A Yankee's Corkboard: Castles and Cannons and Crypts, oh my! (part 1)

St. Finbarr's Cathedral--Entrance: Front (Western) Gate

So my awesome geography class, People, Place and Politics: Ireland 1660-1960 went on a field trip this Wednesday. As I sat in a pew in St. Finbarr's Cathedral, I realized that my camera had no memory card in it--needless to say I was not amused. Seeing how I was in a church I refrained from speaking the choice words that had come to mind right then...

So the next day, after class, I called up my awesome friend Ciara to go on an adventure with me.
The following is our stop at St. Finnbarr's.
Other photos and the rest of the days adventures will be posted later...
Enjoy!

Pulpit: completed 1874, painted 1935. Shows 4 evangelists with their symbols, together with St. Paul sitting on an upturned 'pagan' alter

Dragon symbolizes evil taking flight at the soundof the word of God being preached.

Freemasons played a large role in the lying of the foundation stone in 1865. Near the pulpit is this plaque dedicated to the only Lady Freemason in Ireland: Elizabeth Aldworth--initiated in 1712. The Freemasons of Cork presented the four HUGE symbols of the Evangelists on the West front of the cathedral and also sponsored the stained glass of the south rose window (which contains masonic symbols)

View down the nave to the high alter: when taking communion, if you were to look past the alter to the arched window directly behind you would see the scene of Jesus being taken down from the cross--a sad scene...

...if you look up further you see the next window (brightly lit here) of Jesus ascending into heven--a bit happier...

If you were to look up a yet further still you would see on the vaulted ceiling Christ fully ascended into Heaven as God. He is surrounded by a choir of angels (outlined in blue). Cross beams--to support the ceiling--obstruct his face, but this was planned! It was to remind us that we are mere mortals and cannot fully understand the glory of God. Also, this scene looks directly to the back of the church at the "creation window" behind the organ. God looking back on his creation!

This window tells the story of Genesis: it looks like a clock--if you start at 1:00 and move clockwise you would see 1) "let there be light" 2) separation of water. 3) creation of plants and flora. 4) separation of day and night. 5) creation of fauna. 6) creation of man. 7) creation of woman. 8) man naming animals. CENTER: God resting on the 7th day. He sits on an upside-down rainbow. just to prove that it's His creation, if He wants the rainbow to be upside-down then so it is!

The Lectern: originally designed by William Burges (architect of St. Finbarr's) for Lille Cathedral. lectern was presented by the women of Cork. It is decorated with the heads of Moses and David. It is made of solid brass and weighs 900 pounds!

Heroes Column: Names of over 400 Dioceses who died during WWI...leading toward the Dean's Chapel and the memorial book.
It was beautiful the way the light streaming through the stained glass windows played on the marble.

Processional Cross

The Dean's Chapel

Visitors are welcome to light a candle and pray. It is very nice :)

special carved case for the memorial book: see years 1911 and 1918 on it?

memorial book

Intended by Burges to be a tribute to his father. William died first however, so it became his own memorial. It show three scenes: seven candlesticks, emblems of the evangelists, and Our Lord enthroned.

high alter

The mosaic floor was made in Paris (craftsmen came from Undine in NE Italy) using marble from the Pyrenees. In front of the alter = theme from St. Matthew "the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind." the mosaics show all sorts of folk in the net which has weights and cork floats!

Bishop's Throne: made of Oak, 14 metres (46 feet) tall--shows 20 important bishops of Cork at base. At top = painted statue of St. Finbarr + angels holding the episcopal coat of arms.

74 windows tell about 150 different scenes = in the nave they tell the story of the Bible/Old Testiment.

24 pound shot found in the steeple of the old cathedral when it was demolished in 1864. The ball was fired from Elizabeth Fort (pictures of those posted tomorrow hopefully) during the siege of Cork in 1690.

There are 1,260 sculptures throughout the cathedral!

The Gargoyles, besides acting as rain gutters/water spouts, also work to scare away evil spirits.

There were graves everywhere--though only those few families who have special burial rights may be interred here now. At one point what I mistook for a sidewalk was actually more grave-markers!

see the gold angel on top? (right hand side)

There are superstitions surrounding this angel if something were to happen to it--sometimes the superstitions are apocalyptic, sometimes just a case of bad luck to follow for Cork...

This little door was just open, so what to Ciara and I do? We go explore of course! there was the most narrow stone staircase you can imagine going up and up and up...and then we hear a voice saying, "you can't be up here"and a door closing. So we turned around (with much difficulty in that tiny tower) and left. *shrugs* Oh well, it was worth a shot.

Looks a bit like Notre Dame? Burges made it that way on purpose...cool. :)
By the way, the 2 front spires ye see there? They were largely funded by yer man Crawford (ya know, with Beamish--the brewery?) somewhere along the coin of 30,000! So the spires sometimes (unofficially, of course) go affectionately by the names of "Whiskey" and "Stout".
How cute :3