Friday, July 2, 2010

COUPLE MORE PALACE SHOTS




Bottom up:
1. Private chapel for the King built RIGHT into the castle next to his bedroom- this is where the funeral services were held for "Mad King Ludwig" who went crazy buildings all those beautiful castles in S. Germany.

2. Ceiling of a private reliquary room for one of the kings. Relics were (and still are) are HUGE thing in Europe. There exists a belief that if you have a piece of Christ's cross- or a nail from the cross- a piece of his robe- you have a more direct line to God-and if a relic belongs to one of the saints, perhaps all the better cause they might not be as busy as God and can intercede for you. So there were and are entire rooms devoted these relics. Today we saw what are claimed to be the complete skeletons of three babies believed to have been killed when Herod gave his command that all male babies be killed in his quest to kill Jesus after his birth. They were very carefully wrapped in beautiful linens and enclosed in a glass tomb- so tiny! Also saw what are believed to be the skulls of John the Baptist and his mother Elizabeth.

Last year I scoffed that these kinds of things were really 'the real McCoy' but this year the more I read about the connections of Italy to the mideast- and in this case the Pope was eager to give relic after relic to Munich to keep them Catholic and ward off the evil Protestant Martin Luther.

Last- this bed for the King, which was not even used- the room wasn't even used- it was just for show. His bed and bedroom were in a different hall in the palace.

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