Posts Tagged With: church

The Church of Panagia Pantanassa, Athens

Posted on May 13, 2025 by Louise Jayne

The Church of Panagia Pantanassa is another one of those tiny churches that you could almost but not quite blink and miss it. One of the oldest churches in Athens its name come from the Greek for the Virgin Mary. It has some confused origins, either dating from the 7th or the 9th century depending on which source you trust. Located at Monastiraki Square, one of the busiest areas of Athens, it was curious to see how few people were paying attention to it – now lower than the ground level it initially would have dominated this part of the city.

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Categories: Athens, Greece | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens

Posted on May 6, 2025 by Louise Jayne

The Cathedral has a number of names including the Holy Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. It’s the principal Greek Orthodox church in Athens and is the seat of the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece. Building began on Christmas Day in 1842 using marble from 72 demolished churches.

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Categories: Athens, Greece | Tags: , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Church of Agia Dynami, Athens

Posted on April 29, 2025 by Louise Jayne

On my last full day in Athens I decided that it was about time that I explored some of the city’s churches. My first of these was Agia Dynami partly because it was nestled under the Electra Metropolis Hotel and I could see it from my hotel balcony. The Greek Church leased the property to the hotel franchise in 2016.

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Edinburgh Odds and Ends

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Louise Jayne

This post goes through all the random statues, streets and buildings that don’t quite amount to enough for their own posts. To start with, we have this statue of the world’s only consulting detective. Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh. That building is no longer there but nearby to where it stood is this quite nicely done statue of his creation. The statue was sculpted by Gerald Ogilvie Laing and was moved to its new home on the traffic island here in 2023 after being taken from its original position for renovation.

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Categories: Edinburgh, Scotland | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Old Town Cemetery/Valley Cemetery, Stirling

Posted on October 29, 2024 by Louise Jayne

There’s been a burial ground around the Church of the Holy Rude since 1129 but many of the members of the city were buried beneath the church floor until the practice was stopped in 1623 – because of the stench of the rotting corpses! The Valley Cemetery was opened in 1857 for the overflow of the church and the town of Stirling as a whole. It was designed to be an attractive place to visit with paths wide enough for carriages. It expanded so much that it spread into what became known as Mars Place Cemetery. This in turn lead to the adjoining cemetery coming to be known as The Old Town Cemetery.

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Categories: Scotland, Stirling | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

St Cuthbert’s Church and Kirkyard, Edinburgh

Posted on October 1, 2024 by Louise Jayne

I wanted to visit St Cuthbert’s Church because I’m a big Agatha Christie fan and this is where she married her second husband the archaeologist Max Mallowan in 1930. However, I’d already scoped out prior to arriving in Scotland that none of the opening times of the church were going to work around what day trips I already had planned so I went along knowing that I wouldn’t be able to go inside. I was pleasantly surprised therefore to find that the grounds were more extensive than I had expected and I had a very nice walk around the kirkyard late one afternoon.

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Categories: Edinburgh, Scotland | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Melrose Abbey

Posted on September 3, 2024 by Louise Jayne

As I mentioned in my Abbotsford post, the house provides a free volunteer lead shuttle from Tweedbank Railway Station to Abbotsford, but also from Abbotsford to Melrose Abbey. As it’s volunteer lead this isn’t always available (check Abbotsford’s website for details/contact info) but happily the shuttle was available on the day I visited and the driver offered to take me to the Abbey when I was done at the house (I was the only person using the shuttle that day). The drive didn’t take very long and you’re set down in a car park opposite the Abbey. The shuttle doesn’t take you back to the station but the driver pointed to a bus stop nearby and said that was where I could get the bus back to Tweedbank (it wasn’t – but more on that later!)

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Categories: Melrose, Roxburghshire, Scotland | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

St Edward King and Martyr, Cambridge

Posted on April 9, 2024 by Louise Jayne

I stumbled across St Edward’s Church while going on an early walk around the city; as best I could tell the church wasn’t actually open to go inside at the time. The church is named for Edward the Martyr a 10th century king of England and half-brother of his successor, Aethelred the Unready. Supposedly Edward, who became king in 975 when he was just 13 was murdered by his step-mother in favour of Aethelread and as such became a martyr.

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Great St Mary’s Church, Cambridge

Posted on March 5, 2024 by Louise Jayne

Long time readers will know that one of my favourite things to do is visit churches – not for any spiritual reason but architecturally and historically, and if it’s possible I take the opportunity to climb up into towers and onto roofs. Great St Mary’s is often recommended because its tower gives great views of the city, so I duly put it on my list of things I wanted to do.

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Categories: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Nottingham Light Night 2024

Posted on February 3, 2024 by Louise Jayne

Another February, another Light Night event. This is a real highlight of the arts calendar in Nottingham and as ever there was so much going on that we always have to be quite selective about what we visit. We started off as we have before at Sneinton Market which had an interesting light display in a box named Geist, the design of which is based off of a neutrino or “ghost particle”.

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Categories: England, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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