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Chemrey Monastery by Irene Becker © All rights reserved
Chemrey Monastery or Chemrey Gonpa, Leh, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Ladakh : Day 9
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Monks outside the newer temple of Sakti's Takthok monastery with its prayer wheels and golden roof.
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Yuriev Monastery (there are also options Yuryev-Georgyevsky Monastery, St. Yuryev Monastery) - the monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church in honor of the Great Martyr George, one of the oldest in Russia, in the Middle Ages, the spiritual center of the Novgorod land and the richest spiritual feudal lord. Located on the southern outskirts of Veliky Novgorod on the banks of the Volkhov River.
According to legend, it was founded in 1030 by Prince Yaroslav the Wise. Yaroslav Vladimirovich in holy baptism bore the name George; in Russian, the latter usually had the form "Yuri", whence the name of the monastery came from. The first chronicle mention refers to the year 1119.
Thiksay Gompa or Thiksay Monastery (also transliterated from Ladakhi as Tikse, Tiksey or Thiksey) is a gompa (monastery) affiliated with the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism. It is located on top of a hill in Thiksey village, approximately 19 kilometres (12 mi) east of Leh in Ladakh, India. It is noted for its resemblance to the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet and is the largest gompa in central Ladakh, notably containing a separate set of buildings for female renunciates that has been the source of significant recent building and reorganisation.
The monastery is located at an altitude of 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) in the Indus Valley. It is a twelve-story complex and houses many items of Buddhist art such as stupas, statues, thangkas, wall paintings and swords. One of the main points of interest is the Maitreya Temple installed to commemorate the visit of the 14th Dalai Lama to this monastery in 1970; it contains a 15 metres (49 ft) high statue of Maitreya, the largest such statue in Ladakh, covering two stories of the building.
Ladakh
Nikon D800
Tamron SP 24-70mm F/2.8
During my stay in Hong Kong, I visited the famous Ten Thousand Buddha Monastery. I don't know if there were actually ten thousand of them, but I wouldn't be surprised! Difficult to find without a map, and a lot of steps to climb, it was a typical Hong Kong destination.
Cozia Monastery, erected close to Călimănești by Mircea the Elder in 1388 and housing his tomb, is one of the most valuable monuments of national medieval art and architecture in Romania. The name of the monastery is of Cuman origin and it means "walnut grove", from Turkic word koz, meaning walnut.[1] The original name of the place was the Romanian equivalent, Nucetul, but already in 1387, a document of Mircea cel Bătrân uses the current name.[1]
The fortified cloister dates from the foundation (1388) and is the only in Byzantine style preserved in Romania. Two chapels are incorporated in the side toward the Olt River and their Byzantine cupolas are reflected in the water, creating one of the most iconic cultural - natural landmarks in Romania.
The appearance of the church was modified under Neagoe Basarab (1517), Şerban Cantacuzino and Constantin Brâncoveanu (1707), who added a veranda, a new fountain, a chapel and a watch tower, adding to its architecture the 'brâncovenesc style'.
The wall facets' decorations with stone rosettes, horizontal Byzantine-style rows of brick and stone and vertical frames are unprecedented in Wallachian architecture. The resemblance with Lazarica church indicates that Mircea cel Bătrân has employed Serbian craftsmen from the Morava School.
Of great value is the hospital church, 'bolnița' (1543), with original well-preserved indoor frescoes like the votive portrait of ruler Mircea cel Bătrân and his sons.
Cozia was painted between 1390 and 1391. Some of the original frescoes (1390) are still well preserved.
The church of the monastery was put on a stamp from the Romanian stamp in 1968.
Endowment of Queen Helen (of the Anjou) wife of Serbian King Uros I. It is located 20 km north from Raska and was built in the 13th century.
Following completing my large Monastery/Temple model, I made an additional entry way to the village which it will be housed in. Models based on the 'Adventures' theme, with a few focusing on 'Orient Expedition', have been among my recent builds.
I will upload some further photos of additional models once I get a chance, including; Monastery, Steam Ship, Tracked Transport,
Agia Napa is the largest tourist resort in Cyprus, with a 27,000-person-bed capacity and more than 175 hotels and apartments of all sizes. Agia Napa attracts mainly young people from Great Britain and Scandinavia, who come to enjoy the beaches and the countless bars and clubs.
Whereas in summer thousands of young, party-loving tourists flock to the restaurants, clubs and bars, in winter there’s hardly a soul to be seen. All clubs and almost all the restaurants are closed.
The Agia Napa Monastery, built in the form of a medieval castle around 1500 AD during the Venetian period. The name Agia Napa (Holy Forest) comes from an ancient, forested area and a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary reportedly found in a cave.
The monastery is partially built underground and cut into the rock and the oldest sections trace back to the Byzantine era.
The Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila sits in a deep valley in the Rila Mountains about 117 km south of Sofia, Bulgaria.
Zachatievsky Monastery in Moscow - Orthodox female monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church was founded in 1584. Revived in 1995. Monument of St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow founder of Zachatievsky monaster was built to commemorate the 650th birthday.
Applied textured by Lenabem-Anna www.flickr.com/photos/lenabem-anna/
Thank you for your visit!
The Meteora (/ˌmɛtiˈɔːrə/; Greek: Μετέωρα, pronounced [meˈteora]) is a rock formation in central Greece hosting one of the largest and most precipitously built complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries, second in importance only to Mount Athos. The six (of an original twenty four) monasteries are built on immense natural pillars and hill-like rounded boulders that dominate the local area. It is located near the town of Kalabaka at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pineios river and Pindus Mountains.
Meteora is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The name means "lofty", "elevated", and is etymologically related to meteor.
Beside the Pindos Mountains, in the western region of Thessaly, these unique and enormous columns of rock rise precipitously from the ground. But their unusual form is not easy to explain geologically. They are not volcanic plugs of hard igneous rock typical elsewhere, but the rocks are composed of a mixture of sandstone and conglomerate.
The conglomerate was formed of deposits of stone, sand, and mud from streams flowing into a delta at the edge of a lake, over millions of years. About 60 million years ago during the Paleogene period a series of earth movements pushed the seabed upward, creating a high plateau and causing many vertical fault lines in the thick layer of sandstone. The huge rock pillars were then formed by weathering by water, wind, and extremes of temperature on the vertical faults. It is unusual that this conglomerate formation and type of weathering are confined to a relatively localised area within the surrounding mountain formation.
This type of rock formation and weathering process has happened in many other places locally and throughout the world, but what makes Meteora's appearance special is the uniformity of the sedimentary rock constituents deposited over millions of years leaving few signs of vertical layering, and the localised abrupt vertical weathering. The complex is referred to an exhumed continental remnant of Pangean association.
The cave of Theopetra is located 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from Kalambaka. Its uniqueness from an archeological perspective is that a single site contains records of two greatly significant cultural transitions: the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans and later, the transition from hunting-gathering to farming after the end of the last Ice Age. The cave consists of an immense 500 square metres (5,400 sq ft) rectangular chamber at the foot of a limestone hill, which rises to the northeast above the village of Theopetra, with an entrance 17 metres (56 ft) wide by 3 metres (9.8 ft) high. It lies at the foot of the Chasia mountain range, which forms the natural boundary between Thessaly and Macedonia prefectures, while the Lithaios River, a tributary of the Pineios River, flows in front of the cave. The small Lithaios River flowing literally on the doorsteps of the cave meant that cave dwellers always had easy access to fresh, clean water without the need to cover daily long distances to find it.
Excavations and research and have discovered petrified diatoms, which have contributed to understanding the Palaeo-climate and climate changes. Radiocarbon dating evidences human presence dating back 50,000 years. The cave used to be open to the public, but is currently closed indefinitely, for safety inspections.
The Holy Monastery of the Virgin Mary of Kykkos was founded around the end of the 11th century by the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos and lies at an altitude of 1,318 m (4,324 ft) on the north west face of the Troodos Mountains. The current building dates to about 1745 and is home to the icon of the Virgin Mary painted by the Apostle Luke.
Schoenthal Monastery, first mentioned in 1145, includes one of the oldest churches in Switzerland. It is considered a showpiece of Romanesque architecture. Its western façade features ashlar masonry, a portal with a depiction of a lamb carrying a cross, and an arch supported by a lion baring its teeth on one side, and by a man on the other. The inscription on the arch reads: HIC EST RODO.
Of the murals on the inside of the church, a depiction of St. Christopher has been preserved above the gateway to the cloister dating from about 1310/20. Behind the eastern façade, fragments can be seen of an angel swinging a censer; these date from around 1430. The bell in the steeple was cast in Aarau in the 15th century. The deconsecrated monastery was used for various commercial purposes over a period of 500 years. As of 1986, the new owner had extensive renovations carried out in collaboration with the canton’s departments of archaeology and the preservation of historical monuments. The latter recommended using the traditional plaster made of slaked lime.
