Tralee Times
Ancient Places - Notes
Ardfert Cathedral
[1]
In AD 484 Saint Brendan was born near what is now Fenit the port of Tralee. Saint Brendan of Clonfert or Bréanainn of Clonfert (c. 484 – c.
578) called "the Navigator" or "the Voyager", is one of the early Irish monastic saints whose legends have overshadowed their history.
He is chiefly renowned for his semi-legendary quest to the Land of Delight. His feast day is May 16.
[2]
The marks on the edges of this pillar stone are characters from an alphabet that was used in fifth-century Ireland.
Known as ogham, the 25-letter alphabet was supposedly inspired by Ogma, god of eloquence. Ogham was carved and read from BOTTOM
to TOP. (Also carved, occasionally, right to left). Also written as ogam or ogum, it is pronounced "AHG-m" or "OH-ehm."
Ogham served as an alphabet for one of the ancient Celtic languages. Its origin is uncertain: it may have been adapted from a sign
language. Current understanding is that the names of the main twenty letters are also the names of 20 trees sacred to the druids.
Some authors have suggested the existance of a 13 month calendar which shared some of these names.
A 15th century treatise on Ogham, The Book of Ballymote, confirms that ogham was a secret, ritualistic language.
However, there is no direct evidence that the Ogham alphabet was used [in antiquity] for divination or any other magical purposes.
[3]
The term Romanesque, like many other stylistic designations of periods in architecture, was not a term contemporary with the art it
describes, but an invention of modern scholarship to categorize a period. The term "Romanesque" dates from the early 18th century and
attempts to link the architecture of the 11th and 12th centuries in medieval Europe to Roman Architecture, based on similarities of forms
and materials. Romanesque is characterized by a use of round arches, barrel vaults, cruciform piers supporting vaults, and groin vaults. It
is often referred to in Britain as Norman architecture.
[4]
A lancet is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from it resemblence to a lance. Instances of this
architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singularly or in pairs.
The motif first appeared in the Early English period of Gothic architecture (1200-1275), so common was the lancet window feature that this
era is sometimes known as "Lancet Period". Strictly speaking the lancet window should be austere and without tracery. However, it is not
uncommon to find the form sub-divided and filled with stained glass especially when dating from the Gothic-revival period of the nineteenth
century.
[5]
A wyvern (or wivern) (pronounced why-vern) is a winged reptilian legendary creature often found in medieval heraldry. Its usual blazon is
statant (standing). The wyvern is a type of dragon with two legs and two wings. The rest of its appearance can vary, such as appearing with a
tail spade or with a serpent-like tail. Variants of the wyvern include the sea-wyvern, which has a fish-like tail. The wyvern is similar to another
mythical creature, the cockatrice, which is similar to the basilisk. Wyverns have been described as the one of the larger forms of dragon, so
large that they prey on such creatures as elephants and rhinocerosses. Stories about the wyvern are very similar to those about the
legendary Arabian bird, the roc.
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Franciscan Friary, Ardfert
[1]
Thomas Fitzmaurice
The 1st Lord Kerry, Thomas FitzMaurice, founded a Franciscan friary there in 1253, and Nicholas, the 2nd Lord Kerry, built a leper house
there in 1312. The Crusader Knights Hospitaller of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem (later known as Knights of Malta), also had some
rights in Ardfert, although there is a record of a dispute between them and the Franciscans in 1325 about the market cross and pillory. It was
the seat of a bishopric until 1660.
[2]
Conventional Foundation
The Order of Friars Minor Conventual is a mendicant Order founded by St. Francis of Assisi under the name Friars Minor. From the earliest
times the word Conventual was added to this name.
[3]
Transcept
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture, the transept is the area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped")
building. The transept separates the nave from the sanctuary, whether apse, choir, chevet, presbytery or chancel. The transepts cross the
nave at the crossing, which belongs equally to the main nave axis and to the transept. Upon its four piers, the crossing may support a spire,
a central tower (see Gloucester Cathedral) or a crossing dome.
Since the altar is usually located at the east end of a church, a transept extends to the north and south. The north and south end walls often
hold decorated windows of stained glass, such as rose windows, in stone tracery.
[4]
Lancet
A lancet is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from it resemblence to a lance. Instances of this
architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singularly or in pairs.
The motif first appeared in the Early English period of Gothic architecture (1200-1275), so common was the lancet window feature that this
era is sometimes known as "Lancet Period". Strictly speaking the lancet window should be austere and without tracery. However, it is not
uncommon to find the form sub-divided and filled with stained glass especially when dating from the Gothic-revival period of the nineteenth
century.
[5]
Sedilia
The sedilia (the plural of Lat. sedile, seat), in ecclesiastical architecture, the term given to the seats (often) on the south side of the chancel
near the altar for the use of the officiating priests. These rebated seats are found in the chancel of churches and monasteries and were for
the use of the celebrant and their assistants. The seat is often set back into the main wall of the church itself.
[6]
Garderobe
Garderobes were medieval toilets in large public buildings and castles. They were often holes in the outer walls of these buildings which
dropped into cess pits or moats (depending on the structure of the building involved.) Many can still be seen (from the inside and out) in
Norman and Tudor castles. They became obsolete with the (re)introduction of indoor plumbing.
They also served as useful places to store clothes, as the pungent smells deterred moths. This is the origin of the modern word wardrobe.
[7]
Squinch
squinch: An arch, or a system of concentrically wider and gradually projecting arches, placed at the corners of a square base to act as the
transition to a circular dome placed on the base.
[8]
Corbels
A corbel is a stone bracket projecting from a wall or corner to support a beam or simply for decoration
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