San Pedro de Andahuaylillas, Peru

 

Welcome in 2025 to one of my most exciting posts ever -  about the "Sistine Chapel  of the Americas" 

 I know I am never going to get there in person, but through an  amazing Website, using the most advanced 360 degree  technology, I really feel I know the place. It is very special. Here is the link - scroll down to the 360 degree pictures.

Andahuaylillas is about 30 miles from Cuzco. A small chapel was begun in 1570 on the site of the present apse and sanctuary  on the ruins of an Inca shrine. A nave and facade were added and completed in 1606. The walls are adobe with a pitched roof of cane and timber. There is a separate stone bell tower. The portal is brick with the four Church Fathers in painted niches. 

You can take a tour of the situation, exterior and interior with the little six minute video below.

The barn-like nave has a sloping roof plastered and painted over and with long supporting wooden beams. The walls  have large paintings on canvas in fancy gilded frames. The effect is overpowering. The lower part of the wallsand the choir loft are painted with elaborate designs in tempera (pigments mixed with a water soluble type of binder such as egg yolk).

Ceiling over the sanctuary

The sanctuary is on a slightly raised floor with a grand arch decaorated in 1631 and magnificent Mudejar style  polychrome ceiling. It uses kur-kur a pre-Hispanic method of construction combining cane, straw and mud instead of wood.

The interior murals were mainly by Luis de Riano, a student of Angelino Medoro. They were painted in the 1620s. The programme for the painted murals was by Father Juan Perez de Bocanegra, well known as the great linguist who published a Quechua dictionary. It is interesting to discover that he made some changes to traditional Christian themes for the sake of accomodating Andean cosmological ideas for local audiences. Specifically, the Annunciation in the choir shows the Virgin being impregnated by the rising sun rather than a hovering dove. Other Andean cosmological signs such as the Pleiades (star cluster) and other symbols are also included.

 Over the years there has been considerable damage from earthquakes, insect infestation and general derioration of the fabric. In 2008 it was included in the World Monuments Watch which has led to significant injections of funding to restore the main facade, choir, chapels, ceilings, altar, paintings on canvas and statuary.A 4 year plan with significant assistance by local youth, was completed in 2012,and has transformed the building.

Of great interest to me are the  organs at the front end of  a protruding arms of the U shaped  choir loft. They date from the first half of the 17th century and have painted canvas doors like a Gothic organ with folding wings like a triptych. The painted doors have angels playing amazing stringed instruments and drums  including guitar, bass viol and harp. 

The choir loft even opens out to a gallery outside.

There are murals on all the interior walls and ceiling. Contemporary anthems have been discovered  concerning the Incarnation. Juan Perez was also a good poet and wrote verses to Our Lady. Imagine doing a choir tour and singing here! Too late I hear myself saying!

Hear the rafters raised as  a local Children's choir and band process in with the famous  Hanaq Pacha Kusikuynin arranged by Juan Perez Bocanegra in the early 17th century in the video below.  Terrific!

For an excellent discussion about the chapel watch the little video below by the World Monuments Fund .

Francis Chapelet improvises on the organ in the video below.video 

Interior view looking back to the entrance and choir loft.

Vierzehnheiligen

 

SA 4.0 MichaelKR

I approach this post with caution : nothing I write can prepare you for the joyous sight of  this masterpiece. By tradition in 1445 the baby Jesus appeared to the shepherd of Langheim monastery. With Him were 14 children, seven in  red, seven  in white calling themselves the Fourteen Helpers. They insisted that a chapel be built there and then disappeared. Apparently a few days later a sick girl was healed at the site. It became a pilgrimage site. The Cistercian Abbey of  Langheim  succombed to the pressure and built a chapel to the Fourteen Helpers in Need. The chapel was destroyed in the Peasants' War in 1525. It was replaced but again destroyed in the thirty Years War (1618-48).

