Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Christchurch

 In Christchurch (the British one) there is a big mediaeval church with pictures dating from the time when it was not advisable to have pictures in a church (which was much later than the church was built). These are prayers written in Antiqua calligraphy, framed like pictures and some of them hanged at angle. 

Nowadays there are bigger cities – Bournemouth and Poole – next to it, in fact there is no green area between them, so the three cities form just one agglomeration.





Friday, January 9, 2026

Sevenoaks

Anglican churches in England differ very much from their Catholic counterparts on the continent of Europe. Whereas Baroque Catholic churches are full of figures and paintings, Anglican churches are stark, no figures, no paintings, no reredos. In some churches calligraphy appears as decoration, sometimes on walls (like in Cerne Abbas) and sometimes framed as pictures (like in the Temple church in London or Chichester Cathedral). Sevenoaks parish church is one example of the latter. There are main prayers there hanged as pictures on walls. They are written in Antigua script, but some words in the beginning are written in a script I call the English Fraktur. They are initials similar to Ludwig Neudorfer style, but not quite the same.