Friday, February 7, 2020

The Church Of Our Lady

This view looks towards downtown Guelph from the highest ground in the city: Catholic Hill. A local history museum and a basilica stand up here.


This statue stands here. John McCrae was the Canadian soldier, doctor, and poet who wrote In Flanders Fields during the First World War while serving in Europe. Guelph was his family hometown. This statue is by Ruth Abernethy, and is one of a pair of matching statues. The other one is here in Ottawa.


The Church Of Our Lady Of The Immaculate Conception is the most prominent church in Guelph, designated a minor basilica by Pope Francis and a national historic site of the country. Designed in the High Victorian Gothic Revival style, its main construction was between 1876-1888. A parish has been here from the earliest days of the city, a half century earlier. I took this first shot and went with two different filters for it.


I've been in the church before, but as was the case last summer, it was locked up. I started to walk around.


Here we have the back view of the basilica. Again, I decided to go with different filters for this view. Tomorrow I'll have more from here.

32 comments:

  1. ...gorgeous basilica it's amazing that it could be built in 12 years! Ruth Abernethy is a Canadian treasure!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful church
    McCrae needs an nice wool scarf around his neck and shoulders, and a tuque.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I went to Guelph on a Sunday afternoon. The Basilica was closed. Took some pictures and visited the Civic Museum next to the Basilica.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Breath Taking - Well Done There W

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beautiful church. Looks like a castle in some fairy tale movies.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Poor John McCrae looks cold! Oh, I love the blue filtered photo.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Very impressive. And great outcome with the different filters.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am always surprised to see churches just like here in Europe. Lets me forget that Canada is a rather "young country" !

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lovely photos of the church with the different filters.
    Have a nice weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It is amazing they could build that!

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Tom: she is.

    @Maywyn: he does.

    @Catarina: perhaps in summer.

    @Padre: thank you.

    @Nancy: true.

    @Linda: I liked it.

    @Iris: thank you.

    @Gattina: quite young.

    @Sami: thank you.

    @Sandi: definitely.

    @Jan: indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hello, Beautiful church and statue! Enjoy your day, have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  13. It's an interesting piece of architecture!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Very interesting architecture. I also like that statue.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I like the first pic of each of the filter series. It is a fabulous building!

    ReplyDelete
  16. the basilica is a very ornate building Inside? Well, someday you'll see the inside.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Ruth did a great job on that statue.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Amazing church and photos and love the statue in the snow photo ~

    Happy Moments to You,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Are we even on the same planet, William? Thanks for showing us your beautiful part of the world so different from my own

    ReplyDelete
  20. @Eileen: thank you!

    @Jennifer: that it is.

    @DJan: I do as well.

    @RedPat: quite true.

    @Red: I have seen inside before, it's just been several years.

    @Sharon: so do I.

    @Marie: she did.

    @Carol: thanks!

    @Karl: very much so.

    @Cloudia: you're welcome.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I know you photographers (I'm an amateur) like playing with filters and such. I prefer the original. Maybe if you hadn't showed it I would have been happy. But the filters make such a mood!

    ReplyDelete
  22. The Basilica is beautifully shown here William, it always amazes me to see these incredible structures built so many years ago without the modern day construction aids!

    ReplyDelete
  23. That's quite a beautiful church with gorgeous details.

    ReplyDelete
  24. @Happyone: quite so.

    @Barbara: I don't do it often, but felt it appropriate.

    @Joanne: thank you!

    @Grace: that's true.

    @Kay: it really is.

    @Tanya: very much so.

    ReplyDelete
  25. If only the stones of the Basilica could talk, what tales they would tell.

    ReplyDelete