I've actually been revising for my exams (and papers) next week, but have taken some good study breaks as well... sometimes an all-day study break can be acceptable, especially when it brings you to a beautiful tourist attraction.
On Tuesday, after an hour-long fight with packages at the post office---I swear I am never shipping anything from Britain ever again! Royal Mail is a horrible service---Sarah and I caught a bus out of Edinburgh. Other than a field trip for Archaeology, and a single afternoon excursion to the airport, I hadn't actually left Edinburgh since we arrived in the beginning of September.
The 30- or 40-minute ride brought us to the little town of Roslin Village, home of... Rosslyn Chapel. Actually it was confusing, sometimes it was spelled Roslin, sometimes Rosslyn. I prefer the latter spelling, is that where the name for the Arlington area comes from? Never put that together.
The chapel was constructed like a small cathedral, in the 15th century---patterned after cathedrals from the 12th apparently, although my knowledge of architecture is not that great. Most of the outside of the chapel was covered in scaffolding, so my pictures of this were not very good. Inside, however, the carvings were incredibly intricate. Everything was carved in detail, except perhaps the pews and the altar, but the walls, the columns, the ceiling, the supports, everything else was carved, and each section had its own theme.
So the ceiling was divided into five sections: daisies, lillies, roses, "simple flowers", and stars. One support had the Seven Deadly Sins on one side and the Seven Heavenly Virtues on the other, only Greed and Charity were swapped. Another support read, in Latin, "Wine is strong, the King is stronger, women are strongest, but truth conquers all." from the Solomon? story. There were many images pertaining to the Knights Templar, the St Clair family who owned/commissioned the chapel, the pagan image of the Green Man, patterns probably in code (or so they say), angels, devils, it was incredible. The crypt below was sufficiently creepy, although it looked like no one was buried there... I think it was used as a sacristy.
The trip out and back took all afternoon/evening, partly because the buses only run once an hour. There was nothing to do in Roslin Village at 5 PM, either, except wait at the busstop in the dark. Most of it was residential, there was a corner store or two scattered on the main street, and the two town pubs/restaurants were unsurprisingly located directly next to the Rosslyn Chapel. Walking through the town I felt like I was in a 70's British sitcom.
It's hard to tell with things like that... were there actually codes? With all the other symbols thrown in, it would be difficult to believe that something would be included without reason, but who can tell. Codes or no, it doesn't matter. It was really beautiful.
Actually it was a pretty warm day on Tuesday, about 12 C or so (50? 55? F). But as soon as we stepped into the chapel, we froze. We could see our breath! Amazing what thick stone walls can do.
Pictures will follow shortly.
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2 comments:
I believe this one of the chapels in "The da Vinci Code" . . .toward the end of the book.
I haven't actually read the book, but apparently it increased the number of visitors to Rosslyn Chapel by a huge amount... understandable.
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