Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing it, between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time), by using the blue link-up button below.
San Galgano Abbey – Double Bill
During our trip to Italy last month we had the incredible good fortune to visit with talented blog buddy Manja of Mexi Movie the Third.
Manja, her amore Marco, and their adorable furry companion Fonzi, played host and tour guide as we spent four wonderful days exploring the southwestern part of Tuscany with them.
So this week we decided to do a joint post showing two different takes on the same place.
The San Galgano Abbey was just one of the many fun doorscursions we went on during our oh-so-wonderful but oh-so-short time together.
You can read about the history of this 13th century abbey and the ruins that remain on this website: Visit Tuscany.
We arrived at the ideal time to capture that gorgeous, golden, late day light.
Over the centuries the monks moved on, for various reasons, and the abbey was abandoned. By the late 1700’s the cathedral’s roof had collapsed leaving the shell that still attracts tourists to this day.
Considering we were essentially visiting ruins, I was pleasantly surprised to find several nice old doors there.
Late day light also means long shadows – a favorite for many photographers 🙂
At one point as we explored the ruins of the cathedral…
…Manja says,”I heard that if you shoot straight up with the camera in just the right spot you can actually capture the shape of the cross in the sky.”
So, there I was flat on my back, sliding around until I figured I was in the right spot, and then I snapped a few shots until I got it right.
There were a few old doors within the remains of the cathedral too.
But a place like this is also fun for photographers to practice playing with leading lines,
rhythm and repetition,
and some interesting framing as well.
As we exited the other side of the cathedral we came across this brick building that was simply begging to be photographed 🙂
Now please head on over to check out the abbey through Manja’s lens.
As always, I thank you so much for stopping in 🙂
Want to join in on the fun and share your own Thursday Doors post with other door lovers? Click on the blue button below to add the link to your Thursday Doors post to our link-up list.
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Fabulous photos, Norm! My favourite, the open doors 🙂 🙂
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Still catching up on things and I’m glad to see the Manja tour. Such impressive doors and other shots of the ruins! I want Manja to be my guide, someday too!
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What a wonderful collection! And you captured that golden Tuscan sunlight perfectly. Love all the arches, and especially the rectangular door with the arched bit to fit into the arched opening. Good job on centering on that cross just right. And thank you for the photography lesson on framing, repetition, and leading lines. Great post!
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These shots are amazing Norm! I love abbeys. This one has such beautiful architecture! I’m amazed that there were doors to be found. And awesome ones at that. And those leading lines…swoon. It would never have occurred to me that you could capture a cross. That was a great share by Manga. 🙂
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Incredible architecture, windows, columns, and of course doors all bathed in the beautiful golden late day light! Wow!
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Beautiful adventure Norm! There is nothing better than being shown around by somebody that lives there. It’s a different touch.
Every time I see those studs (or whatever they are) in old doors, I think of knights! Me and my imagination:)
Pat
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I love visiting ruins – you’ve got some awesome photos here!
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Love those old doors and the arches.
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Norm, this is truly one of your finest. Magnificent photos! I’m surprised the doors are in such good shape. And the photo of the cross in the sky- wow!
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It was truly a fun day spent with good company 🙂
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😀
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Wow! Beautiful place.
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It certainly is. Thank you Sherry 🙂
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Beautiful place, great doors and gorgeous photographs! And what a treat to meet and explore Tuscany with Manja, the queen of Italian doors!
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“The Queen of Italian doors” 😀 That is 100% bang-on.
I think I’m going to start calling her that now – thanks 🙂
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😀😀😀
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Ahh, Angela, that’s high praise, thank you! 😉
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You are welcome!
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That’s another wow. Not just the doors, all the doors are wow — even the doors that don’t have, um, doors. And that cross in the sky? Amazing. Beautiful share, Norm.
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Thank you Joey. It was awesome day spent in very good company 🙂
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😀
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Those pictures are fantastic!! Seems you had a blast in Tuscany:)!
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We did indeed. Thank you 🙂
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Thanks for the reminder to establish a link, Norm.
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Good lesson in many ways to ‘Look Up’. Superb post as always.
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Thank you!
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These shots are so lovely. You were there at just the right hour, shadows creating a beautiful backdrop and contrast. I know you had a wonderful trip…isn’t it hard to put it behind you? I still want to jump back into many of my pictures, or some of these! Just get me back to Italy.
