Paris1972-Versailles2003

In while traveling in our road warrior trips into Luxembourg from Germany where we were base in Trier,(see posts), we came to this wonderful small town of Grevenmacher. You can see my other post on the winery, this one is on the other things to see in the pretty town.  The town is about 25 km from Luxembourg city. Its name is made up of the Latin word Maceria (old walls) and the word of Germanic origin Greven (Grafen, in German, which means counts), following the transformation of the village of Macher by Count Henry V the Blond into a imposing fortress in the 13C.

We love to roam and find beautiful places such as this one, so therefore, let me tell you a bit more on Grevenmacher of Luxembourg!  We took a long walk in Grevenmacher and passed by the Decanal Church St Laurent  15 Rue de L’Eglise as well as the pretty fountain of the singer at place de l’Hôtel de Ville , the vines fountain, and nice streets, as well time to have lunch. Hope you enjoy the post as I.

Grevenmacher Parish Church, dedicated to the Roman deacon and martyr Saint Laurent, deanery church from 1820 to 2017 and national monument since 2017, has a long and eventful history. The nave, erected by the Cistercian abbey of Clairefontaine in 1782, has undergone several transformations and renovations thereafter several times. You can admire monumental stained glass windows from the 1950s, a 1983 Westenfelder organ attached to the watch tower, and many others. works of art. The four bells of the tower Laurentius I, Donatus, Maria, Laurentius II, and the smaller one Nicolas in the roof frame above the altar also tell stories. For example, the “fire bell” (Laurentius I) was recast in 1824 from the metal of the bell that had melted during the fire of 1822. One enters the church through this imposing watch tower with massive walls, which once protected the citizens of Grevenmacher when danger threatened, and which sometimes also served as a prison. The old watchtower dates from the 12C. It is 26 meters high and the thickness of its walls varies from 1.50 to 1.80 meters. It is located exactly in the middle of the old fortified enclosure.

The pulpit (lectern) It forms a harmonious whole with the altar, the baptistery and the tabernacle. The polychrome pattern of the vine, in agreement with the wine-growing region in which Grevenmacher is located, is particularly striking. The pattern of the vine also adorns the organ buffet. The baroque and colored stone relief of the crucifixion on the left front side wall, on which the crucifixion scene is depicted with the silhouette of a city in the background, dates from the early 17C and is of great importance in terms of art history. The stone pulpit with its colorful decoration depicting the four evangelists with their attributes dates back to the late 17C. Access to the pulpit, which is guarded by baroque angels, is only possible from the sacristy.

The high-quality monumental and figurative ensemble of stained glass windows in the nave was commissioned from Camille Croat in the late 1950s with saints whose veneration is related to the history of the parish respectively of the Moselle region. Since the end of 2012, a special ceramic “path of salvation” has adorned the side walls of the nave. It represents the “story of salvation” created by the French Benedictine nun Mercedes Cailleteau, from the Garden of Eden to the life and death of Jesus and the rediscovery of paradise. 

Standing proud at the foot of the above church, at the entrance to the pedestrian area in Grevenmacher is the statue of Blannen Theis.  it depicts the travelling singer and his dog. This illustrious figure, baptised Mathias Schou, was born on 30th March 1747 in Grevenmacher. He was blind or visually impaired, hence the name ‘de blannen Theis’.  This monument has almost become iconic for this city by the Moselle river.  He travelled from village to village and serenaded the locals at markets, marriages or fairs with his violin and organ grinder. He was always accompanied by his wife Margaretha Kummer, called Mimi Gréit. Following her death, he was joined on his travels by his second wife Barbara Kremer, called Bärbel and his dog. During the musical performances at village festivals, Mathias Schou was the first to sing folk songs in Luxembourgish local language. The minstrel of Grevenmacher died penniless in the village of Eich, located just outside Luxembourg city in 1824. The only image of Mathias Schou is a drawing in pencil, which belongs to the National Museum of History and Art (MNHA). This drawing was also portrayed on a stamp issued by the Post Office.

The Prosteneek, where the main roads Trèves-Thionville and Trèves-Luxembourg once crossed, takes its name from the first store, which the current firm Mathis Prost opened there in 1847. The Kondschafter are a work of the sculptor Guy Charlier , inspired by a motif by the Moselle painter Jean-Pierre Beckius. These ambassadors praised Moselle wine and its festivals in Grevenmacher.

And of course, time to eat as already been on the roads a while and we sat in Grevenmacher to eat. We had our brunch/lunch at La Belle Pierre, 15 Route de Thionville, a nice resto of excellent food at greater good prices. menu at 9,90€! and a nice beer Diekirch of Luxembourg.  We had lasagna dishes, and I had the menu of entrée of shrimp and fusilli  bolognaise with dessert of vainilla custard, and it was just right. In a very nice bright clean modern ambiance .Sadly, the restaurant has closed, another of the virus victims; here just for the family memories.

The Luxembourg tourist office on the St Laurent Church :https://www.visitluxembourg.com/fr/the-parish-church-of-st-laurent

The Grevenmacher tourist office on its history :https://visitmaacher.lu/en/history/

The city of Grevenmacher things to see :https://grevenmacher.lu/sites-touristiques/

There you go folks, another dandy spot in my road warrior ways of Europe. My sentimental memorable Luxembourg of so many family trips, and a real gem find of Grevenmacher. Hope you enjoy the post as I.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!

I have been there in my business trips and with the family for a long vacation renting an apartment. I like to update this wonderful post on a historical and architecturally stunning building of Rome, the Pantheon ! It has a fascinating story , and from a historical architectural look as one of my favorite. It is at a very nice area to walk in Rome too; we came there by bus after leaving my car in the apartment in Nomentano (see post).

