What follows is my attempt to chronicle and recreate a few of experiences in Spain and France this summer for those interested. Focus primarily will rest on history and religion, and in particular the history that lives in the churches and castles that line the pilgrim roads to Santiago Compostella in Spain.

The Muslim conquest of the Holy Land in the Seventh and Eighth centuries caused the traditional pilgrimage to Jerusalem to become increasingly dangerous. As the Middle Ages unfolded, the journey across the Pyrenees and into Spain to the traditional burial place of St. James became the dominant pilgrimage route. The results were dramatic. The first great wave of Christian churches in the Middle Ages sprung up along the pilgrim roads - the age of Romanesque was born. Architecture, spirituality, culture and politics would all be dramatically affected by the great mass of Medieval Christians on the road to Compostella.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Castles on the Dordogne


We were on the beautiful Dordogne River for a few days. It was here where much of the Hundred Years War was fought and thus it is littered with dramatic old castles



The town of Beynac is one of the most beautiful in France. Perched on the cliff above is a castle that was once owned by Richard the Lionhearted.
The Dordogne River was the boundary between the English and French in the Hundred Years War. Everything to the north of the River (including this castle) was on the French side; everything to the south was fighting for the English.

We climbed up and made it to the top of the ramparts



At the top.

This is the view from the top of the castle walls. Across the river is the English side. If you look carefully you can see two castles that were English. They were at war with the castle we stood on.A close-up of an English castle
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