Churches in Paris and elsewhere

  This Lisbon church has plenty of gold leaf and gilt. Baroque altars, lots of relic holders for a bunch of saints. Also a solemn looking alms box. It was originally built because St Roch had a good reputation for warding off the Plague. It is the earliest Jesuit church in the Portuguese world, and was Jesuit HQ for 200 years (until the Jesuits got expelled from Portugal).   It was one of the few buildings to survive the 1755 earthquake. And it has a Jesus carrying the cross statue with an impressive amount of hair. In front of the church is a statue of a 17th century Jesuit missionary (and literary star) protecting South American indigenous children. (No doubt not the whole story to say the very least, though he did work to oppose slavery).   Information in English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igreja_de_S%C3%A3o_Roque Information in Portuguese https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igreja_de_S%C3%A3o_Roque_(Lisboa) Information in Tagalog https://tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igreja_de_S%C3%

  This is a blog about churches, for a number of reasons. Firstly, there are lots of them in the Paris region, and in the countries I tend to hang around in in Europe. Secondly I had a Full English Catholic Upbringing, so I know a lot of the stories around the images and furniture in churches. And finally because most versions of Christianity give a pretty theatrical and visual role to their churches. But occasionally, I will put in a mosque or synagogue or two. So here are some pictures of the Dome of the rock, and the area around it, aka the compound of the  Al Aqsa  mosque. Those of you who are following know that Muslims wh opray here are frequently victims to Israeli state repression. The far right in Israel would like to destroy the mosque in order to rebuild the temple which was here centuries before the mosque was built. As a tourist, you get to the esplanade by a bizarre and rickety looking wooden structure a hundred metres long, which takes you over the Western wall, the rema