The ‘Young’ Church of St Peter, is an old and unusual church in Strasbourg, France.
The oldest, and lowest part of the church is the burial crypt, which was built-in the 7th century.
The church itself was consecrated in 1053, and three of the remaining columns supporting the arched interior galleries in the church date from the 11th century.
The bulk of the church as it stands now was built between 1250-1320 and many of the frescoes you see are originals from the 14th century. In 1682, the church was divided into two sections, half for catholics and the other half for protestants, which seems quite forward thinking and civilized, doesn’t it! The pipe organ is a relative newbie, built-in 1780.
Strasbourg is full of old and amazing churches, but the old, ‘Young Church of St. Peter’, is off the beaten path, less visited, and remarkable in terms of history, architecture and art. All of these factors combined create a truly amazing sense of ancient sacredness. It is a church you may well want to linger in.
We are home at The Holler, but it is cheers to you from the glorious Saint-Pierre le Jeune~
WOW! Great pics and blog!
Ah, honored. Thanks so much!
Stunning … absolutely stunning. I appreciate this because we love going in old churches -especially in Europe.
PS: I can’t believe I’m so early here. 😉
Lovely to hear from you at any time my friend. Maybe someday we will cross paths in an old church in Europe!
Now that would be a pleasure.
Schöne Fotos. Wolfgang
Vielen dank mein lieber Freund Wolfgang!
I`ve been there a few weeks ago. It is really stunning. The atmosphere in this church is overwhelming. Thanks for the lovely pictures!
What an amazing coincidence! You felt the way I did in this amazing church. Somethings have to be felt to know.
I am amazed at the frescoes…they look so fresh (except the normal wear and tear). Nice of you to bring this to us!
Nicer of you to take the time to appreciate!
Gorgeous shots! Absolutely gorgeous!!
Awwww, thank you! Makes me happy I posted~
I love these old churches and just can’t get enough of them. Spain is full of them, all unique and wonderful. This one is amazing.
Spain has some incredibly beautiful churches with the gorgeous tiles and mosaics~
Very beautiful church and pictures. Thanks for sharing the story of this historic treasure.
Thank you more for your kind appreciation~
Wow, the church is beautiful. I love the color coordination of wall, pillars and the ceiling. The color tones are pastel like too. Great captures of the place!
Thank you my dear friend. You always such very kind things~
Informative!
Merci beaucoup~
Old churches have a distinct charm. The history and the interesting facts makes them more beautiful. Great blog and pictures 😊
Astounding! What history, awesome! Thank you very much.
Thank you more for your thoughtful appreciation!
Incredibly beautiful images of this church, Cindy! So well preserved. 🙂
I love the lighting of these images. 🙂
It was hard to capture them with the interior lighting. I hope it didn’t detract, because the iron lanterns and chandeliers, in the form of saints and angels, were exquisite.
So beautifully captured, Cindy!
Exquisite! Nice captures of the details. Love it. Still need to make it to Strasbourg.
Thank you! You will be very glad when you get there. Happy Friday my friend~
Happy Friday Cindy 🙂
Breathtaking, Cindy! And a little queasy-making seeing how far up it goes! 😀 Hugs.
Huge vaulted ceilings with the amazing arches!
Awesome church! It had a richness and depth feeling to it and it’s a lovely old church 😊
“richness and depth feeling ” This is exactly how it looked and made you feel.
Such antiquity and when you think of all the wars, that this one escaped damage is a miracle. Beautiful!
It is incongruous isn’t it. So much of Europe destroyed in two world wars and still these beauties stand~
Gorgeousness! ❤️
⛪ <3
Beautiful photos Cindy. This church seems to be well lighted inside. Or is that due to your marvelous photographic skills?
It did have camera friendly lighting which was a huge help.
That was a period when they seemed to build a lot of those old churches. Did you get a chance to hear the pipe organ, Cindy? I bet it was a beauty!
Leslie
I heard an organ and orchestra rehearsal in another old church in Strasbourg by happenstance and it was pure magic!
I can just imagine!
