inSPIREd Sunday

Sally and Beth host inSPIREd Sunday!

November 2007? Santa Fe NM

I'm afraid I didn't record the name of this church. I do think it is San Miguel.

InSPIREd Sunday

As some of you know I am a big fan of Da Vinci Code and Dan Brown, not so much for the story lines as the historic places his books highlight. He also introduced me to the Templar history with Da Vinci Code and I went on to read many books about their history.
Cities feature walking tours of the sights he has written about in Paris, London, Rome and Washington.


 I had been on a mission to get into the Templar church in London which is highlighted at the end of Da Vinci Code. In 2005 it was closed the day we arrived, in 2009 I didn't get time to go. so it was definitely on the list for next trip.

And success was had finally in May 2010. 

The Temple Church is hidden in plain sight as it lies ‘off street’ between Fleet Street and the River Thames, in an ‘oasis’ of ancient buildings, courtyards and gardens.

It is famous for its effigy tombs and for being a round church. It was heavily damaged during the Second World War but has been largely restored. The area around the Temple Church is known as the Temple and nearby is Temple Bar and Temple tube station.

The church's website provides an excellent history timeline.


 It wasn't opened when we arrived around 11:30 but the sign said it would open between 1 and 4 that day. So we had lunch and then had our visit.


There are eight hundred years of history: from the Crusaders in the 12th century, through the turmoil of the Reformation and the founding father of Anglican theology.


The Knights Templar order was very powerful in England, with the Master of the Temple sitting in parliament as primus baro (the firs tbaron of the realm). The compound was regularly used as a residence by kings and by legates of the Pope. The Temple also served as an early depository bank, sometimes in defiance of the Crown's wishes to seize the funds of nobles who had entrusted their wealth there. The independence and wealth of the order throughout Europe is considered by most historians to have been the primary cause of its eventual downfall.

In January 1215 William Marshall (who is buried in the nave next to his sons, under one of the 9 marble effigies of medieval knights there) served as a negotiator during a meeting in the Temple between King John and the barons, who demanded that John uphold the rights enshrined in the Coronation Charter of his predecessor Richard I. William swore on behalf of the king that the grievances of the barons would be addressed in the summer, leading to John's signing of Magna Carta in June.

There are grotesques on the walls of the round portion of Temple Church, overlooking the effigies. 

Sunday Skies

Taken last night through my kitchen window.

Sunday Skies - Costa Rica

Some beautiful sunset shots from from our deck at the Costa Verde resort in Costa Rica.

Sunday Skies - Death Valley CA

I did a previous Sunday skies about Death Valley.

The air force base is close by and the pilots were having fun. I think they were planning on drawing a heart.

Sunday Skies - Cathedral City CA

Downtown Cathedral City, California

 

Sunday Skies - New Mexico

Church in the Railyard District of Santa Fe

Sunday Skies - Pecos NM

PECOS is a gateway allowing travel from the Great Plains to Santa Fe through the southern Rocky Mountains.
The trail was used by Indian tribes, Spanish settlers, traders on the Santa Fe Trail, Civil War soldiers and cruisers on Route 66.

In the midst of piñon, juniper, and pine woodlands in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains 25 miles southeast of Santa Fe, the remains of an Indian pueblo stand as a meaningful reminder of the people who once prevailed in this area. Weathered adobe walls of a Spanish church share a ridge with the pueblo ruins, which extend for a quarter-mile along a ridge in a valley shared by the Glorieta Creek and the Pecos River. Long before Spaniards entered this country, this pueblo village was the juncture of trade between people of the Rio Grande Valley and hunting tribes of the buffalo plains. Its 2,000 inhabitants could marshal 500 fighting men; its frontier location brought both war and trade.

At trade fairs, Plains tribes—mostly nomadic Apaches—brought slaves, buffalo hides, flint, and shells to trade for pottery, crops, textiles, and turquoise with the river Pueblos. Pecos Indians were middlemen, traders and consumers of the goods and cultures of the very different peo­ple on either side of the mountains. They became economically powerful and practiced in the arts and customs of two worlds.

Sunday Skies - New Mexico

The Rio Grande (known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte, or simply Río Bravo) is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes.

Sunday Skies - Toronto

Taken last week in back garden while DH was BBQ.

Sunday Skies

Captured last weekend on the drive to Montreal. Seagulls don't appear to be running anywhere!

Sunday Skies - Rome

 Taken in Navona Piazza in Rome.