22 October, 2013

I woke this morning to the falcon’s song. There is a family of Peregrines that live on the tower of Saint John’s Church across the street from my hotel. At home these birds are rare and their nesting areas are carefully protected. Here they dine freely on the towns population of feral pigeons, eliminating up to twelve a day.

I find it somewhat ironic that while I am not a religious man in the dogmatic sense – my faith is based on a personal relationship with the Creator while on this spiritual journey of life – I find myself drawn to the magnificent Cathedrals, Abbeys and ancient houses of worship. Perhaps it is the energy of hundred of years of the faithful that draws me to these places. It is certainly something more than the sacred geometry of the architecture alone that moves me to visit and take in the grandeur of the buildings and the presence of the numinous.

I started with St. Johns. The church is a beautiful example of the Victorian era Gothic Revival. The spire towers over the nave which is built in the early Gothic style. The vault is low supported by heavy columns and arches with small windows in the walls. Despite its relative simplicity compared to the High Gothic of the Abbey Church, the interior is lovely and not nearly as heavily trafficked. The holy space of the apse is behind a beautiful brass altar screen, and is flanked by two smaller chapels – The Sacred Heart, and The Virgin Mary. I took a long moment of quiet, and lit a candle for someone dear to me half a world away.

(Click on any image to embiggen) 

The Abbey Church – actually just a parish church, this was never the seat of a Bishop, and the Monastery is long gone – left me in complete awe. I have fine examples of all the Gothic periods in France, but none seemed so airy and full of light as this. The huge windows are framed by gracefully thin columns that are made possible by the flying buttresses outside taking a large portion of the weight of the vault away from the walls. There is also the butter cream color of the stone native to the Bath area that makes this feel like one of the lightest of the Gothic Spaces. The walls and floors are lined with monuments to the dead spanning over 400 years. It is estimated that the remains of more than six thousand people are interred here. Again, I took a quiet moment with the universe and Creator before leaving.

The final stop on today’s tour of sacred space was the Roman Baths. This is one of the best preserved bath houses in the world, and the only hot spring in Britain. The spring was a holy site before the Romans arrived, and they carried on with a temple to the Goddess Minerva closely associated with the healing mineral rich geothermal waters. The medieval monastery and Abbey Church were later constructed on the grounds of the temple and baths. The floor levels of the ancient baths are several meters below the present day street. A fascinating museum winds down through the history of Bath as a sacred Roman destination before revealing the excavated structures of the baths themselves.

Again, after dinner (more on that in a moment) I took a long walk back to my hotel along the River Avon, marveling at this towns astounding beauty at night.

Dinner was at a Fish and Chips house purported to be one the five best in the South West Region of England. Another Yank came in shortly after me, and I asked him where he was from. I was stunned when he said he too was a Boulder native. So crazy to be half way around the world and meet someone from my hometown! For the record, the F&C was good, but not the best I’ve ever had.

Cheers!