Today’s Wall Street Journal informs us of an exhibit of large-scale photos of Byzantium’s great churches and Cappadocia’s frescoed cave churches. Here’s info from the World Monuments Fund’s website:
Vaults of Heaven: Sanctuaries of Byzantium
April 26-July 28, 2006
Stunning large-scale photographs reinterpret the extraordinary achievements of Byzantium — and WMF’s efforts to conserve these fragile treasures. Hagia Sophia and other Turkish sites come alive in the work of photographer and architect Ahmet Ertuğ.
Ah, Nova Roma. I’m an amateur Byzantinist, and love most everything about the most underappreciated of the cultures of Europe, starting with the eastern empire’s art. When my friends and I visited Europe during my junior year of college, I insisted on going to Santa Maria Assunta in the village of Torcello (located in the lagoon of Venice). The Byzantine frescos are nothing short of awe-inspiring, as even my friends admitted.
Were it not for the Byzantines, most of us would now be praying toward Mecca every Friday.