Leslie
It’s amazing that it’s still standing the way it is and the art is still intact, wow! 🙂
We are fortunate aren’t we, to be able to see this intact time capsule!
Indeed we are 🙂
The “young” church seems like such a misnomer. Beautiful church and I can imagine that your feel the history. Lovely photos, Cindy.
So places just have powerful impacts. This church is one such.
Truly beautiful.
Such great shots!
Ahhh, thank you!
The Catholics and the Protestants sharing a church in 1682. Wow! Not long before they were busy killing each other. –Curt
Yes. It struck me too how civilized this was.
That magnificent structures such as this have withstood the test of time never ceases to amaze me. So beautiful. Oh, the stories it could tell!
I always imagine I am walking in some unknown woman’s footsteps from 1300 or so………
That’s a wower. Wonderful photos of a beautiful place Cindy!
So pleased you enjoyed & happy Friday!
Enjoy your weekend 🙂
Awesome photos! As always.
Awww, very kind! Thank you.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
How lovely of you! Thank you & cheers too~
Cheers Cindy 😍
Wow that church is elegant
It is quite special isn’t it! Happy Saturday to you and Bear~
Lovely church and awesome photos, Cindy.
Thank you & hope you all are enjoying your weekend. I hear it is quite hot across the pond. Today we are expecting 102F! Stay cool~
We’re fine, thank you, Cindy. South of Scandinavia it’s very warm, but in Norway 🇳🇴and Sweden🇸🇪 it is simply perfect 🙏🏻16-23°
Enjoy your Sunday!📷
Glad to hear it. I know Europe has been experiencing topsy turvy weather as have we. It is Hot! Hot! Hot here today with fires starting.
What a delight. Love that at one stage it was a shared church.
Yes! I thought that was pretty special too! It would be nice to see this today.
Thanks posting this.
Thank you for the appreciation!
Absolutely stunning ! ☺
Merci beaucoup mon ami!
Another stunner Cindy! 🙂
Thank you Lea. You live in a beautiful country my friend~ <3
Without a doubt. Your appreciation for the best is noted and appreciated. 🙂 <3
Be well my friend~ <3
Et toi aussi mon amie!
what a great place to see. I nice catch. 🙂
You were in my spam filter. I rescued you! <3
Oh the indignity. I am mortified and lesstified. Thanks for the rescue. Please let me know if it happens again. 🙂
I shall and never fear, I will never let you reside in such an awful place!
So you didn’t here about the time I ~ . Oh well perhaps best kept quiet. 😀 ;-D
😉 🙂
Such use of stone for structure and beauty. – Oscar
I love the artistic simplicity. Happy Saturday Oscar~
Saint Pierre le Jeune ist grossartig!!! Danke Cindy für die eindrucksvollen Fotos.
Wünsche Dir einen schönen Sonntag.
Vielen Dank fur den sehr freundlichen Kommentar und Frohe Sonntag auch euch!
That is the first time I had heard of a church being officially shared by Protestants and Catholics in those days – interesting!
It seems so natural doesn’t it, even though I have never heard of it before either.
Thanks for sharing this lovely, ancient cathedral, Cindy. Your photos do a great job of capturing the immensity, and your narrative fills in its history nicely. Funny to think a relative “new” part is from 1780.
Yes, the age is astounding isn’t it. As an American, it is especially impressive.
Your photography is stunning.
You are very kind. Thank you!
Cindy, these are gorgeous pictures! Thanks so much for posting them! The artwork is exquisite. 🙂
Amazing, Cindy! It’s beautiful & I agree half for Catholics & half for Protestants was very forward thinking.
I saw some fabulous churches in remote places in Equador, S.A. They were all Catholic. Remarkable what people did centuries ago, for and in the name of God… or even Gods of any beliefs.
I know just what you mean. Central and South America has such a different expression of catholic art, all of it a unique expression of culture and faith that is truly beautiful and moving to experience.
Beautiful photos as usual Cindy 🙂
Merci beaucoup mon ami! <3
Hello Cindy
I wish you a nice Sunday and a nice new week.
