The idealised Christian couple




© Godric Godricson

 

The Living and the dead

© Godric Godricson

I like this picture because it shows that eternal idea of the living in proximity to the dead. The house is on the boundary of the cemetery and at one point the clergy who lived in the house would have have entered the cemetery through the black door.

Sacrificial Foundations

Ecclesiastical Curiosities - (1898)
Editor: William Andrews
Project Gutemburg

"In early ages a sacrifice of some sort or other was offered on the foundation of nearly every building. In heathen times a sacrifice was offered to the god under whose protection the building was placed; in Christian times, while many old pagan customs lingered on, the sacrifice was continued, but was given another meaning. The foundation of a castle, a church, or a house was frequently laid in blood; indeed it was said, and commonly believed, that no edifice would stand firmly for long unless the foundation was laid in blood. It was a practice frequently to place some animal under the corner stone—a dog, a wolf, a goat, sometimes even the body of a malefactor who had been executed.

Heinrich Heine says:—“In the middle ages the opinion prevailed that when any building was to be erected something living must be killed, in the blood of which the foundation had to be laid, by which process the building would be secured from falling; and in ballads and traditions the remembrance is still preserved how children and animals were slaughtered for the purpose of strengthening large buildings with their blood.”

“ .  .  .  I repent:

There is no sure foundation set on blood,

No certain life achiev’d by other’s death.”

King John, Act iv., Sc. 2. 
Shakespeare.

Begräbnis Kaiserin Zita 1.4.1989

  European Royal Burial Sites








Have a look at this fantastic page for European burials sites around Europe. This site is well researched and well written and a joy to view. The photographs are new and show vaults etc that are not normally seen.