Many of us, traveling in Europe, Asia, America, etc. love to look at ancient buildings, especially temples and cathedrals.
As a rule, they differ in a very diverse (sometimes - truly magnificent) decor. This, depending on the specific architectural style, can be floral ornaments, large bas-reliefs on religious subjects, gloomy bizarre gargoyles looking from above.
But sometimes, among these traditional habitual ornaments, there are elements (figurines, statues, etc.) that in no way fit into the style or the functional purpose of this particular building - such old “Easter eggs” that cause surprise and even amazement.
Yeah ... It seems that medieval architects also liked to joke. And here are vivid examples:
List
- 10. Stegosaurus (Ta Prohm temple, Cambodia)
- 9. Hands and feet under the column (Church of the Jacobins, Toulouse, France)
- 8. Head of the apprentice (Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Wroclaw, Poland)
- 7. Man Sucking A Toe (Former Rufford Abbey, England)
- 6. Two-headed little man above the window (St. Jacob's Church, Brno, Czech Republic)
- 5. Autofell person (old town hall building in Cologne, Germany)
- 4. Cosmonaut (New Cathedral, Salamanca, Spain)
- 3. Darth Vader (Washington Cathedral, USA)
- 2. Gremlins (Bethlehem Chapel, Nantes, France)
- 1. Alien (Paisley Abbey, Scotland)
10. Stegosaurus (Ta Prohm temple, Cambodia)
A lot of tourists vacationing in Thailand, were on excursions in neighboring Cambodia, including the famous temple complex of Angkor, hidden in the jungle.
So, one of the temples of Angkor, which is called Ta Prohm, has been standing on this site “only something” since the end of the XII century. And if you take a good look at his bas-reliefs, then on one of them you will find ... a real stegosaurus! (Yeah, even a child who is interested in dinosaurs recognizes this ancient dinosaur with bone plates on its back).
How did the ancient Khmers who built Angkor know what a creature that died out 65 million years ago looks like? This riddle is great ...
9. Hands and feet under the column (Church of the Jacobins, Toulouse, France)
At the beginning of the XIII century, Dominic Gusman (St. Dominic) founded the Jacobin (Dominican) monastery in Toulouse. Well, with him a little later a Gothic church of red brick was built.
In the XIV century. St. Thomas Aquinas was buried right in the center of this church. Not far from the precious crayfish with its remains there is a double column on a rectangular base, which, at first glance, is not noticeable.
And if you lower your gaze just to the level where the base ends and the column begins, then try not to flinch: on one side stone hands with bony fingers stick out from under the column, and on the other - chubby legs. Nobody remembers why they are here and what they mean (and some guides do not even have a clue about this strange “easter egg”).
8. John the Baptist, Wroclaw, Poland)
And in the Polish city of Wroclaw (which for quite some time was the residence of the Archbishop of Silesia) there is a whole island surrounded by the waters of Odra, completely built up with temples and former episcopal and monastery buildings (some of them are on the foundations of the 9th-10th centuries).
The largest of them is the Gothic Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, founded in the 13th century. And if you go around this cathedral on the right and look just above the window next to the side entrance, you can see the head with a medieval hairstyle, whose face expresses pain.
According to legend, once an apprentice of a local jeweler fell in love with his daughter and wanted to marry her. But the jeweler refused - they say you are too poor. Then the apprentice disappeared somewhere for several months and returned rich.
But someone told the jeweler that the guy got the money by robberies. Of course, the master drove him away. And then the vengeful apprentice set fire to the jeweler’s house at night, but he himself began to gloatly watch the fire through the window of the cathedral opposite. And suddenly the walls of the holy temple moved and immured the villain forever. And rightly so!
7. Man Sucking A Toe (Former Rufford Abbey, England)
In the 12th century, an abbey of Cistercian monks was founded 18 miles north of Nottingham. In the XVI century, when many English monasteries were dissolved, the abbey turned into a country house with a huge park (whose territory is about 150 acres).
Well, in the XX century, this park was open to the public and is now called Rufford Country Park.
So, if you carefully examine the remains of the former monastery building, then under a kind of “shelf” you will find a very strange “gargoyle” - a caricature man who put his big toe in his mouth. When he appeared here and why, you are also unlikely to be told.
6. Two-headed little man above the window (St. Jacob's Church, Brno, Czech Republic)
One of the oldest and most magnificent buildings in the old center of the capital of Moravia (the southern region of the Czech Republic) Brno is the Church of St. Jakub, whose height (to the very ends of the spiers) is 92 meters.
The first version of the temple (Romanesque) appeared here in the XIII century, and the one that can be seen now - the Gothic - was built in the XIV-XVI centuries.
And over one of the windows of the main tower (the construction of which, judging by the chronicles, was done by Italian Antonio Gabri), you can see, hmm ... a very frivolous two-headed and bare-assed figure. Why is she here? There are two legends about this.
