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04-DEC-2006

pod0412.jpg

Cathédrale St-Pierre.
Many of the buildings in the older part of Geneva are typically showcased with lights quite nicely. As we walked around the running course for the Escalade, we took some time to check out the sites. Here is some info (shamelessly stolen from the web) about this church:

The Cathedral of St. Peter in Geneva is best known as the church where John Calvin gave his inspiring sermons during the mid-16th century. The imposing, Romanesque and Gothic Cathédrale St-Pierre dominates the center of town.
The site of St. Peter's Cathedral has been occupied at least since the 4th century, which you can see for yourself by touring the archaeological site underneath. Construction on Geneva's cathedral began in 1160 and lasted 150 years, by which time the towering Romanesque cathedral had acquired Gothic accents.

The Catholic cathedral of St. Peter became a Protestant church in 1536. Like reformers all over Europe, Calvin's followers stripped Geneva's cathedral of its altars, statues, paintings and furniture. Only the stained glass windows remained. John Calvin preached here from 1536 to 1564, and the cathedral became the guiding center of Protestantism. Calvin's seat outlasted him and still sits in the north aisle. The original Gothic façade of the Cathedral was modified in 1750 to its present Neoclassical style.

Today, Protestant worship services are still conducted at the pulpit from which Calvin had declaimed for hours on end against "idolatrie." Sermons are significantly more moderate these days, but amid the soaring austerity and the singing of old hymns, one can still feel the texture of an important history stretching back 450 years.

Canon EOS 20D
1/2s f/4.0 at 17.0mm iso800 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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