France in Focus

I can still manage to tile a standard bathroom, but as soon as it gets a bit more difficult, I’d be happy to call on an Italian craftsman, or try to get to grips with their craftsmanship in some way. And then you really need to add a good dash of creativity and experience to that.

I therefore look with admiration at what you find in medieval churches and abbeys. Yesterday in the Cathedral in Spoleto (Umbria), I didn’t just look up, but also humbly down.

I think picture 5 is my favourite. But,in 1, fancy using a black diamond tile to repair the floor - I guess the tile shop had sold out of terracotta ones!

About picture one, a repair? I wondered the same thing as I was walking past and thought: there’s a white tile right across from there. That can’t be a coincidence, and as an amateur theological detective, this is what I uncovered.

The alternation of black and white (or very dark green/serpentine set against white marble) symbolises the duality of creation. It represents the constant interaction between:
• Light and darkness (Genesis: the separation of light and darkness).
• Good and evil, or sin and purity.
• The earthly (the temporal) and the divine (the eternal).

When a believer walked across these tiles, they were symbolically reminded that the human soul is constantly moving between sin (darkness) and grace (the divine light).

Bl…dy excuses for messing up the floor.

Yeah, .......................... or the tile shop had sold out after Black Friday?

Decorative tiling.
A jigsaw puzzle game where the player is allowed to alter the shape of the pieces to make them fit.

Although all these places are magnificent in there own way, The sad thing is, 10's of trillions of euros in todays money was spent on creating these buildings, just to show one religion is better and more powerfull than another, while the general population who probably financed most of it was living in poverty, I am in Venice at the moment, and there is a religious building on practically every corner, or that's how it seams, and I bet the tradesmen who did all this wonderful work were beaten down to the minimal price, being told that they will get their true reward in heaven.

widge wrote: ↑Sun Oct 18, 2026 6:15 pm Although all these places are magnificent in there own way, The sad thing is, 10's of trillions of euros in todays money was spent on creating these buildings, just to show one religion is better and more powerfull than another, while the general population who probably financed most of it was living in poverty, I am in Venice at the moment, and there is a religious building on practically every corner, or that's how it seams, and I bet the tradesmen who did all this wonderful work were beaten down to the minimal price, being told that they will get their true reward in heaven.

In the main, no, nothing to do with proving one religion was better than another. They were built as tributes to their god.

Many of the grand buildings in Europe were built in a time when there was no competition, with a small exception in Southern France with the Cathars. Everyone was Christian, whether they wanted to be or not.

Competition could have started with Protestantism in the 15th century onwards, when many of these grand structures had been essentially completed. Many Protestants shunned the grandiose structures and built more austere buildings or simply took over the structures of the Catholic church.

In places such as Turkey, Moslems also simply took over Byzantine cathedrals and called them mosques, but even there the structures were already in place.

For the rest, I think you are largely correct. However tradesmen involved in the construction of these vast edifices did often get food and board - and at a time when famines were frequent. So pay may have been minimal but rewards (apart from any perceived reward for serving your god) received as benefits in kind were not to be ignored.

I did my "grand tour" in 1971 with a young lady I met on the plane crossing the Atlantic. We did most of Europe by mini with a tent. The only thing she was interested in was seeing the great religious sites. I soon got tired of it and still remembered how looking up at the magnificent craftsmanship that was clearly intended to make all the poor sods feel overpowered and insignificant. I know I sure did. Especially when returning to a wet tent at the campsite.