Blue Lotus: Munster

Hey Guyz....most of U know I have been raving & ranting 'bout this church.

This is how it looked just the morning before I left the city of Ulm. Pretty low temperatures marked my stay in the month of March. Quite unusual weather conditions for that time of the year.

Some Royal Insignia stands in front of the church, and a leafeless tree. I think itz made of lions. Lions - our National animal - (or is it Tiger ???), and I somehow thought Lions are found only in Asia, but was surprised to see them as mascots at quite a few places in Germany (Lake constance for example).

Yes, this Cathedral is called Munster. And is the tallest church in the world. An old church....work began in 1300's....stopped during the Renaisance era I think...people were opposing church ideas and perhaps didn't like the idea of pouring money into building one. And, so the construction was kind of halted.

This is how it looked. Note the change in appearence. The tall spears are missing. Snap taken from a museum in Ulm. After, few centuries, interest arose among the public for this huge church, they realised it was part of their culture etc, and work began again. At this point the design was changed, and they went onto build the tallest church in the world.

A huge courtyard in front of Munster. And itz almost like a town cross, people walk into & away from it ;-) And on saturdays & tuesdays, you have fairs - sale of food items, flowers etc etc. A lot of villagers get their produce. Yes, this guy was playing this long reed instrument one evening. Apparently, this place was a car-park for a long time!!! This snap is of a Museum exhibit. Even now, the presence of a newly build tourism building so close to the church seem to harm the aesthetics of the lovely church.

Rive Danube runs along, less than a km away from the church, and among many birds that live there, these swans took my breath away. The best part of these rivers/water bodies are the people who feed the birds. And, the birds seem to have got habituated to it. Infact, in Ulm you see a lot of birds as mascots all over.

This was taken just after a guy fed the birds, and hence the resulting flight.

Munster stands tall at 161 metres. And, you have stairs that take you right to the top. But in march, we weren't allowed to climb up fully, but stop mid-way. So one day Ganesh & I climbed up. A narrow spiral stairs take you up.

A view of the towers at the back. Notice the renovation work going on. And the roof of the church body.

Munster is huge, with centuries of work different styles of architecture are seen. Lots of sculptors.. of people....from epics...myths...animals like Elephants, Dragons, Lions, etc etc Itz wonderfully curious. The cow above made me smile. Again, this is so Indian for me ;-))

Just above the main entrance to the church you have this, seemed to be a depiction of heaven & hell ;-))

A good book on all these was unfortunately in German. This guyz almost pulling out his sword, with the moon around is one of my favourites.

With lot of snow in early March, these red fruits amongst the white snow was quite a contrast. Snap taken near Media-Mart.

Munster with its hugeness attracted me. You could see the church from afar, and somehow that seemed so assuring. So, we made it a point to walk thru it everytime we left our appartment. Wish I had used panaroma mode to get a good single shot, those were early days with my C760.

A close look at the very top of the cathedral. These spears seem to have a regularity in design. Click on the image for a better view. And, somehow the structure looks like a fractal to me. You can see the overall design in smaller spears too. Looking at pictures of various other churches in Germany I could see many of them with this kind of an architecture.

Tallest church in the world, built around 1860. Has surely survived the ravages of nature but that of Man ?

Yes, our church still stands tall!!! The World War's have spared it though not the neighbourhood. How come ?? I read/heard somewhere that due of the tall spears, resulting aero-dynamics around it, pushed the bombs away ?? what say ??

A snap with the moon as background excited me.....There was a planet also closeby .the white dot between the moon church in the snap below...may be Jupiter...not sure though...

These night snaps require long exposure, and hence have to be stablised on tripods. This snap was taken with the a tree trunk as support.

Sometime in mid-March, the climate changed for the better, these shoots capture it best. Okay, its time to get into the church. Again, centuries of effort so lotz of sculptors, carvings.... what not ;-))

The grey pipes are part of a musical instrument, and these are played daily, and the music sails across for quite a distance.

Lotz & lotz of glass paintaings - murals - mostly from the life of Jesus. Tall glass panes painted...and the sun from outside gets into the church breathing life into them.