The Prince Bishops of Bamberg financed the rebuilding and the Abbots of Langheim Stephan Mosinger (1734-51) and Malachias Limmer (1751-1774) commissioned it. In 1735 the Abbot received permission from Prince Bishop Friedfrich Karl von Schonborn to make a start. His choice fell on Gottfried Heinrich Kroner from Weimar. The prince Bishop vetoed it.  Instead in 1742 Balthasar Neumann was appointed to make a building plan and the foundation stone was laid in 1743.During the building Krohner was in charge and the plans formerly agreed were not followed. The result was that the pilgrimage altar, if it was to be the exact apparition site, would be in the nave, rather than the crossing under a dome. 

View of the vaults in the nave looking over the shrine altar to the entrance  CC BY-SA 3.0 Erwin Meier

Prolonged discussion and disagreement followed until Neumann came up with a plan based on the existing structure with a worthy pilgrimage altar site still sited  in the nave. This is the solution we see today. Basically he redesigned the vaulting so the shrine became the central focus and the crossing of little importance .The plan on the ground therefore differs significantly from the vaulting plan. It is a complex and brilliant solution. At ground level there are three longitudinal ovals  making up the nave and choir with two smaller circles making up the transepts. There are two transverse ovals superimposed on top of these to form the crossing and the entrance bay and central part of the nave. As for  the vaults,: they seem to be quite independent of the ground plan. The side walls of the nave are straight, yet on entry all is curvy and the walls seem to melt away as the light floods in. Jacob Michael Kuchel was Neumann's assistant and he was responsible for putting into practice the ideas of his master during his lifetime and after his death in 1753. 

View from the east    CC BY-SA4.0 Ermel

n the Secularisation in 1803 the Cistercians were thrown out of Langheim and our church was robbed of some of its treasures - altarpieces, part of the organ, bells. Pilgrimages were forbidden. In 1835 lighning caused a  fire damaging the roof, the organ and the two towers. In 1839 King Ludwig I put the Franciscans in charge and repair work followed. In 1897 it became a minor Basilica by order of Pope Leo X111. At first the restoration work did not follow Neumann's original intentions and only later in the 20th century have we our Rococo masterpiece back again. Restoration has continued into the 21st century as can be seen from the photo of the shrine altar in 2009 compared to how it is today.

View of the shrine altar in 2009

View down to the  shrine altar  and toward the high altar CC BY-SA 4.0 Ermel

The shrine, (Nothelteraltar), the high altar and the pulpit were all designed by Kuchel. The most important, the shrine, is like a combination of state coach and baldacchino crowned with a sunburst includings four figures of the Christ child and four saints on the corners.t is a unique creation. The superb statues and plasterwork are by Johann Michael and Franz Xavier Feuchtmayer and Johann Georg Ubelherr.  Frankly it is impossible to describe this remarkable object - lets just say it is a marvel of German rococo and kneel before it, as I did in 1990.   

The stucco work by Franz Xavier Feuchtmayer, Johann Michael Feuchtmayer the Younger, and Johann eorg Ublhoiir and paintings by Giuseppe Appiani embellish this interior.

CC BY-SA 4.0 Ermel Rieger organ

There have been organs here since the 18th century. Originally one was in the gallery above the sacristy and the other in the west gallery. In 1999 Rieger created a new organ with 68 stops and there is a mobile 2 manual organ by Eisenbarth in the south transept.

                                           Finally you can hear the organ speak : Lobe den Herren!

Salzburg Cathedral

General view of the Cathedral  CC BY-SA 2.0 Mattana

The  Prince Archbishopric of Salzburg will equal  Colloredo and his treatment of Mozart to most people. Colloredo was the last in a long line of Prince-Archbishops from 798-1803. The first Cathedral had been built in 774. Archbishops Wolf Dietrich, Markus Sittikus and Paris Lodron created the Baroque city we know today.

