Tag Archives: photos
Photos taken by Raoul Pop
The Franciscan Church in Medias
According to monastic records, construction of the Franciscan compound in Medias, Romania, began in 1444. The compound includes a monastery, the church (which you can see in the photos shown here) and various annexes. In 1556, after the formerly-Catholic townspeople joined the Reformation, the monks were run out of town, and the buildings were used for various lowly purposes, such as stables, etc.
On a side note, I’m not a Catholic, but it seems to me that using a church as a stable just shouldn’t be done, no matter what its denomination may be.
In 1721, the buildings and the site were returned to the Franciscan order, and monks were invited back into the city, although by now the buildings were run-down and in desperate need of serious renovations. The church, originally of Gothic architecture, gained Baroque stylings on the inside, and the other buildings were re-built as needed.
The church doors were built in 1764, according to the numbers carved unto them.
Nowadays, part of the monastery’s compound is being used by the Medias Municipal Museum, and in the last few years, a Hungarian school has been built on the monastery’s land. The school is scheduled to go into use this fall. There’s more information on the monastery’s history (in Romanian).
Selected photos from Iasi, Romania
What you see below are photos from the city of Iasi, Romania, the second largest city in Romania after Bucharest, according to a recent census. It’s a city with a lot of history and a lot of historic buildings. It was the capital of the province of Moldova for hundreds of years, and also the capital of Romania for a short while. It’s home to the oldest university in the country, named after Alexandru Ioan Cuza, who founded it in 1860.
We visited the city in June of 2006, after an all-night train ride in horrendous conditions, and we only had about half a day to see it. Naturally, we went to see the Palace of Culture (which was closed for renovations unfortunately), so we rambled around for a while then decided to go see Ion Creanga’s house (he’s one of Romania’s most beloved writers).
Let me just say that I took these photos with a digital camera, not a DSLR, so the picture quality suffers. Given that I was just starting to learn proper composition back then, some aren’t framed properly. But enough apologies. Here are the photos.
An evening in Munich
We were on our way back to Matrei from Innsbruck, we were tired, and we had a few more hours to drive. What to do? Stop in Munich for coffee, naturally! It was only a short detour of a little over 100 km from our route, so why not?
Coffee turned into a nice little evening walk through historic downtown. We arrived in Matrei really late and extra tired, but it was worth it.
Found better photos of Felix
Remember Felix (I), the little deaf tomcat I wrote about earlier this year? In the course of winnowing my photo library, I found better photos of him, taken a few months before his untimely demise. This is how I want to think of him.
Raoul Pop 