A Historian's Delight
Today Jessica, Lawren, Beth and I spent the day in the historic city of Utrecht, Netherlands.
Founded by the Romans in 46 A.D. and developed in the 12th century, Utrecht is famous for being a religious center of Europe. It's most famous church is the "Domkerk," accompanied by the gothic Dom Tower, the highest and oldest church tower in the Netherlands. Pictures don't do justice, but they help.
We walked around the entire city center, canals and churches being the most common sight. We spent most of our time inside the astonishingly ornate churches, trying hard not to identify ourselves as Protestants. The most popular church, the Domkerk, was by far the most interesting. This enormous church was littered with faceless sculptures, statues, and paintings. I thought this to be rather interesting. Why were the faces broken off on all the sculptures and scratched out on all the paintings? After reading a few description tags, I soon discovered that they were all broken off by the Protestants. Fed up with the Catholics' iconoclastic obsessions, the Protestants took over in 1580 and de-faced all the beloved saints.
After we had seen enough churches, we followed the canals through busy city streets. Despite the city's age, it has become quite the bustling "University" city. Shops and markets litter the narrow main streets, while a delicate mix of whorehouses, bars, and "coffeshops" make up the side streets. We actually went in very few stores - both because they sell nothing but junk and because they can't hold more than three people at a time.
Overall it was a very enjoyable day, especially given the relative inexpensiveness of the trip. 35 euros for a good history lesson and some impressive sight-seeing isn't bad, I think.
Founded by the Romans in 46 A.D. and developed in the 12th century, Utrecht is famous for being a religious center of Europe. It's most famous church is the "Domkerk," accompanied by the gothic Dom Tower, the highest and oldest church tower in the Netherlands. Pictures don't do justice, but they help.
We walked around the entire city center, canals and churches being the most common sight. We spent most of our time inside the astonishingly ornate churches, trying hard not to identify ourselves as Protestants. The most popular church, the Domkerk, was by far the most interesting. This enormous church was littered with faceless sculptures, statues, and paintings. I thought this to be rather interesting. Why were the faces broken off on all the sculptures and scratched out on all the paintings? After reading a few description tags, I soon discovered that they were all broken off by the Protestants. Fed up with the Catholics' iconoclastic obsessions, the Protestants took over in 1580 and de-faced all the beloved saints.
After we had seen enough churches, we followed the canals through busy city streets. Despite the city's age, it has become quite the bustling "University" city. Shops and markets litter the narrow main streets, while a delicate mix of whorehouses, bars, and "coffeshops" make up the side streets. We actually went in very few stores - both because they sell nothing but junk and because they can't hold more than three people at a time.
Overall it was a very enjoyable day, especially given the relative inexpensiveness of the trip. 35 euros for a good history lesson and some impressive sight-seeing isn't bad, I think.
posted by Aaron at 3:57 PM
2 Comments:
Lawren and Beth... sitting in a tree... K-I-S-S-I-N-G!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!
Ahhh junk. Sorry to say, this "Beth" is taken (by Jeff Gutierrez?)
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