Lescar

On Wednesday my History of Art course took a field trip to Lescar. We went and thoroughly examined an old Roman cathedral. At first appearance, I thought that it was not as pretty as all the other cathedrals that I've seen in Europe. But what made it so cool was learning about all the history in it. For example we learned that there are two different types of bricks used. The bottom layer was how the church was originally built, but Roman churches often have low ceilings with small windows and are very dark and somber, so later the walls were lengthened and they used a different type of bricking.

We went inside and learned about the different mosaics and sculptures and their religious meanings. There were carvings of Adam and Eve and the four animals of the gospel writers. Also there was a mosaic of an Arab hunting. It is rare to find mosaics of Arabs from that time in France, but the way that they know that it's an Arab is because he has a peg leg, and the Arabs were far more advanced in medicine at that time. 

Our teacher showed us the place where royalty would sit during church and there was a funny thing about the chairs. When you stand up, you can pull up the seat in a certain way so that you can still lean on it and not put so much "effort" in staying standing and the lady's skirts would cleverly hide this. haha

After touring the inside, we went and sat in the cemetery (A little creepy I know) and examined the gargoyles. They are all rather creepy I must say, but that was the point: to scare people by reminding them of the punishment that awaits for those who sin. There were ones of dogs eating children and sirens and stuff like that. We all drew a couple of them and that concluded our tour.