March 10, 2009

Christ Church Cathedral Dublin

Yesterday we went to Christ Church Cathedral, located in Dublin's Medieval district. It is a beautiful church which was started during the time when the Vikings occupied Ireland in the year 1030. Its current restoration was done in the 1800's, and many of the details, such as the floors where finished in its original decor. There was also a viking exhibit called Dublinia, but by the time we got there the last tour had already left. From the brochure it looked pretty cheesy so i don't think we missed out on much. Here are a few of the pictures we took!

Below picture (left): This was the Peace Chapel of St Laud. We were invited to write a prayer and light a peace candle. The chapel was named for a fifth century bishop in Normandy.

Below: This room was the Baptistery. The Architect who rebuilt part of the cathedral built this room for his wife, who died. it was built in 1871-1878. The Architect was named George Edmund Street.

This is a detail of the floor tiles.

This is the ruins of the old Chapter house.
It was used during the Pre-reformation period for meetings of the chapter of the Augustinian canons.

It was really neat to see the Cathedral. On our walk back to the bus we saw the location for the Castle of Dublin, so we hope to go do a tour of the grounds there soon!