Churches

 I like churches. It's no point me pretending to be religious, because I'm not. But I like churches, the variety of architecture, and their special atmosphere as well, which may be something to do with spirituality. Here's the European churches I've sketched: -

Prague

St. Vitus Cathedral - and one of my early unsuccessful attempts at line and watercolour wash

Although it wasn't the first trip to Europe where I made sketches, my trip to Prague was my first actual sketching trip. The Cathedral of St. Vitus s a huge Gothic building, standing above the city in the Castle complex. I made the typical beginners mistake with line and wash of using very watery mixes which make the whole thing look washed out.

I sketched this sitting on a bench by a street market just off Wenceslaus Square

The huge St. Nicholas Church in Prague - I walked to the top of the dome.

Alicante Area

My mother in law lives in the Alicante area, and I often sped at least a week there during the summer. These couple of sketches show my growing confidence with ink and watercolour. The Church below is in the local village, and was only built in 1956. The whole village is less than 70 years old.

Murcia is at the other end of the Cercania line from Alicante that runs through San Isidro. It's actually one of the top 10 biggest cities in Spain. The old town of Murcia is very pretty, and has a great cathedral. Once again though it suffers from the same problem for the sketcher - you just can't seem to get a good vantage point to sketch all of it.

This is the Cathedral in Elche - same problem. I made the line and wash sketch from distance, while the ink sketch just shows the back of the church. Elche, the nearest city to San Isidro, is actually a world heritage city, and very interesting it is too.

The nearest town of any size to San Isidro is Catral. It has its own cathedral, and once again, you can forget sketching any of its most interesting features from the square on which it stands. From the back streets around it, though, different story.

Berlin

Domkirche - Berlin Cathedral

When I sketched this one I made a mistake thinking that it was actually one of the museums on Museum Island. It's an easy mistake to make, since they are all huge architecturally impressive buildings, all gathered close together. But this is actually Berlin's cathedral, the Domekirche, which houses the family tombs of the Hohenzollerns, the royal family of Prussia and the German Empire.

Marienkirche 

The Marienkirche isn't the oldest church in Berlin, but it's quite a bit older than the buildings around it, and on the Museum Island. I like it, despite its large size it has an honesty and a simplicity.

Budapest

St. Matyas Church, Buda

Budapest has more than its fair share of large and impressive churches. But my time in the city was so limited that this was the only church I had time to sketch. St. Matyas Church is in Buda, in the castle complex, next to the Fisherman's bastion, and it commands great views across the Danube

Kaunas, Lithuania

Kaunas has many impressive churches. This is all the more remarkable when you consider that the Soviet Union annexed Lithuania at the end of world war two, and their regime was notably hostile to religion.

The Archangel Michael Church is one of the biggest in Kaunas, and it sits at the end of the pedestrianised Laisves Aleja, a long straight boulevard running through the centre of the city. It’s in a wide square which is a pleasant area to sit, and I found it a useful landmark from which to get bearings. 

The Old Town is particularly well served for churches. Along the town hall square alone there is the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul, and this, the Trinity Church which is part of the seminary complex.

The St. Peter and Paul Cathedral Basilica here houses relics of Saint Pope John Paul II, and several worshippers were praying by his shrine as I visited.

The Vytautas the Great Church gives its name to the nearby bridge. It was originally built by the same Vytautas the Great, Grand Duke of Lithuania, in 1400. Vytautas is revered as a Lithuanian national hero, especially in the syruggles for independence throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries. It’s suffered a lot over the years, and has been rebuilt. The style is apparently called brick gothic. 

Christ's Resurrection Church 

The Basilica of Christ's Resurrection. In one way, a symbol for the inevitable failure of the Soviet system. Planned in response to Lithuania's independence from the Russian Empire after the Peace Treaties that ended World War One, , it was not consecrated before the start of the Second World War. After the War Stalin decided that the building should be used as a radio factory. This continued until the late 80s, just before the fall of the Soviet Union itself. Finding the political will, and more importantly, the money to prepare the Church to fulfill its original purpose took quite a long time. Yet it was consecrated finally in 2005, and made a basilica by Pope Francis in 2015.

Madrid

Madrid's Catedral de la Almudena is very impressive, but quite difficult to sketch. It's situated right next door to the Palacio Real, and it's difficult to get far away enough from it to be able to get it into a sketch. It's quite an engaging mixture of Gothic and baroque architecture. 

Amsterdam

There's really two big churches in the centre of Amsterdam. One is the Oude Kirke - or Old Church. The other is the Nieuwe Kirke, or New Church. Prior to this one being built the Oude Kirke was just called the Kirke. They're a pleasingly literal and matter of fact people, the Amsterdammers. The Oude Kirke is the more interesting building. However, it is in the middle of the red light district, and it's hemmed in on all sides by narrow streets and buildings. For these reasons I couldn't find a good vantage point to sketch it, so I had to content myself with making this sketch of part of the Nieuwe Kirke. When I visited, the church was hosting an exhibition about the life of Buddha. Bidding against themselves there, I would have thought. 

Stockholm

Stockholm has some great churches, an interesting mixture of gothic and baroque styling. The one sketch that I made specifically of a particular church is this one of the Riddarholmkirk, on Riddarholmen island. This is the church where Gustavus II Adolphus was eventually buried. I saw eventually, because his widow went a bit doolally and wouldn't let him be buried for years, until the men in white coats took it out of her hands . I sketched it fairly close up, and you can also see the spire in a sketch I made of Riddarholmen sitting by the Radhusset on the other side of the bay. I made the comment in the main part of the blog that Stockholm does a very nice line in Spires, and I stand by that. 

There are also some very nice churches on Gamla Stan, but what with the old town's narrow streets I found that I was just getting their spires rising above streets, and it was too difficult to find a vantage point from which I could sketch the whole church.