damnatio memoriae

The iconic Kilpeck “Hound and Hare” corbel, a Romanesque marvel that seems to have been created yesterday, but is almost 900 years old 🐶🐰

@BeccaFirebird Chapeau! They are magnificent, what a master of his art 🫡

@InDamnatio My dad made those gates.

The Wedding Gates at Winchester's Great Hall, designed by Anthony Robinson and installed in 1981 to commemorate the wedding of Chas & Di They have a certain Mordor-esque feel to them 😏 #IronworkThursday

A trip to the centre of Rome yesterday to see the talk of the town - the current restoration of the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina has produced this familiar-looking angel standing next to a bust of the last Italian king, Umberto II Claims that the angel has been deliberately painted to resemble Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni have been roundly denied - either way, the throng of people there to take photos at the church suggests that this could have been a somewhat canny publicity stunt 😅

@TonyFelonius @OptimoPrincipi Thank you for the info! Very interesting 😊

@InDamnatio @OptimoPrincipi Wikipedia says this was the son / nephew of the Quintilii brothers who lost their lives and their magnificent villa to Commodus. He faked his death as he feared the same fate.

1/3) When the Roman senator Sextus Condianus learned that Commodus had ordered his execution, he hatched an ingenious plan. He drank the blood of a hare then later deliberately fell from his horse. Vomiting up the hare blood as if fatally injured, he had himself carried home...

@DrFrancisYoung Ok you've clearly done your homework so it might be on your list (or perhaps you've visited already) but do try to squeeze in a trip to East Meon to see the remarkable font if somehow it's not on your itinerary

Today I visited three abbeys before lunch: Beaulieu, Netley and Titchfield

@cbnewham Oh hey, hadn't spotted you are back! We had a good time exploring places we found in your book last year, thank you.

The Knight Who Never Was. St Britius, Brize Norton (Oxfordshire) houses an unusual monument - a semi-effigial slab revealing glimpses of an armoured figure through apertures in the stone.

Hey @CharmOfCulture how did I do? Considering it was absolutely bucketing down and I only have a phone camera I think it wasn't a bad attempt 🧐

Challenge accepted! Am in the centre without much to do today, so I'll recreate this tweet with today's grey skies 🤌🏻

Just to demonstrate how dedicated I am to providing you the churchy content you need 🤣

Consider this a public service - I've done this so you don't have to - at somewhat of a loose end I walked 11km today to see La Chiesa di Dio Padre Misericordioso (The Church of God the Merciful Father) built in the Alessandrino district of Rome between 1998 & 2003 A shame that it was closed, I think the roof of glass would make it make sense in a way that is difficult to understand from the outside

@AnnMile71721158 Jealous, sounds wonderful! We should normalise the building of serpentine boundaries!

@InDamnatio We built one of these in a previous garden. They are also called Serpentine Walls ,for obvious reasons. The curve,bay bit,is excellent for herbaceous plants.

May, Lymington The peculiar excellence of a crinkle crankle wall A way to achieve maximum integrity with minimal brick outlay "The sinusoidal curves in the wall provide stability and help it to resist lateral forces, leading to greater strength than a straight wall of the same thickness of bricks without the need for buttresses" Also known as a crinkum crankum, sinusoidal, serpentine, ribbon wall depending on your preference #DMsBestOf2025

I'm a little sad that I'm in Rome when you're right in my patch as I'd doubtless try to impose myself within the church/ale Venn intersection but I'll just say that obviously, clearly Christchurch is on your itinerary, right? And yes Romsey Abbey is absolutely stunning. Oh and please don't neglect the Meon Valley.

More Romseyness

From Mottisfont I went on to @romseyabbey, which is everyone’s fantasy of a surviving medieval abbey church but in this case is actually REAL

May, Netley Just a 15 minute walk from home, Netley Abbey is always a salve for the soul #DMsBestOf2025

May, Tarrant Crawford 13th and 14th century wall paintings at the church of St Mary the Virgin #DMsBestOf2025

@StroudStory It's spectacularly nuts, inside and out. Did somebody say Rhenish helm? 😅

@InDamnatio What even is that? Gotta love those Victorians!

March, Hawkley Bonkers Victorian Romanesque at St Peter and St Paul's #DMsBestOf2025

April, Rome 17th Century frescoed ceiling of the church of Santa Maria ai Monti depicting The Ascension of Christ, the Doctors of the Church, and angels, primarily painted by Cristoforo Casolani, angels above the windows by Orazio Gentileschi #DMsBestOf2025

One time when we visited Romsey Abbey the guide told us that the little column above the 2 arches in the triforium is a strange and unnecessary addition, likely purely decorative with no structural requirements. It's a fabulous church, we visit quite regularly. Next time you're in town do check out Cult, an Aladdin's cave of wonders 😊 maps.app.goo.gl/Y2a3faVLt8LKAT…

@InDamnatio Close but not equal to your stonework...in the triforium at Romsey Abbey!

April, Rome Pretty old, very old and super old. Bernini's elephant (1667 AD) with the Pantheon (126 AD) in the background. The obelisk that the elephant holds was originally erected in Sais, in the Nile Delta, by Pharaoh Apries of Egyptsl's 26th Dynasty, around 580 BC #DMsBestOf2025

@visualsancients After countless trips where I thought I'd ride this subway, only for the opening to be delayed, it finally happened. Now we can get to the proper centre of Rome from home in 25 minutes 😊

@InDamnatio Niiiice! Looking forward to your photos!

Made it! 🚇©️

Ponte Palatino, Rome - also known as Ponte Inglese, English Bridge, due to a quick in the city's traffic management meaning that the cars passing over it drive on the *correct* side of the road 🧐