Aerial view over this Baroque city with Cathedral  in foreground CC BY-SA 4.0 Bede735

 In 1598 the old Cathedral burnt down. Wolf Dietrich tries to patch up what is left of the cathedral quarter but after further structural collapses realises a new building will have to be built. In 1606 an order to demolish what is left of the medieval cathedral and conversiin of the Franciscan church as a temporary cathedral leads to  the new south-facing building started in 1611. Wolf Dietrich has to flee the city because of a Bavarian invasion. He is taken prisoner and resigns in 1612. His successor Markus Sittikus continues the construction but to a new plan, destroying Wolf Dietrtich's foundations and goes for an east facing three aisled basilica with four nave bays. It is designed by Santino Solari. Transept wings and choir are gathered around a domed crossing like a clover leaf. Progress is swift from 1614-1619 and when Markus died in 1619 the choir and transepts were roofed. Only the dome and nave roof were to be done. His successor Paris Lodron keeps Salzburg out of the Thirty Years War, and continues the building work with Solari in charge. All roofs are covered by 1622 and  vaults finished 1623.

High altar
CC-BY-SA 4.0 Diego Delso

 Solari brings in Italian plasterers and they work until 1628, Fra Arsenio Mascagni,a Servite priest from Florence, is employed to do ceiling frescos and altar pieces. He creates 86 partly monochrome frescos in the vaults of the central nave, choir, transepts and dome. Marble main altars are designed by Solari and given altarpieces by his son  Ignazio and Fra Arsenio. 

The great facade   CC-BY 2.0 Mattana

Central dome     CC-BY-SA 4.0 Diego Delso

The new Cathedral is inaugurated 25 September 1628 in massive celebrations lasting 8 days. The towers are unfinished and the side aisle altars lacking. Plasterers were still working on the interior until 1635. Final works likely done in 1652.

On my first visit in August 1967 I wrote "I went into the Cathedral and greatly admired its cleanliness and beautiful dome. Also of note were the vaults which were again absolutely spotless". I think I was surprised by the bareness and almost new feel of the building.(the dome had been bombed in 1944 and restoration onoy by 1959). I had not seen anything like it before. My next visit was on my birthday 15 July 1970.

So what do I think it is like after several more visits?

1.   Try  this amazing video below I have found with music  by Vladimir Sterzer  I am carried away,,,,,,,

2. This is how it is  when you walk in                     CC-BY-SA 4.0 Diego Delso

3.   This 369 degree film is fun. Try it!

                                             Fantastic improvising on the great organ Love it!

In conclusion : this was the first Italianate Baroque church built north of the Alps : it's proportions both inside and out are majestic. I once drove several hundred miles to hear the great organ for Sunday Mass and entering was like a homecoming. I now understand this building. It seemed new because of the major restoration after the War. It has so much to offer. I hope I shall return again.

                                                       

San Carlo (San Carlino) alle Quatro Fontane, Rome

 I hesitate before writing about this great building : it is in all the architecture books, revered and much visited - Borromini's masterpiece. The first time I was in Rome in the 1970s, completely ignorant about it, we were staying nearby and on the first night walked by, noticing crowds of tourists emerging from it. We popped in, but like many of them I suspect, had no idea about its importance. Such a building was not in my radar at that time. This Easter 2024 it was very much on our flightpath and we spent good time inside marvelling at the c0omplexity of the design. It is indeed small, and built on a cramped and difficult site. 

It was Borromini's first independent commission - a church and monastery. His design included a small and ingenious cloister and a revolutionary oval church which is difficult both ro describe and photograph easily. The church was finished by 1641 except for the facade (1667}. In the church Borromini used an undulating wavy lower zone, with a zone above   based on a Greek cross, and an oval dome above. In the past the dome would have rested on a plan of the sme shape. Here this was not so. Herein lies the complexity of the interior. The effect is to make the viewer's eyes wander around endlessly. I find this interior  almost impossible to describe. I think it is probably the prime example of what I can feel in a great Baroque building - restless excitement.  I can only recommend everyone to experience this great place for themselves.

