Awesome Alpine Adventure: Day 3 - St James Cathedral Innsbruck

DAY 3: ST JAKOB OR  ST JAMES CATHEDRAL - Innsbruck Austria

Favorite picture for this post:

We were on tour and one of the places we stopped at was St James Cathedral.  Its in the old section of town and you can't help but notices these two twin towers rising above the skyline.

 The trouble was I couldn't get them both in one shot so I had to settle on two. 

The guide was calling it St James to us but then I notice in front this sign that had it as St Jakob.  I never made the connection that Jakob was the English equivalent of James.  I always just thought of it as being a biblical name in and of itself.   Since there was a statue above the sign I took that to be the representation of St James the person this church was built to honor.

 On the other tower was this statue and I wondered who it was.

According to a tour book we bought "Innsbruck - Guide to the city with 124 photographs including a city map'  St James Cathedral is of the High Baroque style  and was built by the plans of Johann Jakob Herkomer from 1717-1724.   The frescoes were painted by the brothers  Egid Quirin & Cosmas Damian - Asam  and finished in 1724.  St James is the patron saint of the city and the church is depicting him as a heavenly commander of the army.

When you walk in you are overwhelmed by the ornateness of the church. It's breathtaking beautiful!!  Then what surprised me the most was the fact that they were letting people take photo's in the church.  (From going to enough museums I knew to turned my flash off so not to affect the paintings and they seemed to let you take them that way.  When I was in Spain they would not let you take any photo's at all so I was glad they let me do it in here.  Its such a spectacular church you want to share its beauty with others.)
I know this isn't the best image but the lighting was difficult and it was the only image like that that I got that worked.

But what really draws you in is the alter and the art work on it and surrounding it.  The picture is 'Mariahilf' by Lukas Cranach and was painted in 1530. It is one of the most frequently used pictures of the holy mother Mary.  

Here is a cropped portion of a photo of it

'Mariahilf' by Lukas Cranach (1530) St James Cathedral - Innsbruck

But that wasn't the only thing that caught my eye.  One of the things I noticed was that the cross was not the predominant feature of the alter like I'm used to seeing in Catholic churches.  The crucifixion cross was on the right hand side wall as you faced the alter in an alcove.  

I also liked the statue of Mary holding the dead Jesus and used that as my favorite for this post.

When you turn around the next thing you just can't help but notice is the organ in the choir loft.

But what I really liked was the floor.  It had this gorgeous marble mosaic flooring.

Most of the people were drawn to looking upwards at the ceiling.   I must admit I wouldn't mind going to church here if I had ceiling like this to look at.  These fresco's were true masterpieces of art  and my photo's do not do them justice.

 Everywhere you look there was things to admire and ogle over. 

 I know this post doesn't do  St James justice but its definitely worth seeing, even if you are not Catholic or a religious person the art work alone is worth the effort.