The Monastery of Batalha (Portuguese: Mosteiro da Batalha), literally the Monastery of the Battle, is a Dominican convent in the municipality of Batalha, in the district of Leiria, in the Centro Region of Portugal. Originally, and officially known, as the Monastery of Saint Mary of the Victory, it was erected in commemoration of the 1385 Battle of Aljubarrota, and would serve as the burial church of the 15th-Century Aviz dynasty of Portuguese royalty. It is one of the best and original examples of Late Gothic architecture in Portugal, intermingled with the Manueline style. The monastery was built to thank the Virgin Mary for the Portuguese victory over the Castilians in the battle of Aljubarrota in 1385, fulfilling a promise of King John I of Portugal.
Nuno Álvares Pereira was a Portuguese general of great success who had a decisive role in the 1383-1385 Crisis that assured Portugal's independence from Castile. He later became a mystic and was later beatified by Pope Benedict XV, in 1918, and canonised by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.
Žiča is an early 13th-century Serbian Orthodox monastery near Kraljevo, Serbia.
The monastery, together with the Church of the Holy Dormition, was built by the first King of Serbia, Stefan the First-Crowned and the first Head of the Serbian Church, Saint Sava.
Žiča was the seat of the Archbishop (1219–1253), and by tradition the coronational church of the Serbian kings, although a king could be crowned in any Serbian church, he was never considered a true king until he was anointed in Žiča.
Žiča was declared a Cultural Monument of Exceptional Importance in 1979, and it is protected by Serbia.
In 2008, Žiča celebrated 800 years of existence.
Two weeks I travelled through Serbia and I enjoyed it a lot.
These are monasteries for monks, and nuns (not together) 6 of out of the 24 monasteries are being used. 2 of them are now for nuns. They started being built in the 11th century so many are in disrepair.
The Jerónimos Monastery or Hieronymites Monastery is a former monastery of the Order of Saint Jerome near the Tagus river in the parish of Belém, in the Lisbon Municipality, Portugal; it was secularised on 28 December 1833 by state decree and its ownership transferred to the charitable institution, Real Casa Pia de Lisboa.
The monastery is one of the most prominent examples of the Portuguese Late Gothic Manueline style of architecture in Lisbon. It was classified a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the nearby Tower of Belém, in 1983.
The Jerónimos Monastery replaced the church formerly existing in the same place, which was dedicated to Santa Maria de Belém and where the monks of the military-religious Order of Christ provided assistance to seafarers in transit. The harbour of Praia do Restelo was an advantageous spot for mariners, with a safe anchorage and protection from the winds, sought after by ships entering the mouth of the Tagus. The existing structure was inaugurated on the orders of Manuel I (1469–1521) at the courts of Montemor o Velho in 1495, as a final resting-place for members of the House of Aviz, in his belief that an Iberian dynastic kingdom would rule after his death. In 1496, King Manuel petitioned the Holy See for permission to construct a monastery at the site. The Hermitage of Restelo (Ermida do Restelo), as the church was known, was already in disrepair when Vasco da Gama and his men spent the night in prayer there before departing on their expedition to India in 1497.
The construction of the monastery and church began on 6 January 1501, and was completed 100 years later. King Manuel originally funded the project with money obtained from the Vintena da Pimenta, a 5 percent tax on commerce from Africa and the Orient, equivalent to 70 kilograms of gold per year, with the exception of those taxes collected on the importation of pepper, cinnamon and cloves, which went directly to the Crown. With the influx of such riches, the architects were not limited to small-scale plans, and resources already prescribed for the Monastery of Batalha, including the Aviz pantheon, were redirected to the project in Belém.
Manuel I selected the religious order of Hieronymite monks to occupy the monastery, whose role it was to pray for the King's eternal soul and to provide spiritual assistance to navigators and sailors who departed from the port of Restelo to discover lands around the world. This the monks did for over four centuries until 1833, when the religious orders were dissolved and the monastery was abandoned.
The monastery was designed in a manner that later became known as Manueline: a richly ornate architectural style with complex sculptural themes incorporating maritime elements and objects discovered during naval expeditions, carved in limestone. Diogo de Boitaca, the architect, pioneered this style in the Monastery of Jesus in Setúbal. Boitaca was responsible for drawing the plans and contracting work on the monastery, the sacristy, and the refectory. For its construction he used calcário de lioz, a gold-coloured limestone quarried from Ajuda, the valley of Alcántara, Laveiras, Rio Seco and Tercena. Boitaca was succeeded by the Spaniard Juan de Castilho, who took charge of construction around 1517. Castilho gradually moved from the Manueline to the Spanish Plateresque style, an ornamentation that included lavish decorations suggesting the decorative features of silverware (plata). The construction came to a halt when King Manuel I died in 1521.
