Thursday 13 September 2012

The Church On The Hill

 
This is based on a visit of mine to the St. Thomas mount church at Porur in Chennai. The exact place is known by the name of the church itself. The church is built on a hillockin the Guindy neighbourhood. The sidelines are decorated with the sculptures of the Jesus’s walk to the hill until the crucifixion and resurrection later. The relic filled church was built in 1523 by the Portuguese and it stands 300 ft height. 

We were greeted by sculpture in blue of Saint Thomas; the shrine on the hill is dedicated to Mary the mother of Jesus, also known as the ‘lady of expectation’. The Anglo Indians who inhabits the area around the foot of the hill built the church on the summit where St. Thomas’ death might have occurred. The way to the top of the summit has around 160 steps. The sides of the path has sculptures which showed various poses of the cross or stations as mentioned in the Bible. There are 14 such stations. Stations of the Cross is a series of artistic representation usually sculptural depicting the Christ carrying the cross to his crucifixion in the final hours.

When you move to the top taking the stairs you can feel gravity pulling you down and every step is tiring. The shrine on top has a wall mounted sculpture of The Last Supper. This is a really nice place to visit for anyone the view of the ground below from the top is awesome too. You can see flights taking off and landing at a close range, from the Chennai international airport. I am leaving some snaps I managed to take when I was there.
 
one of the stations




No comments: