Sunday 15th January 2017
This morning Ann visited the Chapel of Bones in Evora. Apparently there was no more room to bury any more dead monks in the graveyard in Evora so the church authorities dug them all up and used their bones to line the walls of the chapel.
All very strange,
Attached to the Chapel of Bones is yet another museum of sacred art. Here's John the Baptist!?
I'm not sure about this one. The Virgin Mary with a plate?
What does the caption under the saint's effigy say?
Eventually Ann returned to our parking place and after depositing the dead mouse in a rubbish bin, servicing the van, and taking on LPG and diesel we left Evora heading north and passing this aqueduct on the outskirts of town.
We stopped along the way for a cup of tea next to this field with olive and cork trees and cows.
We stopped for the day at the town of Ponte de Sor still in Alentejo. Here's the view from the side of our van at our parking place next to the "Ponte".
We had a walk around town. We saw this fine old building.
The exterior of the church looks strangely out of place. Rather austere and almost protestant in demeanor!
The apparently still functioning town cinema looks quite Art Deco - like a 1950s Odeon in Britain.
The river through town is quite attractive with a nice walkway along the side.
We returned to our van through one of a number of small arches in the bridge.
We traveled 66 miles (106 kilometres) today. We are at N39.24676 W8.00597
2 comments:
Glad Ann got more time in the Evora Museums.They are obviously fascinating places to visit. The Virgin Mary with a plate is not in fact Mary, but a depiction of St Lucy, a 4th century Christian martyr. The plate she holds contains a pair of eyes which is part of the iconography associated with her, perhaps in relation to her name Lucia or light. I think she may be the patron saint of eye diseases. The palm she holds is an symbol used to inform the viewer that the person died a martyr's death.
The wax image in the glass case almost certainly depict St Therese of Lisieux, a young Carmelite nun who was known as The Little Flower, and who died in the late 19th century and was canonized a few decades later. There is a wax image of her in the church in Lisieux and I am guessing this one in Evora is based on her.
Please let me know if you are tired of all this religious information and I won't burden you further with it. I have always been interested in art and iconography and my upbringing gave me a good grounding in it.
Travel safely,
Anne-Marie
Hi Anne-Marie,
Please don't think for one second that we are tired of your comments. Frankly we haven't a clue about all this religious stuff but we are very interested to understand what it is about. Please keep on commenting!
Best wishes, Ann and Roger.
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