*Some*ones wrote:
>...the "beehive" architecture of Celtic monasteries, with several
"hives" around a central church, reminds me of what I imagine Egyptian cells
to have been like - but I am not sure about this....
>...Archaeologists have recently discovered that St. Columba's church is
directed towards the rising of the sun on November 8 - the feast of the
angels. It was a peculiarity of the Celts [not only to them, but I don't know
in what extent this custom was common in the Christian world. -- B.L.] to
orient their churches towards the rising of the sun on the day
of the feast to which the church was dedicated.
The first point sounds a bit conjectural, to say the least, as the
qualification suggests; which is not to say that it's not true.... i think.
The second, albeit a neat idea, sounds more than a bit off the wall and
demonstrably dubious, as it would result (if true) in churches all over
Christendom "orienting" themselves all over the
astrological/hagiogrphical compass.
To my feeble knowledge the number of non-"oriented" churches (i.e., the
longitudinal axis of the building, roughly, being East-West/West-East, with
the business end, _caput_, in the East) in Medieval Western Europe is quite
small --a tiny percentage of a very large total;
and, of those few, very, very few indeed are cases where the non-"orientation"
cannot be ascribed to local peculiarities (e.g., a pre-existing local
tradition [??, which might beg the above question] or topographical restraint;
local authorities refusing to issue a
permit for an Oriented church without a payoff...).
Be interested to hear otherwise, however, as i'm trying to clean out some of
these cobwebbéd ideas i've held since time out of mind.
Best to all from here,
christopher
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