St Stephens Basilica chapel, Budapest

St Stephens Basilica has quite a substantial chapel, less gilded and ornate than the main interior. The chapel is where the mummified Hand of St Stephen is displayed. It lives in a highly ornate golden model of the Matthias Church. This hand has travelled the world before finally coming back to its permanent resting place in Budapest.



This strange object (sorry about the blurry photo) was covered in beautifully tooled leather.
I think it is a font.


The chapel, although not gilded and marbled like the main interior of the basilica, has 6 gorgeous brightly coloured stained glass windows, each illustrating a saint or other important person.

St Stephen, (or Istvan, whose original name was Vajk), was a strong king, who helped organise a feudal state out of the tribal territories which existed in what is now Hungary, died in 1038.

Rug Chapel, north Wales

Rug Chapel is a private chapel, which has survived
with it's interior decoration fairly intact,
and it made me realise that the past was
not ALL in black and white...

(joke)

Well, who could tell from this plain exterior, the treasures within?


Below is an example of one of the panels where the wall and ceiling meet.

Above and below are pictures of where the wall panels
collide with the beautifully decorated ceiling

Death was talked about more frankly in times gone by,

and I LOVE this depiction of a skeleton.
Click on the image to see a larger version
and be able to read the text.
Ahem, the first 4 words are in latin, the rest is in Welsh...

Here is some of the detail of the painting on the roof trusses.
The whole chapel is just a little treasure.

If you visit north Wales, plan
a short stop on your route and go visit!

Gwydir Chapel

Gwydir Chapel is near Gwydir Castle,
just outside Llanrwst, north Wales.
It was once a place of worship for the Wynn family,
who owned and lived in the castle,
but is now in the care of Cadw
(the Welsh Assembly Government's historic environment service).

It has a plain and simple exterior,
which gives no clue about the treasures hidden inside.

The door into the chapel has a stone carved
with the date the chapel was built -1673.

The chapel interior is richly decorated with slightly
naive paintings of angels, clouds, stars and suns.

The colours are fabulous, still vibrant after over 300 years.
The ceiling designs were inspired by Italian baroque designs of the time.

This inscription reminds us of our own
mortality - 'watch for ye know not ye day or how'

Below is the gallery and ceiling at the back of the chapel.

Part of the downstairs of the chapel,
showing the imposing coat of arms of King Charles II.

The stained glass windows of this chapel
appear relatively plain from a distance,
just showing a little pastel colour.

However, when you look more closely,
in addition to the Tudor rose shown above,
there are small painted panels dotted all over the
windows - the paintings are of animals and birds.

This is a beautiful building, and well worth a visit.