The Pantheon is an ancient religious edifice located in Piazza della Rotonda in Rome, built on the order of Agrippa in the 1C B.C., damaged by several fires, and entirely rebuilt under Hadrian at the beginning of the 2C.  Originally, the Pantheon was a temple dedicated to all the deities of the ancient religion. It was converted into a Church in the 7C and is now the Basilica of Santa Maria ad Martyrs. It is the largest ancient Roman monument that has reached us practically intact, due to its uninterrupted use until today. It gave the name to a neighborhood in Rome. The Pantheon supports the largest dome of all antiquity with 150 Roman feet or 43.30 meters in diameter inside (or 43.44 m3), which remains the world’s largest unreinforced concrete building. After almost two millennia, this remarkable construction has no sign of weakness in its structure despite the deliberate mutilation and repeated terrestrial movements!

A bit more on the history and architecture of the Pantheon of Rome, fascinating!

The original Pantheon was built in 27 B.C., at the beginning of the reign of Augustus, by Agrippa, the companion of Augustus. He built the Pantheon and the Baths of Agrippa on the margins of the urban part of Rome, near the field of Mars, a region conducive to major urban developments. Agrippa’s Pantheon was destroyed by a new fire in 110, under Trajan. It was completely rebuilt during the reign of the emperor Hadrian, around the year 125, as revealed by the dates printed in the bricks, between 123 and 125. It can be assumed that Hadrian inaugurated it during his extended stay in Rome between 125 and 128. He even used it occasionally as a court, making justice in the company of a few senators.

The temple housed many statues, including those of Ares (Mars), father of Romulus, that of Aphrodite (Venus), ancestral deity of the people Iulia, as well as that of the Divine Julius Caesar; The entrance was thus kept on both sides by the statues of Augustus and Agrippa, both consuls in 27 B.C. The reconstruction of the Pantheon retained the north-south axis of the building, but reversed the direction of the entrance and directed it northward. The pronaos and the transitional building with the rotunda occupied the location of the old building, and the rotunda fills the space between the ancient entrance and the Basilica of Neptune. The new temple was surrounded by a portico on three sides about 60 by 120 meters, and preceded by a paved travertine courtyard. Over the centuries, the surrounding soil has risen, and the place that surrounds the Pantheon now reaches the level of the podium.

The Pantheon façade portico has 16 Corinthian columns monoliths of granite, with marble marquees, arranged on three rows: eight columns on the facade followed by two rows of four columns. The outer columns are in light grey granite, the four inner columns are in darker pink granite. They all come from the quarries of Egypt. The drums of 12.5 meters in height for a diameter at the base of 1.5 meters weigh about 69 tons. Two columns were removed in the Middle Ages to the left and replaced by columns of the Baths of Nero in the 17C.  Between the pronaos and the Rotunda an intermediate building, as large as the pronaos that it extends, for 34 meters, but higher than it, culminates at the same level as the Rotunda. It forms the bottom of the pronaos and connects the pronaos to the cella, delivering passage from one to the other through its central portal. The present bronze doors, different in proportion to the entrance, come from another ancient edifice, and are the largest that ancient times bequeathed to us. The white marble veneers that covered the outer walls and decorated them with fluted pilasters are partially in place. The Pantheon’s rotunda is a perfectly circular wall of 58 meters in outer diameter that forms a double wall of almost 7 meters thick. It is based on a powerful foundation, 7.30 meters wide and 4.5 meters deep. Its inner part, with a radius of 21.7 meters equal to its interior height, ensures a double role: it forms the decor of the cella, and it supports the weight of the dome. This decoration was made in 1747, and  replaces the original Roman decoration. The paving of the floor, perfectly restored, is in marquetry of slabs of colored stones. Internally, the Dome fits in a perfect sphere of 150 Roman feet, or 43.30 meters in diameter, with an equal height of 43.30 meters. This theoretical sphere is therefore tangent to the surface of the soil.

The Byzantines took control of Rome in the 6C. Obviously the Pantheon, a once public monument, remained imperial property, since in 609 the Byzantine Emperor Phokas donated it to Pope Boniface IV. He consecrated it as a Christian Church to the Virgin Mary and to the Martyrs (St. Mary to the Martyrs), a title the Pantheon still bears today. The Church of the Pantheon was the subject of a struggle of influence between the Papacy and the city of Rome. With the formation of the Kingdom of Italy, the House of Savoy obtained from the Pope to be awarded the Church so that the kings were buried there, making this place a modern Pantheon, hence its present name while the Italians colloquially called it the Rotunda or Ritonna. The Roman question was decided in the aftermath of the Latran Agreements in 1929, the Church now assuming the title of Basilica Palatine and becoming the official Church of all Italians. Today, the Pantheon is a tourist crossroads in the heart of the old quarters of Rome, and overlooks Piazza della Rotonda (Rotunda square). The obelisk of the Pantheon that rises from 1578 on the fountain comes from the nearby Egyptian sanctuary. The Pantheon, the best preserved model of Roman monumental architecture, had a huge influence on European and American architects from the Renaissance to the 19C. Numerous public halls, universities and libraries have imitated its composition of a portico with a pediment and a dome.

The Rome tourist office on the Pantheon : https://www.turismoroma.it/en/places/pantheon

The museums of Rome on the Pantheon : https://www.rome-museum.com/agrippa-pantheon-rome.php

There you go folks, another wonderful place to visit in nice Rome, a favorite spot so plan ahead. the Pantheon is a must I say! Hope you enjoy the post as I.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all!!!