Church interior

Looking up to the dome in the church

There is a crypt under the church

Interior passage

The cloister

San Agnese, Rome

After his election in 1641 Pope Innocent X had ambitions to make Piazza Navona the grandest of all in Rome. His family's (Pamphili) palace was situated there.....It was to be dominated by a new Church dedicated to St Agnese and Innocent wanted  to be buried there .The Piazza was the site of the Circus of Domitian and traditionally where St. Agnes had been martyred. There had been a church there dedicated to her since the 8th century. It had been aligned in the opposite direction and since 1581 possessed by the Congregazione dei Chierici Regolari Minore. It was now considered inadequate for their needs. Carlo Rainaldi, and his father Girolamo, were employed and the foundation stone laid in 1652. The site was constricted and due to its shallowness a Greek cross design was adopted. Work progressed quickly but the Rainaldis soon came under fire and they were dismissed. For example the planned big flight of steps into the Piazza was going to take up too much space there. 

 Chosen by the Pope  Borromini took over in  August 1653. He was stuck with the basic shape because part of the facade and the  pillars for the crossing were well advanced. First he pulled down the central part of Rainaldi's facade and abandoned the planned vestibule and huge flight of steps. This allowed the central section to be joined up with the end bays with concave units. The end bays with their cupolas were retained with some revisions. 

Night shot toward St Agnes. Creative Commons Michael Foley 

In the interior he transformed the building and his alterations emphasised the octagonal nature of the central area and the feeling of height. The site is shallow so the transverse axis is 10% longer than the longitudinal axis. The feeling of height is because the the height is 25% greater than the longitudinal. The coloured marble columns leading to the tall arches, highly coloured pendatives and cupoila all give an upward thrust. The red and white marble illuminated by light from the dome dominate the central space. John Varriano in Italian Baroque and Rococo Architecture (Oxford, 1986) sees this as part of the Counter Reformation  trend of salvation coming from above : therefore priest and people are looking upward. 

Interior looking toward high altar Creative Commons NikonZ711

Near the end of 1653 the Pamphili bought the adjoining Palazzo Ornano and after it had been demolished Borromini was able to use the space for a sacristy and courtyard. It also enabled him to extend the facade. By 1655 when Innocent died the building was nowhere near finished. The Pamphili family continued with the work but relations with Borromini declined and he withdrew. Carlo Rainaldi returned in 1657 and with some help from others, completed in 1657. Of course he made some changes from Borromini's intentions including a high attic storey to the facade and changed the nature of the pediment.

Work progressed internally into the next century, particularly with the large marble relief altar pieces. Domenico Guidi only completed the Holy Family relief for the high altar in 1724. We now have a museum of Roman sculpture and perhaps the finest Baroque church decoration in Rome.

View into frescoed cupola and pendentives; apse on left, entrance with organ and tomb of Pope Innocent X on right

Many different artists had worked on the planning, building and decoration of this church. There is a similarity in its complex development with that of St Peter's. It is almost a kind of replay  and we have been shown a new way of solving the relationship of facade and dome- a better way. Here the great high dome set on its elegant drum crowns the exterior  reminding us of Borromini's greatness and graces Rome's finest square.

Rohr Abbey

 

Assumption of Our Lady   Egid Quirin Asam, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

A monastery at Rohr populated by Augustinian canons was founded in 1133 and by 1450 five pariashe5s were incorporated into it. After a trying time in the first half of the 16th century, the foundation picked up and the church got a Baroque makeover in 1618. Alas the Thirty Years War led to complete destruction by the Swedes in 1632 - including a  magnificent library. In 1648 the Imperial troops burned it again. The 24 inmates were now down to 6. The monastic income fell due to population  loss and only in 1661 could there be rebuilding.

Rohr in 1687

Patritiuis von Heydon was Provost 1682-1730 and he began building work with a higher church tower in 1696, a new mill in 1701 and new collegiate church in 1717. In his heyday there were 23 canons and 48 employees. The church was initially to be designed by Joseph Bader a master mason and plasterer from Wessobrunn. As construction got under way it is clear that Egid Quirin Asam is involved in the design but it is impossible to tell how far. He was the interior designer too. He completed the high altar after the inauguration of the church in 1722 and the sculptured figures 1723. The church was largely finished in 1725 and there were no 19th century updates.

