St Mary's, Undy - a potted history

I photographed St Mary's church a couple of days ago and thought it might be of interest to add a little about our village church's history.

St Mary's church, Undy

St Mary's was erected in the early/mid 12^th century, although the church we see today bears little resemblance to the original.

The chancel was added in the 13^th century and later extended to its present size (date unknown). In 1880 a major restoration took place and a window was added to the north nave, though many of the other windows are much older. At this time a small central tower was removed and replaced by the bell turret we see today.

St Mary's church, Undy

The single bell housed in the turret dates from the 14^th century and is one of the church's most valued possessions. The church also features a Norman font and an ancient west doorway.

St Mary's 14^th Century Bell

Montage of St Mary's, Undy

Back in the bad old days before digital photography, electronic editing and photo-stitching I used to have a lot of fun shooting a series of images, which I would later build into a montage. I can't remember the last time I did this, but while walking through the village the other day with nothing but a 50 mm prime lens on my camera I decided to drop in on St Mary's and see if I could still remember how to do it!

Montage of St Mary's, Undy

Well the truth is I failed! I completely forgot to shoot the foreground so although I've captured the main part of our little village church in four images I had to chop the bottom off... stupid me, huh?

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