A Yankee's Corkboard: Churches, City Crests, and Custom houses, oh my!--part2

So these two consecutive Wednesdays, my geography class took our second field trip around the historic city of Cork.

We started our tour this time where we left off last--the Cork Vision Center...

There were these brass plaques on the street for a little while pointing out locations of historical buildings or old streets ,etc...

Where N. Main street met S. Main street we turned left Castle street and onto Corn market...stopping at the intersection and getting odd looks from folks passing by as we were a pretty sizable group, I must say.

This was painted on the side of on of the shops--it is the City Crest of Cork. It shows the King's castle on the left, the Queen's castle on the right, and the ship in the middle as Cork was a cery important port for trading vessels at the time. In fact, many of the wider streets here were canals, with the streets later built on top--the water was still running beneath our feet!
'Statio Bene Fida Carinis' essentially means 'a safe harbor for ships'.
Where we were was just outside the old city wall.
one funny thing to note though, the granite sidewalk was actually from china
(it's cheaper and weathers better apparently)

from there we walked on to Paul street and into the courtyard of the former St. Paul's church, built 1723. Not muched has changed to the original building--there is still a crypt underneath--the building closed in 1949 ans now being used for other purposes. Most churches in Cork, it would seem, were build on the site of previous churches and holy sites, though in the case of this church there didn't seem to be a church on the site before 1723.

I found it interesting enough to note that this site blended a lot of the old with the new as there were tombstones in the courtyard next to all the construction and building materials.

From the courtyard we were standing in we could see St. Peter's and Paul's church. This church is an excellent example of the Penal Laws--how catholic churches had to be away from the main roads and more or less out of sight. I am not sure if it could even be accessed by the main road, one might have had to go through Paul street...

This Roman Catholic church never completed building it's spire, though it still has its original woodwork, stained-glass, and metalwork. going inside is "like a time-warp" int the middle of the city, according to my professor.

It still has Latin, English,and Irish services.

I didn't get many pictures inside--but it was really beautiful--I tried taking pictures of some of the stunning metalwork, but most came out blurry :(

Still has the original organ too, I think! cool beans

Next door was its sister school, besides the Tescos on Rory Gallagher place. I didn't know who Rory Gallgher was to the shock of my friends. For those of ye back home in the same boat as I was, here you go:

This was a reclaimed area--early 1700s

We then turned down Carey's street...

I am starting to think I should just do a post 'graffiti of the week'...

Her head is a bit too big, but it is still pretty good.

The rest of Carey's street looks like a scene out of Italy or France with the shops and cafes and all, and this is sitting in the midst of all of it...