Sunday, December 31, 2017

photographs of abandoned places #16a (apse)

The parish of the Nativity of Mary Cleveland existed from 1903 to 1993. They had a beautiful church built in 1925, it was sold, and has been abandoned and vandalised and parts of it are in collapse. Here is a foto taken two days ago. The apse (half dome) above the sanctuary of the Nativity of the BVM has deteriorated. This formalised scene of our family in heaven has had many variations as a group portrait. I used a flash, but that light was insufficient, and i was there at high noon on an overcast winter day. On the far right, we have some canvas (or decal) falling; next to that there are St. Jean Vianney, and the then newly recognised St. Pius X (canonised 1954). I wonder who the artist(s) was. Romeo Celleghin did much work in the area, exactly in line on the next street there was St. Joseph Greek Catholic 1933 had some similar work. Holy Trinity Lorain Celleghin did work, and the angels in the choir loft look very similar to those here, as does the apse.
Here is the apse from Holy Trinity Lorain. Both were Slovak parishes with churches having laid cornerstones in 1925. This picture i took before the church's closing (and the parish's eviction) eight years ago. [click] This was Romeo Celleghin's best work. I do not know the dates* of the paintings.
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*postscriptum 24 January 2018:  I have been informed, the mural at Nativity BVM was painted during a remodeling in 1958, and the apse mural was painted over an existing mural, which would explain the ghost images of heads and nimbuses.

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