Several sculptors left their mark on this building: Nicolau Chanterene added depth with his Renaissance themes, while the architect Diogo de Torralva resumed construction of the monastery in 1550, adding the main chapel, the choir, and completing the two stories of the monastery, using only Renaissance motifs. Diogo de Torralva's work was continued in 1571 by Jérôme de Rouen (also called Jerónimo de Ruão) who added some classical elements. The construction stopped in 1580 with the union of Spain and Portugal, as the building of the Escorial in Spain was now draining away all the allocated funds.
On 16 July 1604, Philip of Spain (who ruled after the Iberian Union) made the monastery a royal funerary monument, prohibiting anyone but the royal family and the Hieronymite monks from entering the building. A new portal was constructed in 1625, as well as the cloister door, the house of the doorkeepers, a staircase and a hall that was the entrance to the upper choir designed by the royal architect Teodósio Frias and executed by the mason Diogo Vaz. In 1640, the prior Bento de Siqueira ordered construction of the monastery's library, where books owned by the Infante Luís (son of King Manuel I) and others linked to the religious order were deposited.
With the restoration of Portuguese Independence in 1640, the monastery regained much of its former importance, becoming the burial place for the royal pantheon; within its walls four of the eight children of John IV of Portugal were entombed: the Infante Teodósio (1634–1653), the Infanta Joana (1636–1653), King Afonso VI (1643–1683) and Catarina de Bragança (1638–1705). In 1682 the body of Cardinal Henrique was buried in the transept chapels. On 29 September 1855, the body of King Afonso VI was transported to the royal pantheon of the House of Braganza in the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, along with his three brothers and sister.
In 1663, the Brotherhood of the Senhor dos Passos occupied the old Chapel of Santo António, which was redecorated with a gold tiled ceiling in 1669, while the staircase frescos with the heraldry of Saint Jerome were completed in 1770. The retables were completed in 1709 and 1711, valuable alfaias were presented to the religious order, and the sacristy was redecorated in 1713. The painter Henrique Ferreira was commissioned in 1720 to paint the Kings of Portugal: the regal series was placed in the Sala dos Reis (Hall of the Kings). Henrique Ferreira was also commissioned to complete a series of nativity paintings.
The monastery withstood the 1755 Lisbon earthquake without much damage: only the balustrade and part of the high choir were ruined, but they were quickly repaired. On 28 December 1833, the Jerónimos Monastery was secularised by state decree and its title transferred to the Real Casa Pia de Lisboa to serve as a parochial church for the new civil parish of Santa Maria de Belém. Many of the artworks and treasures were either transferred to the crown or lost during this period. It was vacant most of the time and its condition began to deteriorate.
Restoration work began on the monastery after 1860, starting with the southern façade under supervision of the architect Rafael Silva e Castro, and in 1898 under Domingos Parente da Silva. Although the cloister cistern, internal clerical cells and the kitchen were demolished at this time, three reconstruction projects proposed by architect J. Colson, including the introduction of revivalist neo-Manueline elements, failed to gain the required approval. In 1863, architect Valentim José Correia was hired by the ombudsman of the Casa Pia, Eugénio de Almeida, to reorganise the second storey of the old dormitory and design the windows (1863–1865). He was subsequently replaced by Samuel Barret, who constructed the towers in the extreme western end of the dormitories. Similarly and inexplicably, Barret was replaced by the Italian scenery designers Rambois and Cinatti, who had worked on the design of the São Carlos Theatre, to continue the remodelling within the monastery in 1867. Between 1867 and 1868, they profoundly altered the annex and façade of the Church, which then appeared as it does today. They demolished the gallery and Hall of the Kings, constructed the towers of the eastern dormitory, the rose window of the upper choir and substituted the pyramid-shaped roof of the bell tower with the mitre-shaped design. The remodelling was delayed by the 1878 collapse of the central dormitory. After 1884, Raymundo Valladas began to contribute, initiating in 1886 the restoration of the cloister and the Sala do Capítulo, including construction of the vaulted ceiling. The tomb of Alexandre Herculano, designed by Eduardo Augusto da Silva, was placed in the Sala do Capítulo in 1888.
