Friday, December 2, 2011

OK, this picture was taken of the St. Gabriel's Chapel in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. It's illegal. There are signs that say - no pictures - and the guards will stop you if they catch you - they didn't catch me (I don't know what this says for my life of crime). I was so intrigued with the story that a friendly guide was telling us that I had to get a picture. Remember all my children that we took a picture of the Mona Lisa - so it's not the first time. Anyway, they don't have a clear date of how old this was but Canterbury was built and rebuilt in the first century. When Thomas Becket was killed in 1170 there was a very tumultuous period and the story is that this chapel was walled off to make a secret hiding place. And then forgotten over the years. When King Henry VIII started the Church of England there was a Reformation period and the walls of Canterbury Cathedral were painted over - they didn't like all the art work all over the walls. Can you even believe it. So now the walls are just plain. But, they didn't know about this space behind the wall. At some time after that, the wall was knocked out and the painted walls were revealed and preserved. Now isn't that a great story and worth an illegal picture?

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