22nd of December 2021 was a great day for driving around. The weather was pretty cold but bright and sunny, and I had plenty of time at my disposal. I was directed towards Rovinj, when I passed the city of Pula, ten minutes after leaving my hometown.
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Twenty or so minutes later, I saw a direction sign for the church of St. Fosca and decided to visit that little temple surrounded by woods and meadows.
The narrow country lane with many curves led me through the village called Mednjan ...
... where I stopped to stretch my legs and take a couple of photographs.
Some trees around the village were still covered with autumnal foliage.
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Others were completely barren.
Behind some drystone walls, near the last houses of the village, I encountered this evergreen bunch. Four cypress trees. The cypress trees often look like copy-pasted trees in video games. This group caught my attention because each cypress was different.
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A bit further from the village, five hundred meters or so, not far from the isolated homestead out of Mednjan, I found this beautiful olive tree.
And now, you may think that the title of this post is misleading. I mean, currently, it looks like something about trees, not about a church mentioned in the title and seen in the opening photograph. But that is about to change ...
... very soon. After photographing the aforementioned trees, I continued towards the St. Fosca. The narrow asphalt road turned into an even narrower gravel one ...
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... and ten minutes later I reached my destination.
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This church dates from the late 6th or early 7th century, and it's a very beautiful example of architecture from the Romanesque period.
I like this building a lot.
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Especially what remains of the large porch, or more like a loggia in front of the church.
Until relatively recent times, this part was covered with the roof. I found two different versions of how the porch became roofless. Some sources state that it collapsed in 1956. Others state that it was demolished in 1952.
SOURCE http://zupavodnjan.com/neophodnost-lode-kod-svete-foske#
I found an old photograph on the Internet where you can see that pre - 50s version of St. Fosca.
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The loggia is much younger than the church. It was added in the 17th century, to provide a shelter for crowds of pilgrims waiting to enter the relatively small church.
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This place has a long history of pilgrimage in search of health-related miracles.
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In written sources the healing miracles are mentioned in 1651, by Bishop Giacomo Tommasini from Padova in Italy, that wrote about the church: "Here the God miraculously heals those who turn to him for help through the intercession of St. Foska." Tourism was started centuries ago ...
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... and is still going on pretty strong. The outdoor crucifix near the church is covered with gifts brought by those who seek help. The Jesus figure looks strangely exuberant with all those rosaries hanging around. I mean, it looks great in my opinion.
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I found a great variety of very photogenic details here. Both on the crucifix ...
... and beneath it.
Every object tells a story and exploring this baroque collection was a great photographic adventure. Here you can see some clothes surrounded by lanterns.
A minuscule turtle was crawling towards one of those red lanterns.
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Not far from there I saw a child that was talking with the roe deer.
One of the masks that have entered everyday life with the pandemic was put under the stone to ensure that stays there if the wind starts to blow. This is probably a part of some prayer connected to the COVID - 19.
Among many surprising things, there was also one simple plastic bottle that contained water. Or some similar colorless liquid. Near the bottle ...
... a little pony was smiling at me ...
... and I found this mysterious fluorescent thing that could be from outer space.
There was more to see here, around the crucifix, but now ...
... I would like to shift the focus and put it on the church's interior.
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The door was closed and locked ...
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... but I was able to take a couple of shots through the small window on that door.
The interior was very dark ...
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... but the bars in front of the door helped me put the camera still enough for long exposure shots.
That's how these photographs were taken. With the following shot ...
... the focus is back on the gifts around the crucifix.
The unpacked soother for babies.
The wax - angel.
Some very small thing that looks like a piece of cheap jewelry.
And a series of colorful candles painted on the pebbles.
Not far from there I found this less elegant fragment of stone with a short text on it. The words were written with a ballpoint pen. "Hvala ti bože za sve" mans "Thank you, God, for everything." It seems that someone had the things done by the powers that inhabit this holy place.
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Here you can see some details from the rosaries ...
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... hung high on the cross.
This is the metal cross that protects one of the three small windows ...
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... on the back of the building.
These toys ...
... were photographed on the sill of one of those windows.
This is one of the small plants that grew down on the ground, close to the church's posterior facade.
The minuscule yellow flower in this photograph was found nearby. Diplotaxis muralis is the name of this plant that often grows near the walls and roads in rural areas. The plant in the previous photograph is unknown to me.
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On the long drystone wall near the church, I found this stone with a face, decorated with flowers and religious jewelry.
Considerably lower, on one of the stones protruding from the wall ...
... I found another angel. This one was petrified. It looked a bit like a fossil of a prehistoric angel.
With this photograph, I'm in front of the church again ...
... looking at the surrounding landscape through the arches of the porch.
Here, you can take a look at the board with some basic information about the building. The following photograph ...
... was taken on the road back home. Here you can see the big Parish Church of St. Blaise in the old town called Vodnjan. At that point, I was only 20 kilometers from home.
AND THAT'S IT. HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EXCURSION. AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS (except that black&white one with the source linked under it) ARE MY WORK - THE END.