Holiday pictures, part two
Down the valley from the deer park is the monastery (due warning: I am not at all religious, but I can admire the pretty and the devoted attention to detail). The main part of the building is a conversion of a castle (owned by assorted viceroys and St. Ema of Krka) built some time in the 11th century (the first mentions of it are in records dated to 1208). It was originally converted into a church and monastery by the Pauline monks in the 1600s, and is the site of the Shrine of the Assumption of Mary, as well as one of the oldest pharmacies in Europe. The Pauline monks were disbanded from Olimje in 1782 by King Joseph II, and the monastery remained mostly empty until 1990, when the Franciscan monks took over its care and restoration. It was formally reinstituted in August of 1999.
Outside:
Inside:
Main altar (Shrine of the Assumption of Mary):
The ceiling above the side chapel:
The ceiling above the main altar:
Close-ups of some of the interior paintings (sorry for any dullness: pictures are allowed only without flash):
Okay, here's where I come clean and admit that I am totally and utterly in love with both the countryside around Bled and Bled itself. I have really had to winnow through the pictures to get down to this many (oh, the pain). Bled itself is a spring-supplemented lake in the southern Julian Alps. In addition to the lake (which is bright blue. No, really), Bled has a town (which is commercialised and touristy and therefore I took no pictures), a gothic castle perched on an overhanging crag, and a perfectly preserved medieval monastery on an island in the lake. Oh yes.
The water really is that blue:
