Kees' photos with the keyword: forstenried

Detail of this farm .

Forstenried once was a small village, with a church, an inn, and just a few farms. Very much like Icking, though so close to the expanding city of Munich that it was bound to lose its independence. The farms have all disappeared but one, and that one is abandoned, and will be gone soon, it seems.

When the crucifix was being transported from Polling monastery to Seeon monastery, the cart halted at Forstenried, and six horses pulling and strong men pushing couldn’t move it any farther. A miracle! Never argue with miracles.

And finally, we’re very close! Does Helena, on the right, look like an 80 years old mother of Constantine? No, she doesn’t. She rather looks like his sister, or wife...

I hope viewers can appreciate the on-going drama: the previous picture showed most of the church interior, and now we’re slowly zooming in. Some day, we’ll get even closer, I promise! The stained-glass windows are modern, and don’t fit in well.

We didn’t come to Forstenried to watch angels. Our destination was the ancient life-size cross you see here in the middle. On the left of it, St. Bartholomew, former patron of the church; on the right, Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, who successfully searched for the original cross in Jerusalem.

The colors aren’t natural, but resulted from clicking the “effects” button in iPhoto. Sorry, it won’t happen again.

The book carried by the angel refers to Ezekiel chapter 9: “Unehrenbiethigkeiten in den Hauß Gottes” (cases of irreverence in the house of God). The message seems to be that disrespectful behavior in the church will be punished the same way as the sins of Jerusalem’s population in Ezekiel’s vision. Not an agreeable prospect. Behind the door was a small baptistery.