Small Shrine at Cermes by sandra46

Photography • Urban/Cityscape • posted on Sep 30, 2012

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Description

This is a small shrine or votive aedicula at Cermes, along the leg of the provincial road cutting through the hamlet. Usually these small shrines (we call capitéi in Veneto) are built at the crossroads, either to Jesus, the Virgin, or a local saint as it is in this case. They are usually connected to a local legend concerning an apparition or a miraculous event in the past, for example when the area was Christianized, when a local saint protected the fields, the village, some people from a catastrophic occurrence, etc. In villages and hamlets, and in the countryside in general, they often substitute previous shrines to pagan gods and spirits. Similar small shrines, called naiskoi, are found in Greek religion, but there were also the herms. In the earliest times Greek divinities were worshipped in the form of a heap of stones or a shapeless column of stone or wood. There were in many parts of Greece piles of stones by the sides of roads, especially at their crossings, and on the boundaries of lands. The name comes from Hermes (Mercury) god, associated with fertility, luck, roads and borders. In ancient Roman religion, the aediculae were household shrines that held small altars or statues of the Lares and Penates, household protectors. In this area the temples were in the open, with no or flimsy buildings. The area here was inhabited by the Reti, a people who was later Celticized, Romanized, and Germanized, but some shreds of the old religion, however Christianized, can be seen in this small shrine: it is an elaborated form of the so-called 'green shrines' you can also find in Veneto. That is a plant (a bush or a tree) reputed 'saint/sacred' because of some miraculous presence, was later Christianized simply by trasforming the pagan god into a Christian one. Thanks for your kind comments.

Comments (44)

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fallen21

7:19AM | Mon, 01 October 2012

Fantastic capture.

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giareg

11:56AM | Mon, 01 October 2012

nice shot!!

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cricke49

1:18PM | Mon, 01 October 2012

excellent photo capture and commentary, thanx for sharing!:)*5

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Isabelle711

10:32PM | Mon, 01 October 2012

This is so very beautiful. :))))) The info was most interesting my friend. :)))) I love the sweetness also of the flowers. :))))) Most excellent capture. :)))) Thank you for sharing all of the beauty you see. :)))))) Carry A Smile In Your Heart :))))))

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