Churches in Venice

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Sweet."

Sweet potato fries...yum.

And here's my sweet cat Maria. She turned two-years old yesterday, and I gave her some catnip for her birthday. She thought that was a pretty sweet gift.

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend. Happy Easter to those who celebrate it.

One of two churches in Venice dedicated to Mary Magdalene (the other is on the island of Guidecca), this Cannaregio church was founded in 1222, but the one we see today dates from an 18th century rebuilding over top of the medieval church.

It’s a Neoclassical church, round on the outside and hexagonal inside. There was some resistance towards round churches in Venice (Palladio’s plan to build the Redentore round was squashed), but that all changed after Santa Maria della Salute when "round" came into vogue in a big way.

The architect was Tomaso Temenza, a scholar and historian of Venetian architecture who built very few buildings. La Maddalena was built in 1760-89 and was a parish church for a few decades. The Venetian Republic fell to the French, the church was closed in 1820, and then at some point in the 19th century, a demolition order was issued. Gianantonio Selva (Temenza’s student and the architect who built the opera house La Fenice) fought the order and saved the church, but its bell tower was demolished in 1881.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Vertical."

Vertical poles holding up an old water tower~

A sculpture at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. It's called "Crossroads" and the artist is Martha Jackson-Jarvis. From the museum brochure:

A tall sentinel of glass, carnelian, and shattered brick marking the juncture of two trails.

Same sculpture, different day. The boys in both photos are my nephews who love to hike the sculpture trails at this museum.

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend.

French artist Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) painted this scene of Venice in 1938. Two churches in this painting - San Giorgio Maggiore and its campanile on the left, and Santa Maria della Salute on the right. It's a happy painting.

Below is a detail of La Salute and the Punta della Dogana, once the Customs house and now a modern art museum. The building is crowned by a statue of Fortune balancing on a golden ball.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Covered."

I've got this theme covered with a few shots from Venice, Italy. Venice is a city that's covered with art, not just in museums and churches but in outdoor public areas too.

First is a covered street (the Ruga degli Orèfici) in the Rialto Market area. The arcade above is covered with frescoes. During the day, all the shops along this street are open and there are tons of people. I took this photo late at night when it was very quiet and deserted.

There are sacred images all over Venice, embedded in the walls of buildings. Here are a couple of statues that are covered with little umbrella-type things to protect them. You can see the Roman numerals MDCXXXI on the building (year 1631).

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend.

I had no idea that the smallest cathedral in the U.S. is right here in North Carolina until the place made the news last week, and I realized that I'd taken some photos of it a couple of years ago when I was in downtown Raleigh.

The Sacred Heart Cathedral is a sweet little gothic church, built in 1922. North Carolina was the last state in the nation to get a Catholic diocese (in 1924) and that's when this church was declared a cathedral. From the article:

In the Roman Catholic world, a cathedral is the bishop's home church. It holds his throne and shepherd's staff. The word "cathedral" comes from the Latin for seat or chair. Cathedrals are typically the grandest of all the churches in the diocese.

The article explains that this cathedral only seats 320 worshippers and on Easter Sunday this year, there was an overflow crowd of several thousand people participating in Mass via closed circuit TV from a nearby hotel. Sounds like they do need a bigger place. I'd like to see the inside of this church with its ""floral-theme terazzo floor" and bright blue ceiling inlaid with 14-carat gold leaf stars.

Bears are not companions of men, but children of God, and His charity is broad enough for both.

and his life turns and ebbs with heart-pulsings like ours and was poured from the same fountain...

John Muir (1838-1914; naturalist, writer, and founder of the Sierra Club)

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Addiction." Gonna be very interesting to see what folks come up with for this one!

American Junk Food. It's addicting but I seldom eat it any more. French fries occasionally but not from a place like this~ (and I've never had a deep fried oreo!).

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend. I'll be late visiting my fellow PhotoHunters but will get there as soon as I can.

A few photos from the Earth Day parade at Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance in Silk Hope, NC. Kids of all ages were having a blast as the parade followed musicians around the Shakori farm. The puppets are from NC artists/activists Paperhand Puppet Intervention.

I had a busy but very fun Earth Day weekend. I went to Shakori on Saturday and then the Grand Re-Opening of the NC Museum of Art on Sunday. Will blog about our awesome new museum soon!

I know I'm not the only one who has been counting down the days until the new Donna Leon book was published. A Question of Belief is the 19th in the Commissario Guido Brunetti series set in Venice; I started reading it last night and can't wait to get home from work today so I can get back to it. There is nothing better than having a new book that you really want to read!

This year, another book was released on the same day as the latest novel, a cookbook written by Donna Leon's best friend and native Venetian, Roberta Pianaro.

It's a beautiful book with recipes that I'll actually make (not too complicated, in other words). Throughout the cookbook, there are excerpts from the mystery novels - passages that focus on Brunetti's love for food and family. Many of the recipes from the novels, like Paola's famous apple cake, are featured in the book.

Each section begins with a "culinary story" by Donna Leon. My favorite so far is the story of a day she spent picking plums and tomatoes on Sant' Erasmo, Venice's garden island.

This week's PhotoHunt theme is "Black."

Happy May Day!

Do you know who "The Man in Black" is? I bet Carver will be the first to know.

He's one of many musicians pictured on this Art Car~

You can find more Photo Hunters and join the hunt here.

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend.