The Oak Chapel of Allouville-Bellefosse

The World Beautiful Oak Chapel located in the small French farming village of Allouville-Bellefosse France is an ancient oak tree, whose hollowed out trunk is home to two small chapels, reached by a spiral staircase surrounding the truck. Nobody knows how old the tree is but is speculated to be around 800 and 1,200 years old, making it one of the oldest tree in the world.

In the 1600s, the tree was stuck by lightning that burnt the tree right through its center and hollowed out the trunk. Yet instead of dying, the tree started to sprout new leaves and acorns in abundance. The tree’s miraculous survival drew the http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifattention of the local Abbot Du Détroit and father Du Cerceau. They determined that the lighting striking and hollowing the tree was an event that had happened for a holy purpose. So they built a shrine to the Virgin Mary directly into the hollow of the tree. Later another small chapel and a stair case climbing the outside of the tree was added. The chapels were named Notre Dame de la Paix ("Our Lady of Peace") and the Chambre de l'Ermite ("Hermit's room").

Photo Credit

Things almost took a very bad turn for the tree during the French revolution. The tree became an emblem of the old system of governance and tyranny as well as the church that aided and abetted it. A crowd descended upon the village, intent on burning the tree to the ground. A quick thinking local quickly renamed the oak the "temple of reason" sparing it a fiery fate.

Today the common oak is showing signs of age and stress. Now held up by poles, part of the 33-foot trunk has died and the majority of the tree has been covered over with wooden shingles where the bark has fallen away. Although Chene Chappelle’s host tree has begun to wane, its congregation still gathers twice a year for Mass and the tree is still the destination of annual pilgrimage on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin.

Photo Credit

Photo Credit


Photo Credit

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

Continue reading...

Iron Wire Sculptures | Amazing Sculptures from chicken wire

Italian sculptor Mattia Trotta creates amazing sculptures from wire meshes, which at first glance, I mistook to be that by Ivan Lovatt who works with almost the same materials. While Ivan Lovatt creates sculptures from chicken wire, Mattia Trotta uses steel. Both artist also employ different techniques.
Trotta starts from a skeleton of steel wrapped around with wire. One by one, these wires are tangled and compacted to fill the casing. As a skilled tailor who, with needle and thread, sew a dress that fits perfectly on the body, Mattia Trotta with iron creates a kind of dress that can give fullness and thickness to thought and emotion, as he himself says: "Every wire and twist is given a reason to exist.”
Brought to completion the iron figure undergoes further treatment with acid to prevent corrosion and to extract the natural shades and colors of the wires.

Continue reading...

Provocative edition of Plastic Toy Soldiers (Casualties Of War)

These tiny sculptures, created by Dorothy, were designed for a Colorado Springs Gazette article entitled “Casualties of War.” The two-part article in which these toy soldiers were featured focused on a single battalion based at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, who since returning from duty in Iraq had been involved in brawls, beatings, rapes, drunk driving, drug deals, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, kidnapping and suicides. Returning soldiers were committing murder at a rate 20 times greater than other young American males.

A separate investigation into the high suicide rate among veterans published in the New York Times in October 2010 revealed that three times as many California veterans and active service members were dying soon after returning home than those being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

The soldiers have been generating a lot of interest in the USA and Canada and the art collective has been contacted by a number of war veterans making them both proud and humble. The toy soldiers were also recently featured in an article in the Irish Times.

Here's a look at the provocative edition of small molded plastic soldiers:








Not for sale.

Continue reading...

Plasticine Military Miniatures in strict accordance with historical reality

Soldiers are dressed in strict accordance with historical reality: before sculpt, father studied tons of military literature, including the original languages -



I found this story on the Internet, seeing that this masterpiece only saw a small, very few people took him in the hope that the story will expand and their creator will be more than satisfied with the success and higher ratings as well as laudable a reader's comments on her life's work.









a whole library of dictionaries, military books and folders with photocopies of rare sources. All the way down to the color of gloves and horse breeds, comparing with historical documents.





Not a single superfluous buttons, rope and details, personal beauty is not invented. Beautiful plasticine soldiers saw only close people.




Entire life story of these brave soldiers can be found at livejurnal.com

Continue reading...

Statues of Beautiful Penitents of Taxco, Mexico

In many countries especially those with past Spanish links, some Roman Catholic believers still follow the old medieval practice of painful and bloody self-penitence to atone for their sins. The town of Taxco, Mexico is perhaps the most famous for this ritual which takes place every year during the Easter week, where the repenting sinners known as "Penitentes" walk through cobbled winding streets of the old town.

The Penitentes always wear black dress and their head is also fully covered with black hood with small openings for eyes. The Penitentes are further categorised by the method of penance.

"Penitentes Flagelante" are those who walk the route shirtless and carry a large, heavy wooden cross in their arms. They carry a rosary and a whip with thorny metallic end in their hands. They frequently stop during the procession, give the heavy cross to attendees who accompany them and then flagellate (whip) their backs. This is repeated every night during Holy Week reopening the wounds of the earlier day.

"Penitentes Encruzado" are those who instead of the cross, carry a heavy bundle (40-50 kg.) of thorned blackberry canes which is tied across their bare back and outstretched arms. They are also helped by attendees who occasionally give support to the thorny bundle when the procession is not moving.

"Animas Penitentes" wear full black dress covering their whole body and also cover their head with hood. They have heavy chains attached to their ankles and walk in stooped bent posture carrying small crosses or lighted candles. As they always face the ground, these penitentes have attendants who guide them during the procession. When the procession stops, they are allowed to rest only by going down on hands and knees.

This is the only category in which women also take part.

To honour the Repenting Sinners, three statues, representing each category of the penitentes, have been installed behind the oldest monastery in the town - The ex-monastery of San Bernardino de Siena, constructed at the end of the 16th century.

Image from Wikimedia Commons is by User:Gengiskanhg

Image from Flickr is by weisserstier

Image from Flickr is by teques

Image from Flickr is by teques

View location in Google Earth / Google Street View

Source of info and more info: Wikipedia

Continue reading...

Strange Monuments in American Cities | Odd sculptures to strange statues

From odd sculptures to strange statues, cities love to erect unusual structures to show some local color. Here are a handful of our favorites from around the country.

Continue reading...