil valley of the river Alun. This would have been the finest collection of buildings in Wales during the medieval period, rivaled only by Lamphey Bishop's Palace.

Even in its ruined state the Bishop's Palace at St Davids still conveys the affluence and power of the medieval church.

Bishop's Palace, St Davids - South Range

Just look at this place, it is built for drama. The whole site sends shivers down the spine. It evokes a period when religion was the order of the day and bishops were powerbrokers par excellence.

Lavish decorations, corbels carved as human heads and striking chequerboard stonework are all testament to the wealth and status of these medieval men of religion.

The bishop's private quarters

Bishop Thomas Bek (1280-93) undertook significant new building work on the site but it was Bishop Henry de Gower (1328-47) of Lamphey Palace fame who was responsible for virtually the entire palace we see today. His legacy consists of two great ranges. The east range – the simpler of the two – was the first to be built. This was his private domain. The second, the south range, was much grander and built for stylish entertaining. The great hall, the most impressive chamber in the palace, created the perfect backdrop for banquets.

The East Range

 Looking for more de Gower highlights? Look no further than the fantastic wheel window in the east gable and the majestic porch, an entrance befitting the majesty of such an iconic building.

The Wheel Window

Those medieval bishops certainly liked to live in the lap of luxury. Just consider this, when life in the palace at St Davids became too hard to bear they'd simply decamp and take up residence at Lamphey. Damn life must have been so hard!

I quite like the modern nod to Henry de Gower's brilliance in the shape of this wrought iron wheel window gate.

Wheel Window ironwork

Salzburg - post 2: Religious Architecture

Without doubt some of the most outstanding architecture found in Salzburg belongs to the city's churches, the most prominent being the seventeenth-century Baroque designed Salzburg Cathedral.

Salzburg Cathedral

Salzburg Cathedral main entrance

While the front of the building is impressive in its own right, to see the real beauty of the building the visitor needs to find a high point.

Salzburg Cathedral viewed from Hohensalzburg Castle

Some of the lesser churches are well worth a visit, but the casual tourist may have to search hard to find some of them.

Tucked away down alleyways, or squeezed between other buildings, all the churches have their own charm. I particularly liked this one on Bürgerspitalplatz.

Geistliches Zentrum St. Blasius

Also the church at Franziskanergasse.

These are of course just a few of the city's churches. To visit them all I would need to spend considerably longer in Salzburg... that's a tempting thought.

Here are a couple more images:

Viewed from the height of Fortress Hohensalzburg the visitor gets a great aerial view of those churches within the Old City.

Salzburg old quarter from above

And just because I can I'll leave you with this panoramic view:

Panoramic Salzburg

More Bavarian architecture - Bad Reichenhall

The second day of my Bavarian holiday ended in Bad Reichenhall.

Bad Reichenhall is a spa town and the administrative centre of Berchtesgaden Land. As such I think I'd expected more of the city in the way of notable and historic buildings. Perhaps the lack of city centre history is a direct result of the allied bombing attack that took place in April 1945 when much of the city centre was destroyed.

Rathaus

The Rathaus (town hall) is both decorative and interesting though and well worth a look as is the Königliches Kurhaus (Royal Spa).

Königliches Kurhaus

Royal Crest Detail

Strolling around the centre I spotted a couple of other interesting edifices.

The buildings are unrelated, but both carry images of the Bavarian flag and I think are interesting in their own right.

For me it was interesting to compare the differences between Berchtesgaden and Bad Reichenhall. I certainly know which of the two I preferred.

Berchtesgaden

I visited the municipality of Berchtesgaden, which is situated in the German Bavarian Alps on my first full day in Bavaria. The city is a mixture of the old and new and I wanted to share a few images of some of the beautiful old buildings within the city.

Sadly I don't have names for the buildings depicted here, but that doesn't detract from their beauty I'm sure you'll agree. Just look at this amazing place with the round tower on its corner.

As you can see it currently houses a mixture of shops and a cafe.

How about this wonderful memorial to the fallen of the two World wars?

Berchtesgaden War Memorial

Then there are these shops with the schloss in the background.

Look at the stunning detail on this Dollinger shop front:

And just in case you're feeling warm and cosy, there's this somewhat dark and moody building:

A touch on the dark side it may be, but it's still stunningly beautiful don't you think?

To be fair these are but a brief selection of mages of Berchtesgaden architecture. If these photographs have sparked an interest in you I urge you to visit southern Bavaria and see Berchtesgaden for yourself.