Vivid Colours, Where I Least Expected Them

St. Cyriak was built around the year 993 A.D. by Birchtilo Earl of Breisgau, a liegeman of Emperor Otto III. The tower was built at the beginning of the 11th century. Until being closed in 1555 A.D., the church and surrounding buildings served as a monastry for Benedictian nuns. While the church was still used as a parish church, the rest of the buildings slowly decayed after severe damage in the 30 years war. In 1796 all remaining buildings of the monastry burnt down, only the church could be saved. The church St. Cyriak is built in a pre-romanesque, called Ottonic style. Less than 50 buildings from the Ottonic period can still be found in Germany.

I did not plan to shoot this panorama for the "Color"-Event. Together with a friend I was heading for the town of Staufen for some partcilularly colourful medieval houses. Having finished our shootings there, we decided to visit the neighbouring town of Sulzburg. I always wanted to add panoramas of St. Cyriak to my personal panorama web site. This church posesses a very distinctive atmosphere of its own. From the outside it looks somewhat like a castle or stronghold. The inside of the church is of an extreme clarity. You can actually feel how one calms down just by entering its premises. The whole architecture is inviting you to sit down and remain silent in contemplation. The inside panorama will probably become my "Best of 2008"-Panorama.

And what a surprise the surrounding graveyard was. In our region, a few weeks from All Saints you would expect the graves to look somewhat different - covered by plants like heather and periwinkle. I do not bother to discern the different species, I call them all: graveyards-plants. I would never let one of those get into my garden. But how different these flowers on those graves in Sulzburg: exhibiting vivid, full and extraordinarily rich colours. I instantly liked this scene.

One last information on the sound: You can hear people walking on the gravel. And yes, there was a horse, more precisely a Haflinger pony, galloping on the nearby meadow.

Europe / Germany

Lat: 47° 50' 29" N
Long: 7° 42' 36.28" E

Elevation: 339 m

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Canon EOS 5D, Sigma 12-24 mm, Manfrotto 303SPH + 338, PhotomatixPro, Realviz Stitcher Unlimited