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Thanks Denise. Considering they’re forecasting snow here for this weekend I’d say “just get me back to anywhere warm” 😀
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Nice, I like snow! Bring it on!
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Wonderfully shown Norm! I love the repetition of arches and the cross in the sky.
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Thank you Deborah. We had such a good time at this place.
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This is truly a gallery, Norm – awesome post! My favorite of your details is the two are standing in the distance – in the midst of all the arches. It gives the feeling to the once immense building and letting my imagination go about how the inside looked!
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Thank you so much 🙂
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Wonderful angles and arches. I especially love the “framed” one.
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Thank you Jan 🙂
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You know, when you think about it, the architecture way back then, when tools were more by hand than today, it is amazing these beautiful structures are still with us. The modern architecture does not seem the have the beauty and artistic detail as they did even 200 years ago. I love the old style so much more. To me they have more character.
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It’s incredible to think of the structures that were built without the motorized equipment and tools we have today. Yet somehow these older structures are better built 🙂
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Gorgeous. The leading lines pictures, stunning and I love that one with the open shutters letting the sun in 🙂
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Thank you. We arrived at just the right time of day; I love when that happens 🙂
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I marvel at the notion of maintaining elegant doors on a ruin and wonder why this was done – but then I recall all the beer parties I attended during high school in the woods and abandoned houses – and oh yeah, it suddenly made sense.
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Well the fact that it’s a registered historic site and there’s a small entrance fee means there’s some money to help with the upkeep. The site is really quite well-preserved.
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Your photos do justice to a beautiful place. Fantastic light, shadows, doors, and everything else. And you got to meet a blogging friend besides. What’s not to like? Great job, Norm.
janet
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Thanks Janet. Despite the fact that the weather was still hot enough to slow me down some, our time there was magical 🙂
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Lovely doors!
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Thank you and welcome. There’s no need to put your link in the comments, please just click on the blue froggie button near the end of my post and follow the simple steps to add it to our link-up. That way all of the participants’ links are grouped together in one place. Cheers 🙂
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Ok will try next time – the blue button! ThankU
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Just so you know, it’s open for entries until noon on Saturday each week, so there’s no need to wait till next time 🙂
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What a great building and nice doors! I put it on my list for our next Italy visit.
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Thank you. I’m sure you’ll find it worth the visit 🙂
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These are wonderful doors and excellent photographs, Norm. It’s sad that the roof collapsed but it’s remarkable that the structure and the doors remain in relatively good condition. I love your efforts to get the cross and the other examples of images that could be created here. So you’re that guy lying on the ground 🙂
I’m also glad you added that little building. I think you’re right, it wanted to be included. Great job!
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Yes Dan, I am often that guy on the ground. And sometimes I don’t even have a camera in my hands! But that’s a whole ‘nuther story 😀
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🙂
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It seems as if we were there on the same day. 😉 Thank you for the kind words and company. I did something wrong with my post and since it doesn’t appear in the reader, I’ll post a reminder. Watch out for it. 😉
I love so many of your photos, especially of the long shadows and that door in the middle of the wall. (How come I didn’t spot it? Now I see that I even posted it without noticing it up there. :D) The cross is pretty cool and it gives me an idea…
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Yes it does look like we were there at the same time, what a coincidence!
I haven’t tried looking through the reader, I usually just find the posts on the link-up list first. By the way the original link you sent me to put in my post is working fine.
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Superb post, and what fun to meet up with and be guided by Manja. Love the cross of the sky. So so jealous of your trip to Italy.
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Thank you! On this trip we were very fortunate in so many ways. We look at the pics from barely a month ago already, and we have to pinch ourselves to make sure it was all real 🙂
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Beautiful old Italian building, Norm. I love the shot of the abbey in the distance with the trees leading up to it, looks like a landscape painting.
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Thanks Jean. As we were driving up and that scene came into view I remember thinking to myself that perhaps we had just stepped into a postcard 🙂
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Nice variety and historic doors today! The long shadows are really nice and I like the sky cross too (like J)
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Thank you. The sky cross was fun to shoot 🙂
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😊
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A photographer’s dream! What a beautiful location! … and it looks like you and Manja had the place to yourselves. I don’t think I could pick a favourite photo although the cross in the sky is a really cool shot – and the trio of leading lines!
Like you, I’m delighted to see so many doors still intact on a ruins … and no graffiti. I’m not sure which surprises me more.
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Thanks Joanne. They’ve done an impressive job of preserving what’s left of the site.
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