Saturday, February 25, 2017

St. Mary's Church

 On the Saturday of our Spring Break, we rode in the morning then headed into Chirk to see the sights. Our first stop of the day was St. Mary's Church -- a medieval church on the edge of town. It was simple but beautiful. 

 The nice thing about most of the churches in Ireland, and wales and England too are open for visitors. Most have a section near the entrance for donations and also little knickknacks or jewelry you can buy to help fund the church's upkeep. 
 Beautiful stained glass windows...
 ... portrayed Biblical stories.
 These cross-stitched kneeling pads where beautiful and unique.
 WHile we were looking around a woman came in preparing for the service the next day. We talked to her for a bit and she told us a little about the church. There was also info pictures on the walls telling the church's history.

 And, of course, there was a pipe organ.
 The rafters had different animals carved and painted into them. So many tiny details in this church!
 Stone baptismal. Do you see how old these churchs are? 1662 is carved into it!
 The setting sun turned the bricks golden.

 Then we had lunch in this little tea room.
Our main destination was Chirk castle, which was stunning and more magnificent than any castle we'd seen in Ireland.

Although the locals called it a small castle, (and I suppose it was compared to others in the UK) but we were shocked by its size. It was several times the size any we'd seen previously!

Check back next week to see pictures of that!

1 comment:

  1. My wife and I would love to tour Europe! It seems so beautiful, and though your pictures are great, I bet they don't do it justice. The structures are so beautiful! I think it is neat that they sell jewelry and knick knacks to help support the church.

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