Ceilings & Floors

[traveler63]

Spending time in a museum, church, synagogue or other public building while traveling is a major part of sightseeing. We all get caught up in what is being displayed and ooh and ah at what we are looking at. Recently I just sat a while at the Louvre and watched people looking at the various sculptures, paintings, etc. I was amazed to find that the vast majority never looked up or down. Some of the most beautiful things that I have seen have appeared on the ceilings and floors and even some sides. So, I have gone through my pictures and I want to share some of the ones that both Mr. T63 and I have taken. Hope you like these.

This was taken at the Glass Museum on Murano.



The Doge's Palace - Venice- One of the many ceilings



Ceiling in the Doumo in Siena



This is one of the murals on the side of the previous picture, just to give you an idea of the scope of the ceiling.



The other side.

Once a year at the Duomo during September and October, the church elders remove the plywood that is on the floor to reveal the mosaics. Here are two. The entire floor is a multitude of these mosaics. We just happened to be there at the right time. The Church is spectacular in itself but this was like icing on the cake!


Sorry, this one is a little blurry but I think you will get the idea.




The Vatican Museum - One of many that we saw. We were on a personal tour so we only saw a few of the many wonderful things to see. We had a connection to special tour guide which I will tell you more about when I do a pictorial on our 25 day Italian adventure.



This is the hallway and ceiling to the famous Vatican Library- the door at the end. Our tour guide could have made arrangements for us to get in if we wanted- more later on this.



This is the floor of a small church known as San Pietro in Montorio. Built on on the peaks of the Janiculum hill in Rome in 1480. Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain owned the land ordered the church to be built. According to a late legend which today is considered to be apocryphal, this was the site of Peter's crucifixion.



St. Peters Cathedral in Rome. Note above the gold writing, those are people walking around the dome.



The Dome in St. Peters - This was taken with a point and shoot with no flashes (not allowed and we complied, even though other people did not)
and there was hardly any sun, as it was raining outside.



This is the first post, more to come from France.

[bixaorellana]

Mind-boggling!

How lucky everyone at AnyPort is that you had the wit to collect these floors and ceilings on your travels, T-63. Good grief, you got some wonderful shots. I know these are hard to get, too, because of low light, crowding, etc. The perspectives you attained are spectacular, as of course is the subject matter. I can definitely imagine you at the end of a day of sightseeing, massaging a foot with one hand, and the back of your neck with another.

[bjd]

This is also in Rome: the ceiling of the church called Santa Maria della Vittoria. Not among my favourites. I prefer the old churches with their mosaics.

[imec]

I thought this pic might add an intereresting sense of scale to T63's..

[bixaorellana]

Oh -- I had no idea it was so big! Good grief. Looking back, I see I was dazzled by Traveler's pictures that I spaced out her caption ......... or maybe was unable to assimilate it!

Is that another walkway below the big circle and above the words MVNDO, etc.?

[imec]

Yes, but just for maintenance personnel and I imagine that's where many of the lights and cameras go for the Christmas mass and so on.

[fumobici]

Beautiful thread idea and examples. Here's a painted ceiling I found bouncing around in Siena that charmed me. I think the building is now a music academy.



And here's a ceiling from Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.



I love Byzantine mosaic work and there may be no better place to view such than Ravenna.

I can't remember the name of this place



This one is just outside of Ravenna at S. Apollonare in Classe.



This one is from the small mausoleum at the incredible S. Vitale.



And these last two are of the ceiling at S. Vitale.

[imec]

Magnicient fumobici! Love that crazy Byzantine perspective.

[fumobici]

Have to include the Pantheon in Rome. Perhaps not the most decorative, but what an icon and what a magnificent engineering feat, closing in on 2000 years of age.

[bixaorellana]

Wow, what glorious, beautiful excess. They're all so incredible, but that last photo of San Vitale actually made my stomach turn a flip, the visceral reaction to that glowing gorgeousness was so great.
trivia note: the picture from the small mausoleum at S.Vitale might be St. Lawrence, who was martyred by being roasted alive.

[traveler63]

As promised, here are a couple of the ceilings from Paris.






These were found at the Louvre in the Napoleon Apartments, which we found by accident, just wandering around.

[Deleted]

I knew there was an appropriate thread for these somewhere!
This is a ceiling mural of the Solar System that was installed circa 1977 by a local artist by the name of Rain. It is on the ceiling of music club down in the Fauborg Marigny. The club and actually,the owners of the building have changed hands a couple of times but,I believe there was a clause,or,so I was told,that this mural remain. Much to my relief it was still there on Mardi Gras.The photos were taken in the daytime,at night it lights up as it is done in some kind of dayglo paint.
Unfortunately,I don't have the camera or the skills to have photographed it as a whole. Sorry

[bjd]

I had forgotten about this thread. I too love the Byzantine mosaics; In Rome, we went to a church that was originally a mausoleum (5th century, I think). The ceilings are quite low and covered with mosaics. These are some:

[bjd]

This is in Santa Maria di Trastevere, Rome

[imec]

Nice bjd!

Sorry if I've posted this in another thread... Church of the Holy Sepulchre in old Jerusalem.

[fumobici]

Very cool photos. If I'd known S. Maria in Trastevere had such nice mosaics I would have popped in and taken photos as I've walked by quite a few times. For some reason I don't expect to see Byzantine mosaics in Rome.

[Deleted]

the ceiling of the Luxembourg City train station

[Deleted]

Fabulous shot Kerouac. I had forgotten about this thread which tells me I really should browse around some more when I come in here. There's some really beautiful art in here I would have otherwise missed.

[gusm]

I saw this on the ceiling of the Richelieu Passage of the Louvre and had to capture it.

[bixaorellana]

Oh my gosh -- those wings! Great shot, beautifully captured, GusM. Did you stretch out on the floor to get it?

[rikita]

in the alcazar, in sevilla:

[imec]

I had to make a presentation at an office in the Manitoba Legislative Building (our equivalent of a State Capitol) yesterday but I didn't take my camera - oh but wait! Got me trusty iPhone!

[mossie]

Thanks imec for resurrecting this thread, there are some super pics here.
As it said ceilings and floors, and I didn't see any floors, I thought I'd slip in this well trodden floor from Sainte Chapelle

[bixaorellana]

Looks as though Rikita's picture intimidated anyone from following it up, but now there is another stellar addition to this thread. Imec, both those pictures are not only beautiful, but technically interesting as well.

[nycgirl]

Those are dazzling ceilings, Imec. The iPhone strikes again.

That's a lovely floor, Mossie. I must admit, although I was impressed with Sainte Chapelle, it never crossed my mind to look at the floor. I'm glad you did.

[bixaorellana]

Mossie ~~ I wasn't ignoring your picture, we just posted at exactly the same time!

It's a beautifully worn floor and a lovely, beautifully composed photograph.

[Deleted]

[Deleted]

Eglise Saint Roch, Paris

[bjd]

Ceiling in the Parisian Gallery in Budapest

[htmb]

Beautiful, bjd!