The high altar 1722-3 is Egid Assam's masterpiece. This Theatrum sacrum demonstrates the knowledge he gained from the work of Bernini and Andrea Pozzo in Rome. Rather than try to describe this trully amazing sculptural masterpiece Take a look at the photo. It is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.The stucco work is very rich in the transepts, crossing and choir. 

Building work continued under a number of Provosts throughout the rest of the 18th century. Secularisation and closure came in 1803. The church became the parish church of the town of Rohr. Most convent buildings are sold and demolished. Only the east wing housing the rectory and school survive. 

The model for the church can be traced back to San Andrea della Valle in Rome, without the dome. Instead the crossing has what is called a Bohemian cap.

After the Second World War 29 monks from Broumov Monastery in what is now eastern Czech Republic came to Rohr after their own monastery had been expropriated. They opened a High School and founded a new community : Braunau Abbey in Rohr. The land taken up by demolished monastic buildings is repurchased. Apparently the number of monks there is declining. I can remember being served by one in the bookshop back in  1989.   

St Nicholas, Prague

 

After the Thirty Years War the Jesuits were given space in the Mala Strana and they started their convent building there in 1665 and in 1673 the foundations of a  church. Work stopped for unknown reasons and by 1703 was proceeding again to a plan, almost certainly by Krystof Dientdenhofer. By 1711 the nave had vaults and then work stopped again. 

The nave  CC By-SA 3.0 Jorge Royan

The nave is 85 feet long and 45 broad divided into three bays flanked by deep recessed chapels.The basic Vorarlberg wall pillar design is there. But there is a crucial difference :the pillars are given a sloping edge at 45 degrees and the pilasters aligned at this angle on the faces so formed. Also the pilasters are doubled and superimposed. The pillars therefore become sculptural and above the gallery swings from pier to pier, These effects are continued across the organ gallery to form a continuous curvy movement around the interior of the nave. There is controversy over the influence of Guarini and in particular engravings of his Church of Divine providence in Lisbon are cited. We cannot check out the latter because it was destroyed in the 1755 earthquake. The nave vault at St Nicholas has ribs in three dimensions and instead these may be derived from the late Gothic of churches like St Barbara at Kutna Hora.

There is a dynamism in the facade : the three bays go concave convex concave but on the ground level the larger central section is cut away to frame pairs of columns and on the upper storeys is pushed back. Maybe it is derived from Borromini's San Carlo alle Quatro Fontane in Rome.

Plan by Planetware

Christoph died in 1722 before his designs for the choir and tower could be done. His son Kilian had to do it 1737-53. He decided to use all the available space at the choir end and his solution is much grander than the originals by his father. The sacristy behind the high altar was abandoned and an oval one put on the left side of the hih altar and the right hand side is used the base of the huge tower. The central  area under the dome  has three apse like arms coming from it. The piers supporting the dome have coupled columns protruding into the space crowned with sculptures. With the great structure of the high altar these columns, pilasters, sculptures they almost make the wall surface disappear. It is an overwhelming effect and leads the eye upward to seek rest in the dome. Above the entablature below the drum windows are separated by slender columns and figures. 

Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 Ludek

The final great change involved the frescos by Johann Lukas Kracker. His great fresco in the nave is one of the finest Baroque ceilings north of the Alps. Christoph's ribbed vaults were plastered over to create a smooth undulating surface. Across a blue sky St Nicholas is carried up to Heaven by the angels. 

Apotheosis of St Nicholas  CC

This was the most ambitious Jesuit Church in Central Europe. Kilian had taken his father's achievement even further. "But his true monument is the setting...of the dome and the tower, completed last of all. From every angle they seem inevitable, indispensable; yet this is the last great accent the left bank town received, By itself the fat pilastered mass of the dome would float unanchored in that buffeting sea of tiles; by itself the tower with its fanciful Chinese-looking cap would seem merely to strive for notice with the rest. Together they make the pivot upon which silently the city turns." Brian Knox "The architecture of Prague and Bohemia. (Faber, 1962.)