First: at the same time as the Church of St. Jacob (and directly opposite it), another church was under construction. The architects of the two buildings, of course, competed among themselves, whose creation will be steeper, and who manages to make the main spire higher. Saint Jacob defeated. On this occasion, a cheeky figure was attached to it.
Second: in fact, exactly opposite this church window was the building of the city hall. And the bare-footed little man is a kind of “fi!” from the architect to the local authorities who paid him less than the previously agreed amount.
And only in the XX century. during the restoration of the building, it turned out that the little man was not alone there, but with a lady, and they ... That's where two heads come from!
5. Autofell person (old town hall building in Cologne, Germany)
The beautiful building of the Cologne Town Hall was erected from about 1330 to 1573, and therefore, several dozen architects and sculptors naturally took part in its construction.
According to the traditions of the Gothic style, the building was decorated with numerous sculptures of famous citizens, various saints, emperors, etc. Each of the figures stands on a pedestal, under which is depicted a human vice (that is, they seem to trample these defects with their feet).
And now, under the statue of the once almost omnipotent in this part of Germany, Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden is a man who ... Hmm ... Yes, you yourself see everything.
I wonder what vice this should symbolize? And who is the real author of this figure - the sculptor Rainer Walk (sculpting the archbishop Conrad himself) or a certain much later restorer?
4. Cosmonaut (New Cathedral, Salamanca, Spain)
Another amazing “easter egg” can be seen (if you have a camera with good magnification) on the building of the New Cathedral in Spanish Salamanca.
The old building of the cathedral, built at the very beginning of the XII century, significantly expanded in the XVI-XVIII centuries. Therefore, it is both Gothic and Baroque.
And then one day (or rather, in 1995), among his many reliefs and sculptures, tourists accidentally discovered ... an astronaut in a spacesuit and bots with embossed soles. But where did he come from on the wall of a medieval temple ?!
Everything turned out to be prosaic: in 1992 the cathedral was seriously restored and, apparently, one of the masters could not resist and, so to speak, left its “signature” for a long memory.
Of course, on the one hand, this is a clear distortion of the architectural monument and the introduction of alien content into it, and on the other ...
In fact, the tradition of leaving something personal at the object being restored was not born today. Ancient and medieval architects did the same thing all the time.
Oh yes! And another funny element on the same cathedral in Salamanca is a dragon with an “ice cream” in its paw.
3. Darth Vader (Washington Cathedral, USA)
But all the cases described above are simply “about nothing” compared to the Washington Cathedral. That's where the real collection of “alien” images is! This temple is a storehouse of “Easter eggs” (you just need to go around it all around the perimeter).
It was built from 1907 to 1990, and during this time dozens of sculptors put their skillful hands to create about 400 gargoyles and other figures decorating the building.
And among them you can find a cobra, and a large dragonfly, and a grinning skull (gawking huge eyes), and a raccoon, and even a person in a helmet and gas mask (and much more).
But the most, perhaps, the strangest “gargoyle” in this cathedral is ta-dam! - The head of Darth Vader from Star Wars. They did not expect? And here you are!
2. Gremlins (Bethlehem Chapel, Nantes, France)
And another example of a too “modernized" restoration. In the community of Saint-Jean-de-Boisot in France (near Nantes), the once beautiful architectural pearl of the late Middle Ages - the Bethlehem chapel - was gradually destroyed.
At the beginning of the 20th century, it was recognized as a historical monument, but no one could remember how the gargoyles and chimeras that adorned it originally looked, and whom they depicted, they were so spoiled by time.
And so, when in the 1990s they finally decided to restore the chapel, this business was entrusted to the architect Gwenol Cognard and the sculptor Jean-Louis Boisel. Boiselle had to make 28 gargoyles, and he approached the matter creatively.
As a result, in addition to traditional characters (angels, lions, eagles, Templars, etc.), on the walls of the chapel suddenly appeared an evil gremlin, a good Gremlin Gizmo, and even Leviathan in the form of a xenomorph from “Aliens”. But the local youth like it.
1. Alien (Paisley Abbey, Scotland)
By the way, Alien, as it turned out, is a very popular image among modern restorers.
Another xenomorph was discovered in 1997 on the wall of Paisley Abbey in Scotland. Moreover, this abbey has a very ancient and glorious history: the founder of the Scottish-English Stuart dynasty Robert II was born here, the future knight for freedom of the country knight William Wallace spent his childhood (Yes, yes, “Braveheart”!), Many are buried here Stuarts.
So where did the “unkillable” acid monster come from then at such a significant monument (XII-XIII centuries)?
All from the same place - in the 1990s they removed from the walls of the abbey for the restoration of all gargoyles. Some of them, as it turned out, could not be restored. And then one of the sculptors created the gargoyle "to your liking." Tourists are thrilled!
Oh yeah! These, of course, are far from all the “surprises” that can be found by looking at seemingly familiar historical buildings for a long time.
In fact, there are dozens of such “Easter eggs” in Europe alone - many dozens (and maybe hundreds). So when traveling, do not forget to notice the details. Sometimes they are really killer!