Wednesday 12th May
Montpellier.
We walked all over the city taking in the Jewish quarter, the Artisans and Cordwainers, St Peter’s Cathedral which is very ancient, vast and refreshingly plain after the very ornate baroque ones we have seen for the past few months.
Montpellier Cathedral with very imposing stone columns at the front which have no purpose whatsoever!
The massive organ!
Very delicious local strawberries; we treated ourselves to the punnet that's missing!
Perhaps more exciting for us was finding the church of St Roch (A local boy) who also has a church dedicated to him in Venice (St Rocco – we know; we were there last week and knew nothing about him then) This one however has some of his relics. He came from a good family of Montpellier, but having trained as a doctor
The medical school on the site of the one St Rocco studied at in the 1400's. Background the entrance to the cathedral. The first school to take all religious faiths.
forsook all his wealth to become a monk. Whilst on a pilgrimage to Rome, he cured many people of the Plague before catching it himself. He took himself off to the woods to die, but every day a dog bought him some bread and he survived. Unfortunately shortly after recovering he was imprisoned and spent 6 years in jail before dying. At his final confession he told the priest who he was and subsequently was beatified and is now the patron saint of Lepers, and other sick people. His church is very small but is much visited by pilgrims on the Compostela route.
Montpelliers own arch de Triomphe
The aqueduct which brought water to the centre of the city.
Even more impressive is the house opposite the front of the church which has a fantastic mural painted on it. You have to look at it for some time to see which bits are real, and various animals and people really catch the eye- Great fun.
The front door of the trompe d'oeil - check out whats real and what isn't, below is the whole building opposite the church of St Rocco - see the reflection in the window.
We have no idea who these guys were and it didn't seem as though they did either.
Montpellier.
We walked all over the city taking in the Jewish quarter, the Artisans and Cordwainers, St Peter’s Cathedral which is very ancient, vast and refreshingly plain after the very ornate baroque ones we have seen for the past few months.
Montpellier Cathedral with very imposing stone columns at the front which have no purpose whatsoever!
The massive organ!
Very delicious local strawberries; we treated ourselves to the punnet that's missing!
Perhaps more exciting for us was finding the church of St Roch (A local boy) who also has a church dedicated to him in Venice (St Rocco – we know; we were there last week and knew nothing about him then) This one however has some of his relics. He came from a good family of Montpellier, but having trained as a doctor
The medical school on the site of the one St Rocco studied at in the 1400's. Background the entrance to the cathedral. The first school to take all religious faiths.
forsook all his wealth to become a monk. Whilst on a pilgrimage to Rome, he cured many people of the Plague before catching it himself. He took himself off to the woods to die, but every day a dog bought him some bread and he survived. Unfortunately shortly after recovering he was imprisoned and spent 6 years in jail before dying. At his final confession he told the priest who he was and subsequently was beatified and is now the patron saint of Lepers, and other sick people. His church is very small but is much visited by pilgrims on the Compostela route.
Montpelliers own arch de Triomphe
The aqueduct which brought water to the centre of the city.
Even more impressive is the house opposite the front of the church which has a fantastic mural painted on it. You have to look at it for some time to see which bits are real, and various animals and people really catch the eye- Great fun.
The front door of the trompe d'oeil - check out whats real and what isn't, below is the whole building opposite the church of St Rocco - see the reflection in the window.
We have no idea who these guys were and it didn't seem as though they did either.
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