Look Closer at These Old Buildings (11 Photos)

Old buildings, small surprises

Most people look at a cathedral from a distance. Walk closer to these ten and you find an astronaut in Salamanca, an alien in Paisley, Darth Vader on a tower in Washington and a mouse on a pew in Yorkshire. Some of these details are more than 800 years old; others were added in the last 50 years.

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👀 The Curieux — Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy, Conques, France 🇫🇷

The Last Judgment over the portal of Sainte-Foy has at least 124 figures and dates from the first half of the 12th century. Most visitors look at the middle. On the arch above, small angels grip the edge and peek over it. They are known as the curieux, the curious ones, still waiting for the verdict.

More: Medieval humor – At Abbey of Sainte Foy, Conques, France (c. 1107)

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🦷 Bitten Cheek — Salisbury Cathedral, England 🇬🇧

From below it is one more stone head with its mouth open. Up close there is a second figure: a small creature hanging on to the side of the face with its teeth in the cheek. The carving is on Salisbury Cathedral. The face above the bite does not look happy about it.

More: 9 Hilarious Gargoyle Statues: Medieval Humor!

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🐸 Frog on a Skull — University of Salamanca, Spain 🇪🇸

The Plateresque facade of the University of Salamanca is covered in carvings from top to bottom. On the right-hand side, high up, three carved skulls sit along a ledge, and a small frog sits on one of them. By popular tradition, students who find it without help will have luck in their exams.

💡 Meaning Fact: The most common reading is a reminder of death: the frog stands for lust, and on a skull it says that life is short. Nobody knows for sure.

📷 Photo: Tamorlan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

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🧑‍🚀 Astronaut — By Miguel Romero in Salamanca, Spain 🇪🇸

Among the stone leaves around the Puerta de Ramos of the New Cathedral floats a figure in a spacesuit and boots. It is not a mystery from the 1500s: it was added in 1992, when the door was restored, and chosen to represent the 20th century. Stone carver Miguel Romero made it.

💡 Restoration Fact: The astronaut was not the only newcomer. Romero filled the same corner with other modern figures: a lynx, a bull, a stork, a crayfish, a hare and a creature eating ice cream.

📷 Photo: Tamorlan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

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🖤 Darth Vader — Washington National Cathedral, USA 🇺🇸

High on the northwest tower of Washington National Cathedral, between the usual stone faces, is Darth Vader’s helmet. The cathedral lists it among its fun facts and notes that it is technically a grotesque, not a gargoyle. It came from a children’s contest in National Geographic World magazine to design grotesques for the cathedral: Christopher Rader’s drawing took third place. Jay Hall Carpenter sculpted it and Patrick J. Plunkett carved it in stone.

💡 Viewing Fact: It is hard to see with the naked eye; binoculars are usually needed to spot it.

📷 Photo: Cyraxote / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

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🍑 Bare Backside — Freiburg Minster, Germany 🇩🇪

On the south side of the nave of Freiburg Minster, among the stone animals and monsters, one gargoyle is a naked man stretched out from the wall with his bare backside pointed at the street. Officially he is the Hinternentblößer, roughly “the backside-barer”, one of 91 gargoyles that carry rainwater away from the walls.

📷 Photo: Asurnipal / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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🐭 Pew Mouse — By Robert Thompson in Hubberholme, England 🇬🇧

Running up the end of a pew in the church of St Michael and All Angels in Hubberholme is a carved oak mouse. It is the signature of Robert Thompson, the furniture maker from Kilburn in North Yorkshire known as the Mouseman, who carved a mouse on almost every piece he made.

💡 Origin Fact: According to the workshop’s own history, the mouse started in 1919: while the two were carving a cornice, a fellow carver said he was “poor as a church mouse,” and Thompson answered, “I’ll carve a mouse here.”

📷 Photo: Ruhrfisch / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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👽 Alien Gargoyle — By David Lindsay in Paisley, Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Paisley Abbey needed twelve new gargoyles for the roof and parapet of its 13th-century nave, and the client asked for modern designs. Carver David Lindsay drew this one late one evening in 1993, as a homage to the creature from Alien. In the second photo it sits among the other eleven at Paisley Abbey, including heads that see, hear and speak no evil.

💡 Carving Fact: Lindsay and two other carvers shared the work, and each gargoyle took about four weeks to carve.

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😈 Lincoln Imp — Lincoln Cathedral, England 🇬🇧

Look between the two arches: under the carved leaves and just above the bearded stone head, a small figure sits cross-legged, about 12 inches (30 cm) high. The imp is in the Angel Choir of Lincoln Cathedral, built between 1250 and 1280. In the story the cathedral tells, he flew in to cause trouble, the angels told him to stop, he answered “Stop me if you can!” and he was turned to stone.

💡 Football Fact: Lincoln City FC are nicknamed The Imps, and the imp is on the club’s crest.

📷 Photo: Julian P Guffogg / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

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🦉 The Owl — Notre-Dame de Dijon, France 🇫🇷

A small owl is carved into a corner of Notre-Dame de Dijon, on the street that is named after it, rue de la Chouette. Touch it with your left hand and make a wish, the tradition goes, and so many people have done it that the stone has been worn smooth.

💡 City Fact: The owl was damaged by vandals in 2001 and repaired, and it is now watched by a camera. It also gives its name to the Owl Trail, a 22-stop walk through the old town marked by bronze arrows set into the pavement.

📷 Photo: François de Dijon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)