Visa versa 2UX2~
Stunning! I like that thoughtful segregation. Seems like they knew how to live and pray.
Yes, I fear we may be regressing~
Reblogged this on Musings on Life & Experience and commented:
Beautiful pictures of a church in France by Cindy Knoke.
You are so thoughtful and so appreciated Patricia. Thank you!
What a beautiful and impressive church, and I love that it is divided in half for the Catholics and Protestants!
Talk about cooperation! We could use some more of that today.
Couldn’t we just!
Reblogged this on Random Ramblings; Myriad Musings and commented:
How about some scenic church photographs? Cindy takes us on a tour of the lovely Saint Pierre le Jeune in Strasbourg.
😎
Wish I could beam us over there now to hear the Sunday organ recital! Thank you for your kindness my friend~ <3
It’s b’ful!!
Yes! It is. Cheers to you~
Another one I hadn’t heard of — thank you, Cindy! Amazing how one church can suffice for many religions. Hmm, maybe if we did more of that today, the surplus money could be shared with the poor and hungry??
What an amazing concept! I don’t think it will go over well in a Trumpian world, but I am with you. Let’s make it so! <3
From so long ago in the year that started with 10 – -! Wow, I guess I never realized how ancient places like this are, Cindy. The relics and frescos with intricately painted stories amazed me. It hardly looks as old as the dates reveal.
I have been in Spanish and Mexican churches, grottos and cathedrals but may have been less informed as I was in high school. Youth lends less attention to details. Thank you, dear friend. 💐
Yes, we don’t begin to truly appreciate the old stuff until we start getting old I guess! Thank you for stopping by my friend. It is always lovely to hear from you. <3
I try to check in and sometimes I have missed several, but I always go back to see what wondrous adventures you have been on! xo 💖
<3 <3
Stunning…
Very kind! <3
Amazing colors!
No bare stone walls. I love it too.
These are very beautiful photos, Cindy! Thank you for the tour! Hope you are having a wonderful summer in The Holler. 🙂
We are thank you Lavinia, although it is quite hot, 99 degrees when I went to civilization today and just a bit cooler at The Holler.
Manifique mon ami. 🙂
Merci beaucoup! <3
<3
Simply fabulous. In the UK, we only have hints at what some of our churches must have looked like before the Reformation – something like this, I imagine! Love the idea of splitting it into two sections, one for the RCs and one for the Ps – how very egalitarian; if only the rest of the world had been that far-sighted!
“how very egalitarian; if only the rest of the world had been that far-sighted!”
I so agree with you and wish the world would be equivalently tolerant today! At times we seem to be regressing into more and more hostility and intolerance towards difference. This church is an exception isn’t it! Loved your comments and love the UK’s gorgeous churches. Interesting about the post Reformation changes. I did find the art work in this church to be just so warm, welcoming and unusual.
Exquisite. How amazing that they shared the church. Very possibly a unique situation. Would love to know more of the history of the people who managed to do that. Have enjoyed this trip very much. Missed some since my husband went back into the hospital. So, I’m trying to catch up now.
I hope your husband gets well soon. Sending thoughts and prayers his way~ <3
Thanks, Cindy. He has Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis which is progressive and incurable. They removed all the cancerous tumor in his lung this spring, but the surgery seems to have caused some deterioration and lowered his resistance to pneumonia. Antibiotics and steroids have him back to work now. It’s challenging, but he is a very determined resilient person. And we laugh a lot in spite of the hard times. Many moments of pure grace.
Yes.
Well.
The truth is no person knows who they actually are until they face severe trauma personally, which of course, everyone eventually has to do. And then, maybe, this becomes the test for them.
At least it is for me.
My choice to myself is how will I respond.
All I know all the time, is that all people will suffer. I guess it is really what to do with this that matters.
But, I am just telling you what you actually know. You are already way ahead of me in figuring this out.
Love to both of you~ <3
What a fabulous place!
Yes. I fell in love!
Not hard to do with places like that!
