Churches in Venice

A few "L" photos from my trip to New Orleans, Louisiana last fall.

St. Louis Cathedral~

An angel in Lafayette Cemetery No. 1~

Water lilies at the New Orleans Museum of Art~

New solar homes in the Lower 9th Ward, a neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Katrina. These affordable "green" homes are being built by the "Make It Right" foundation, founded by actor Brad Pitt.

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Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Spring!

A large yellow street shrine in Venice with a long and interesting history~

At one time, this shrine contained a miracle-working image of the Madonna del Parto (of birth). The plaque underneath the shine commemorates this image along with the date (July 1612) when the image was moved inside the nearby church of Santa Maria Formosa.

Next to the shrine there's a place for offerings to the Blessed Virgin del Parto.

I wish I knew more about this one, especially the miracle stories. There's a chapel in the church dedicated to the Madonna del Parto, but I don't think the painting in the chapel is the same as the one that's inside the shrine today. You can see the initials "MDP" in the ironwork. I bet that in 1612, this shrine wasn't painted yellow!

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

San Marco, to be more specific, the cathedral of Venice.

Below is an artist's reconstruction of what the church looked like after it was built (in approximately 1063 AD), before the Venetians covered it with marble, mosaics, and sculpture.

There's one section today where you can still see the underlying brick work.

But most of the church looks like this~

I didn't know that marble came in so many different colors~

Everytime I visit this church, I see something new. I never get tired of looking at all the beautiful details.

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...or "nicchia" in Italian. Some street shrines are tabernacles hanging on the wall but others, like these, are a niche inside the wall.

All of these Venetian shrines have the Virgin Mary inside but as you can see, she has many faces and styles.

As I said in my "G is for Graffiti" post, Venice has a graffiti problem. It's rare to see a street shrine defaced but the one below has some spray paint on Mary's face.

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Some one was having fun with doorbell graffiiti in Venice.

Thanks for visiting and have a good weekend.

See a list of upcoming Saturday Photo Hunting themes on Gattina's website here.

In 2009, I wrote about the little pink Oratory of the Annunciation (Oratorio dell’ Annunziata) in campo Sant' Angelo in Venice. At that time, I'd walked by this place many times but it was always closed. I found it open in 2010 and was able to go inside to see the interior. It's a sweet little place, and I'm happy to share some photos of it.

It has a wooden beamed ceiling and some stained glass windows. Over the altar is a painting of the Annunciation by Antonio Triva (1626-1699).

This statue of Sant' Antonio di Padova dates back to 1800.

The stained glass windows were casting some colorful reflections.

Not only was the place open, but they had a brochure from which I learned that the oratory has another name (Chiesa Sant'Angelo degli Zoppi). "Zoppi" means "lame" and at one time, this little church was connected to a confraternity in Venice that took care of invalids and disabled sailors, and also provided dowries for their daughters. It was founded in the 10th century and rebuilt in 1700.

Visit the home of ABC Wednesday to find more Round 10 participants!