Good evening, my friends, I am happy that I´m back here. This is another pic of my recent series, the dome and monastery of Havelberg. This here was one of the most important christian bridgeheads among the slavish tribes who settled here for some centuries. Today we know nearly nothing about the first christian church here. But we know that this place here was a religios place of the slav tribes for many centuries. Our historians tell us that the contact between the slavs and the germans were "peaceful", but this could be only the half of the truth. The "handling" of this humans must have be bad, because this is the origin of the word "SLAVERY". Slavish tribesmen and -women were catched, deported, sold in other countries and had to do hard work.... In 946-948 n. Chr. first german emperor Otto I. declared Havelberg as a bishop´s seat, and they began to build the first church. 30 years later things went bad: All slavish tribes on the eastern side of the Elbe started a rebellion against the german reignship and the christian religion: All missionaries, monks, priests and bishops eastern of the Elbe were killed and the christian churches were destroyed. The slave tribes went back to their old traditional religion. For more then 170 years no christian missionary set his foot in this country... Then came the german earl Albrecht "the Bear", the "owner" of this country and started a crusade, the so called "Wenden"- crusade.... Around 1150 n.Chr. monks of the praemonstratenser order began to build a new bishop`s church. We don`t know if they found parts of the first dome here; the monks created the dome in romanic style with three ships and flat roofs. This part is marked by the white calceous stones today. In the same time the monks began to construct the monastery, situated at the southside. Their main building was the earliest brickstone house eastern of the Elbe and exists till today. You can see it on my earlier pic. The romanic dome was mostly destroyed by fire, and the monks began to build up the dome again at 1250. They constructed in early gothic style now and gave the church its face as we can see here. The dome existed for many centuries. In the early 20th century somebody had the stupid idea to highen up the tower. A lightning had destroyed parts of the old tower, and now they sat up a brickstone saddle with five windows and a little tower above....Kiddy! Please look at the entrance were the plant grow. This entrance looks very medevial, but it was constructed in 1909.... This dome is constructed in a very strong symbolism, dedicated to people who couldn`t read or write or had never heard about christianism. In christian mythology all good things come from the east and every bad things from the west. That means: The dome is orientated in eastern -western direction: The holy place, the apsis, is in the east, the bad west side is defended by a strong tower, which had the function of a strong castle`s wall. And there is the most powerful christian guard situated in the tower: The Archangel Michael with his burnig sword!! So the room above the entrance is called "St. Michaels Chapel". The main church room has the function of a castle, which spends shelter. The audience enters this room from the north, not through the tower. The tower had only a very small mouse hole, dedicated to non - christs and adepts, who wanted to sniff a little bit christianism. It was them not allowed to enter the churchs main room, they had to stay in the towers room - guarded by the very strong eyes of St. Michael above.... So, this is the story of my special "pidgeon`s paradise". Here under the very old walls of this dome we had an eye on the birds. At the left side there is a fine bakery and the two old ladies here have the best cakes for 100 miles. HmmH!! And they own a pottery with very fine gifts. The right place for a break! Tomorrow we will have a look inside... Thanks for your interest. I hope you enjoy this story.