<3
In much poorer times people really appreciated the arts, its great that through your skills we can all share the beauty which must have taken ages to create.
What an interesting point you make, that people who have less may appreciate art more. Afterall, if you live in a palace surrounded by art, this church may seem less impressive. I always imagine these amazing churches providing comfort and beauty to people with little in terms of possessions or power and now you have solidified these thoughts in my mind. Thank you.
Spectacular! … The architecture and all the details are majestic 😉 have a wonderful day, dear Cindy… 😉 <3
Visa versa 2UX2 my friend~ <3
Absolutely stunning, I do love to visit places of worship when I travel.
Yes, they provide calm sanctuaries for our travel weary souls~
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So spiritually beautiful Cindy! I was really embraced in my spirit while viewing like I have been there before! One of those deja- vu , moments!
Isn’t that an amazing spiritual experience! I remember each one that I have experienced in great detail and have written each of them down with my end of life papers for my children after I’m gone. I feel sure you will write about yours in your own indomitable spiritual way Wendell and feel humbled to be connected to this experience with you. <3
When I visit these places I generally feel awed by the ability to touch walls that someone also might have touched in 1250 ! Tis a mind-blown moment for me. The fresco’s made me think of the Crusades. There was so much turmoil in these centuries between Christains and Muslims, so it was interesting that by 1682, two religions were willing to share the church. Can the world survive these religious differences today? I guess we’ll find out. Thanks for the tour my dear, enjoyable as always ! xo Boomdee
It seems that we may need, in this instance, to look backwards to find our way forward. I feel the same sense of sacred connection you describe in many of these living history churches. They are time machines that transport us down the same aisles, under the same ceilings and frescoes, walked by our sisters so many hundreds of years ago. It is an amazing and humbling experience~ <3
True enough! We can’t overlook what’s to be learned by the past. Let’s hope those with the power to change things embrace the same philosophy.
We are having a little problem with this as you may have noticed in the US unfortunately~
This is one of my favorite posts lately Cindy!! So gorgeous! and surprisingly old and well preserved. Loved the Angel light fixture!! Does it still function as a Catholic/protestant church??
Adding this to my travel wish list!! xox
Oh I do hope you visit here Rhonda. You will be incredibly moved by the experience and I would love to hear your impressions. The church has been Lutheran since 1524 and is part of the Protestant Church of Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine. <3
It really was stunning– thanks to your photos, Cindy. xo
<3 <3
Reblogged this on History… Our Evolution and commented:
If you are like me and adore church interiors, you will love this French Church.
What a lovely church, with an interesting history and the colours are utterly stunning. It makes one feel as though you are walking through the church. Quite often churches off the beaten track, hold many a gem!
Yes, the lesser visited churches are often the most rewarding to visit. My husband and I got locked in an old church at night in Austria. Your comment reminded of this. I need to do a post on it. We had to use the flash in my camera to see a nano second per flash. It was quite an experience!
Wow amazing and gorgeous. I know such craftmenship and work went into these old cathedrals, but I often wish modern churches had such color!
Yes this church has such amazing warmth and such a welcoming feel. Too many of our churches are devoid of these qualities which is truly a shame.
Yeah I agree 🙂
<3
Amazing life you live. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you more for appreciating! <3
Magnificent structures like this leave me in awe. Beautiful.
Thank you Jacqueline. They do the same to me~
Just spectacular! Thanks for posting! Super blog!
Thank you more for the kind appreciation!
Very interesting post, Cindy! I agree it was rather forward thinking to divide the church between Catholics and Protestants. Often it seems that Catholics view “Catholic” and “Christian ” as being synonymous.
Thanks and happy you enjoyed!
Liebe Cindy wunderschöne Fotos ganz toll schönen Sonntag Klaus in Freundschaft
Cool
Thank you!
Reblogged this on LIVING THE DREAM.
Merci beaucoup!
Great work of dedicated and inspired craftsmen given to us so well by you; also skilled, dedicated, and inspired. Thank you.
Ahhhh, so thoughtful of you and so appreciated too.