To celebrate the 1898 fourth centenary of the arrival of Vasco da Gama in India, it was decided to restore the tomb of the explorer in 1894. The tombs of Vasco da Gama and Luís de Camões, carved by the sculptor Costa Mota, were placed in the southern lateral chapel. A year later the monastery received the remains of the poet João de Deus, later joined by the tombs of Almeida Garret (1902), Sidónio Pais (1918), Guerra Junqueiro (1923) and Teófilo Braga (1924).
The Minister of Public Works opened a competition to finish the annex, which would serve as the National Museum of Industry and Commerce (Museu Nacional da Indústria e Comércio), but the project was canceled in 1899, and the Ethnological Museum of Portugal was installed.
Further remodelling of the monastery was begun in 1898 subsequent to the work done by Parente da Silva in 1895 on the central annex, now simplified, as well as restoration of the cadeirals (the chairs used by the clergy in religious services), which were completed in 1924 by sculptor Costa Mota. In 1938 the organ in the high choir was dismantled at the same time that a series of stained-glass windows, designed by Abel Manta and executed by Ricardo Leone, were replaced in the southern façade.
As part of the celebrations marking the centenary of modern Portugal in 1939, yet more remodelling was completed in the monastery and tower. During these projects, the baldachin and tomb of Alexandre Herculano were dismantled and the cloister patio was paved. In 1940 the space in front of the monastery was redesigned for the Portuguese Exposition. The Casa Pia vacated the interior spaces of the cloister and the tombs of Camões and Vasco da Gama were transferred to the lower choir. A series of windows designed by Rebocho and executed by Alves Mendes were completed in 1950.
In 1951 the remains of president Óscar Carmona were entombed in the Sala do Capítulo. They would later be transported to the National Pantheon in 1966 to join the bodies of other former presidents and literary heroes of the country.
The Maritime Museum was inaugurated in the western wing of the monastery in 1963.
The church and the monastery, like the nearby Torre de Belém and Padrão dos Descobrimentos, symbolise the Portuguese Age of Discovery and are among the main tourist attractions of Lisbon. In 1983, UNESCO formally designated the Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of Belém as a World Heritage Site.
When Portugal joined the European Economic Community, the formal ceremonies were held in the cloister of the monument (1985).
Two major exhibitions took place at the monastery during the 1990s: 4 séculos de pintura, in 1992; and the exposition "Leonardo da Vinci – um homem à escala do mundo, um Mundo à escala do homem", in 1998 (which included the Leicester Codex, on temporary loan from Bill Gates).
At the end of the 20th century, remodelling continued with conservation, cleaning and restoration, including the main chapel in 1999 and the cloister in 1998–2002.
On 13 December 2007, the Treaty of Lisbon was signed at the monastery, laying down the basis for the reform of the European Union.
This Buddhist monastery is the largest monastery in India and the second largest in the world, after the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.
I actually finished this build around the beginning of June, but haven't gotten around to posting it until now. This was just a build for fun to mess around with the dark blue/white colorscheme and to finally do something for Kaliphlin over in Guilds of Historica again. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, though unfortunately the pictures are rather poor.
Located on the Eastern outskirts of Katoren, this monastery survived the Kaliphlin civil war better than most. A natural spring was the reason for the monastery's location, and the spring continues to provide fresh water for all the inhabitants, as well as make the surrounding area very lush compared to much of the Kaliphlin landscape.
The Sinaia Monastery, located in Sinaia, in Prahova County, Romania, was founded by Prince Mihail Cantacuzino in 1695 and named after the great Sinai Monastery on Mount Sinai.
This ortodox monastery consists of two courtyards surrounded by low buildings. In the centre of each courtyard there is a small church built in the Byzantine style. One of them—"Biserica Veche" (The Old Church)—dates from 1695, while the more recent "Biserica Mare" (The Great Church) was built in 1846.
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The Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila, better known as the Rila Monastery (Bulgarian: Рилски манастир) is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It is situated in the southwestern Rila Mountains, 117 km (73 mi) south of the capital Sofia in the deep valley of the Rilska River ("Rila River") at an elevation of 1,147 m (3,763 ft) above sea level, inside of Rila Monastery Nature Park. The monastery is named after its founder, the hermit Ivan of Rila (876 - 946 AD), and houses around 60 monks.
Founded in the 10th century, the Rila Monastery is regarded as one of Bulgaria's most important cultural, historical and architectural monuments and is a key tourist attraction for both Bulgaria and Southern Europe. In 2008 alone, it attracted 900,000 visitors. The monastery is depicted on the reverse of the 1 lev banknote, issued in 1999.