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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

A puzzle for you. A gravestone in Salisbury cathedral, England.

Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 05/10/2025

This is the steepest ancient amphitheatre in the world. At Pergamon in Turkey, it is on the side of the mountain itself and needed to be steep to fit there. Notice there is no room for a full orchestra, here being just a semi-circle. The valley floor beyond is some 300 metres below.

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

An early church? A medieval monastery? A Roman vault? Although similar in form it's the barrel vaulted winter quarters of the Sultanhani Seljuk caravanserai. Begun in 1229 it's the largest medieval caravanserai in Turkey, providing shelter to travellers on the Silk Road section from Konya to Iran.

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

Minaret at sunset. Neveshir, Cappadocia, Turkey.

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

A script of great beauty, both animated and expansive in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul. The western world with its Latin letters has trouble matching the sheer artistic impact of this, nor can we decipher it from a knowledge of Latin or Greek, so what does it mean?

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

Churches are built of stone to last? Not always. The left nave of St Catherine's in Honfleur, France. Wood built it dates from 1468, so long ago the 'War of the Roses' was ongoing in England. The church is unusual in having 2 naves, the later from 1496 also wooden. #churches #architecture #honfleur

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

A four winged raptor. The serendipity of taking animal pictures. #Birds #Dordogne #Wildlife

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

In the French religious wars (1564/98) this large XVIIc Black Madonna was taken from its hilltop church, carried down to the River Dordogne and thrown in. Recovered later, battered but miraculously intact it was returned. Her right arm is in an interestingly relaxed pose. #Madonna #Dordogne #Limeuil

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

The things you never consider: Palaeolithic people only made, drew or painted animals and human forms, never plants or trees. Which is why this beautiful piece of bone is extremely rare, flowers having been cut into it. c. 16,000 - 12,000 BC

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

On the left, a reproduction of a wild horse carving in the French National Museum of Prehistory, les Eyzies; next to a photo of the actual carving still in La Chaire à Calvin rock shelter, Charente. Magdalenian period c.13000 BCE. Wonderful lines. #Prehistory #Caveart #Stoneage #Magdalenian #France

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Do you not just love it when little souls prove they have ambition (with a little support from the neighbours.)

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

A view from the Admiral's window on the oldest navy ship still in commission in the World today, of one of the newest. 220 years after his death, Lord Nelson would have seen this view from his cabin on HMS Victory - the 65,000 ton HMS Queen Elizabeth at her Portsmouth mooring. (Victory 3,500 tons!)

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

#WarsoftheRoses #EdwardIV #RichardIII. The eldest brother usurped the throne from his cousin, the youngest lost it. In Tewkesbury Abbey it is easy to miss this grille in the floor where the middle brother, George, Duke of Clarence was buried after being allegedly drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine!

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Wandering around cathedrals or churches can turn up oddities. Not the out of place, garish model lion here, but the item beneath. A rare example of a "ducking-stool," which gave dishonest tradesmen or scolding women a public "ducking" in the pond or river so they mended their ways. Unlikely to work!

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

A winter sunset across a local beach. Empty to us, of course, but think of all the life here we cannot see. Under the stones, hidden in the sand, waiting in the pools. They share the earth with us. Not seeing does not mean not valuing. #beach #ecology #sunset #conservation #sea #shore

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 11/01/2025

One of the most under-rated inventions of the 20th century IMHO. This machine will cross every surface you can see without noticing the change and does in 10 minutes what it takes a ferry 40 to do. #hovercraft #ferry #vessel #ship #engineering #wight #boat

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Visible high on its hill south of the A26 autoroute that crosses the flat plains of northern France, take time to stop speeding somewhere and divert to see Notre Dame de Laon, a 12c. gem of early French Gothic style, the centrepiece of its wonderful, small, medieval city. #cathedral #gothic #France

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Two famous feats of early engineering. Always struck by the contrast in constructional ability. The pyramid was built c.2600BC, Stonehenge roughly the same. The builders of the pyramid of Cheops may have used pulleys, but it currently pre-dates the earliest known Egyptian pulley by half a millennia.

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

Grave Circle A inside the gate of the hilltop palace/ fortress of Mycenae in the Peloponnese, Greece. Mycenaean civilisation existed c1700 - 1200BC & was the one who, according to Homer, sacked Troy after a ten year siege. The site of Troy is at Hisarlik, modern day Turkey #Mycenae #Troy #Schliemann

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

The heavily buttressed west tower of St. George's, Arreton. The village was first mentioned in King Alfred's will c.880 and a church was here then. This Anglo-Saxon church was rebuilt very soon after the Norman conquest of 1066 with walls 27" thick. Many early Norman features survive.

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

A modern take on a west window. Irish architectural engineer Peter Rice (Sydney Opera; Louvre pyramid; Pompadou Centre; Lloyds London; Stansted airport; Lord's) designed it in an otherwise 19thC Gothic revival build. Basilica de la Treille, Lille. #architecture #cathedrals #abbeys #churches #Lille

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

You turn a corner on a Yorkshire country road and this staggering ruin of a western facade sits before you. How that rose window must have looked we shall never know. Bylands Abbey. #cathedrals #abbeys #churches #architecture

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

The magnificent St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Malta. Everything gold is real gold leaf. Built by The Knights of St. John, completed 1577. #cathedrals#malta#churches#valletta

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

A forest of pillars in Église St. Maurice de Lille, France. Called the 'church with 5 naves' it actually has 4 aisles, 2 per side, hence all the pillars. Since the aisles are the same height as the nave, it does appear to have '5 naves'. #Gothic #cathedral #church #architecture

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Gothicissimus @gothicissimus.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

The 14th century pulpitum of Lincoln cathedral stands beneath a waterfall of modern light. #gothic #cathedral #church

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