Baroque Churches is 100 posts old now!

 

Interior of Birnau Abbey

This blog has been a celebration of Baroque Church architecture for 6 years! I have featured 100  churches from 18 countries. The seed was first planted when I entered Birnau Church, on the side of Lake Constance in Germany back in the summer of 1969. It was a revelation and I have gone on to visit many more in Germany and via this blog all over the world. 

This is more than a personal holiday journal. Each post is given labels - place, country, artists, architects. The web version has these in A-Z order in a column on the right.  You can search   under any of  these e.g. you can retrieve all the English Baroque Churches .On your mobile you will need to get to the web version. To do this,  scroll down as far as possible and choose the web version.  

 Half of those covered  are from Germany and I make no apology for this. Over the past 6 years I have found out for myself that Baroque was a worldwide style : some say the first.   However,  I admit that I have neglected the origins of Baroque in Italy. Indeed it is only recently that I have begun to fully appreciate Roman Baroque. The Eternal City has Monuments  from so many eras that I have yet to explore it  from a Baroque viewpoint - yet it is a Baroque City. Another target for next year!

There is much to discover too  in  Eastern Europe. Poland and the Czech Republic are in my sights for next year, both to visit and write about : in particular the work of the Dientzenhofers and Giovanni Santini.

Mexico and South America have become an obsession, but I am not expecting to visit at my age. Sacheverell Sitwell's descriptions of Peru and Bolivia have convinced me of that and staying alive in Mexico, let alone finding a suitable tour rule that out too.

There have been many times when I have  nearly given up this blog. No one seemed to read it. The usage figures from Blogger have not been encouraging. I have sought advice from several friends.I am still trying to find the silver bullet... It is not a trendy topic right now and the English are not usually  very keen on Baroque,-too fussy, too showy and its Roman Catholic....

Thus it has become a labour of love and I look forward to sharing the next hundred posts!

Ottobeuren Abbey one of the very greatest.

                                             Zwiefalten : a little movie.