Well as promised here are some shots of the murals at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in the Millvale section of Pittsburgh that my Linda and I went to see on Saturday. Pretty impressive stuff. The most striking image to me (partially because it's the first thing you see as you enter) was the top shot here of the Madonna and child that is painted on a large dome that rises above the altar. She is obviously not the virgin Mary from central casting that you see in so many church paintings and statues around here. This virgin is heavy and full-faced. She has done hard work as have the Croatian Catholic immigrants that this church was built for. Just about all the images were rich with allegory and meaning that the parishioners of the day could identify with. The docent that spoke about the murals was really good, and she had grown up going to this church at the time the artist, Maximilian Vanka was painting them, so we really felt a connection with the murals.
I was surprised at how small the church was. Of course being in Millvale how big could it be?! We don't have a GPS and the directions in the local paper weren't very helpful. It was very beautiful though once we found it. Before I forget, I wanted to post a link about the murals and how you can visit and support the restoration efforts
so here it is.
More shots to come next time...
