The most beautiful religious buildings Munster

A Catholic church built between 1859 and 1864 by architect Charles Francis Hansom. Its interior presents colorful stained glass, an impressive organ and a magnificent wooden roof on which fourteen angels are sculpted. These carved elements were made with wood imported from the Black Forest in Germany.

Without doubt, it is a small wonder; considered the oldest Romanesque church in Ireland still standing (1127-1134), built by Cormac maccarthy, prince bishop of Cashel. The chapel of the chapel is populated with heads and mouth of animals, in a style extremely close to that of Dysert O 'Dea Castle, in the county of Clare (the same artists have worked there?).

The frescoes over 800 years old in the choir, the oldest of its kind in Ireland, are the subject of careful restoration work. You will certainly distinguish some remains of colors, very expensive at the time, including the clear blue that comes from Venice. The pillars are composed of geometrical patterns entirely typical of the Irish Romanesque and without a really apparent order: lodges, stars, broken lines… Facing the choir, a magnificent sculpted tomb may be the tomb of Cormac himself. Take a closer look: delicate ornaments representing interlaced animals and snakes would be Viking style.

Ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded in 1154 by monks of Mellifont Abbey (Mellifont Abbey being the first Cistercian abbey to be founded in Ireland in the County of Louth).

In the distance, the ruins of Hore Abbey, the last Cistercian Abbey in Ireland, was founded by the Archbishop of Cashel in 1272. A small path from the Rock of Cashel allows you to go directly.

Abbey in the Celtic brothers'plan founded for the Dominican brothers in 1243 by Archbishop David MacKelly, whose ruins now lie in the city centre.

From Carrick-on-Suir, take the R 697 north for about six kilometers, turn onto Scrogh Bridge and drive for about two kilometers. Park in front of the church and the crosses are in a walled cemetery on the other side of a field. Two crosses, the North Cross (3.13m) and the South Cross (3.90m), found on the monastic site of Kilclispeen, await you there. These are two of Ireland's oldest ringed crosses (^8th and ^9th centuries), made of sandstone and decorated with Celtic symbols. The northern cross features a scene of David and Goliath.

Dedicated to the patron saint of Kinsale, it is a remarkable church built in the th century, making it one of the oldest in Ireland. It was slightly reworked in the th century and surrounded by an old cemetery. The portal surmounted by a sculpture, now protected, is of a completely elegant nature.

It's hard to imagine a simpler, more spiritual structure than the dry-stone oratory at Gallarus (apparently built between the ^7th and ^8th centuries, although some historians dispute this, such as Christian Lassure, who refers to a ^17th-century family burial chapel). It should be remembered that oratories were chapels, built either in stone or wood, which often formed the very heart of the monastic site. The founder's tomb was located right next to the oratory. Its shape is reminiscent of an overturned stone ship's hull. A hut with a circular opening lets in a stream of light.

Place of pilgrimage on the edge of a lake. His recount is quite amazing. In the facade of a ruined Norman fortress, a niche was carried out, protected by a glass, it houses a cross before which, on a bench, one can meditate… A little before, pretty still a tower looked in the form of a reverse cross.

In the city, a church dating back to 1220 (one of the oldest churches in Ireland). Destroyed in part by Count of Desmond in 1579, she nevertheless exhibits beautiful polychrome carvings and medieval tombs.