Holy hell.

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In Estella, Spain, a local handicrafts teacher completed this incredible "restoration" of a 500-year-old painted wooden effigy of St. George at a local church. Apparently the parish authorities of the Church of St Michael requested the teacher do the work.

"The parish decided on its own to take action to restore the statue and gave the job to a local handicrafts teacher," Mayor Koldo Leoz told The Guardian. "The council wasn’t told and neither was the regional government of Navarre... It’s not been the kind of restoration that it should have been for this 16th-century statue. They’ve used plaster and the wrong kind of paint and it’s possible that the original layers of paint have been lost.”

At the least, the parish should have hired Cecilia Gimenenz to consult on the restoration. Read the rest

Roman Robroek takes beautiful photos at abandoned sites all over Europe, including the thousands of abandoned churches across the continent as much of Europe becomes more secular. Read the rest

German photographer Robert Götzfried has published his latest series on the original high-tech wall of sound: church organ pipes. His beautiful symmetric photos show the remarkable variations possible. Read the rest