trail of footprints

800-year-old Church Could be World’s Most Beautiful Bookshop (via Urban Ghosts) ↘

(Image: Bert Kaufmann, cc-3.0)

The stunning Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen – Dutch for ‘Book-Selling Dominican’ – can be found in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Managed by the former Boekhandels Groep Nederland, this 800-year-old former church has featured prominently in round-ups and features of the most beautiful bookshops in the world.

(Image: Stephane Gaudry, cc-3.0)

The original Dominican church was built in 1294, around eighty years after Saint Dominic formed the Order of Preachers. Its closure is generally credited to French military leader Napoleon Bonaparte.

(Image: Kevin Gessner, cc-3.0)

His army closed the ornate stone building during the 1794 invasion, despite Napoleon’s respect for the Catholic religion’s charisma and ability to promote social order. And while the church didn’t fall into ruin, it nevertheless spent some of the next two centuries abandoned and neglected.

(Image: Bert Kaufmann, cc-3.0)

Churches aren’t typically known for providing effective storage solutions, but this one’s well-stocked past includes a stint as a warehouse, an archive and a very ornate stone bicycle shed.

(Image: Marcel de Jong, cc-3.0)

If that’s not impressive enough, the 13th century structure now houses a three storey bookshelf complete with walkways, staircases and elevators. The current arrangement was designed by Amsterdam-based architecture firm Merkx+Girod who won the Lensvelt de Architect Interior Prize in 2007 for their work.

(Image: Teemu Mäntynen, cc-sa-3.0)

Merkx+Girod chose modern black steel shelving and fashionable furniture (including a cross-shaped reading table) to compliment the church’s renovated vaulted ceilings, ornate arches and decorative frescoes. The additional shelving structure takes the shop floor from around 750 square meters to 1,200, allowing space for a cafe in the choir.

(Image: Marcel de Jong, cc-3.0)

Advertisements can often be seen hanging from Boekhandel Dominicanen’s grand stone pillars, as religious banners would once have done, and lighting has been strategically placed almost candle-like around this truly spectacular bookshop. (Explore more converted chapels and churches here.)

Ruined Church Almost Entirely Concealed by Green (Urban Ghosts); ↘

strangerains: “A haven for foxes and owls” ♥

(Source: leanan-sidhe)

Is This the Most Overgrown Church in the World? (by Urban Ghosts) ↘

(Image: Gary Troughton, cc-nc-3.0)

If you thought St Mary’s at Fulmodeston was overgrown, check out this abandoned church in the English village of Bircham Tofts.  Tucked away down the aptly named Church Lane, St Andrew’s Church is completely consumed by ivy.  If it wasn’t for the angular nature of the bell tower betraying the abandoned building’s shape, passers-by could be forgiven for mistaking the centuries-old structure for a dense copse of trees.

(Images: Gary Troughton, cc-nc-3.0)

Inside – if you can find the entrance – the building’s stonework is clearly visible.  But on the outside, the grounds are almost as overgrown as the roofless structure itself.  Dotted around the churchyard, weathered headstones emerge forlornly from the undergrowth that offers a haven for all manner of wildlife.

(Image: Gary Troughton, cc-nc-3.0)

If St Andrew’s at Bircham Tofts isn’t the world’s most overgrown abandoned church, the competition must be formidable.  Either way, the building reflects nineteenth century efforts to amalgamate small rural parishes previously served by their own individual churches or chapels.  The result is a wealth of ruined ecclesiastical structures located throughout rural Britain.

-post from Urban Ghosts