Snow church opens in Bavaria

Visitors stand in front of a blue-lit church built of snow during its opening in Mitterfirmiansreut, southern Germany, Dec. 28, 2011. / Lukas Barth,AP Photo/dapd

MITTERFIRMIANSREUT, Germany - A church built entirely of ice and snow has opened in Bavaria — a century after villagers first built a snow church in an act of protest.

The church at Mitterfirmiansreut, near the Czech border, is more than 65 feet in length and boasts a tower. It's made up of some 49,000 cubic feet of snow.

The structure was bathed in blue light as it opened Wednesday evening with a blessing from Dean Kajetan Steinbeisser.

But when the ancestors of today's villagers built the first snow church in 1911, they weren't thinking just of architectural achievement.

Steinbeisser says: "It was meant as an act of provocation — believers from the village got together and built a snow church because they didn't have a church here."

[rwsmith29456]

This article sure could have used just a little more detail as where/why/what the 'protest' stemmed from.

[rwsmith29456]

The Sydney Herald has a tad more info than is here. "The first ice church was built by mountain villagers who had to travel 90 minutes to a neighbouring town to celebrate Mass. When the town officials rejected their pleas for their own church, they built one out of snow and ice." I wonder if those town officials were re-elected?

[venusvegasvada]

Cool!

[Zann-Zel]

http://0.tqn.com/d/gogermany/1/0/H/4/-/-/rothenburg.jpg

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/10/dc/9c/fussen.jpg

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/49/139968437_77b3eca863_z.jpg?zz=1

OMG! I miss that place so much! The history was mind boggling!

[flexsf]

While I think Christianity is the worst thing to happen to humanity, and the history of Christian art is genuinely awful, I really like their architectural achievement here.

[venusvegasvada]

-Unless you were a slave.

True, it took a very long time for the slave debate within the Christian world to work itself out, but in the end, those arguing against it won. A case could be made that without Christianity, the abolishment of slavery may not have happened and the abolishment of slavery is generally considered to be one of humanities greatest triumphs. True?

[-Skirt-]

"...the abolishment of slavery is generally considered to be one of humanities greatest triumphs. True?"
-------
Not True!!!!!!!!!

I would like to own a slave. Dangit! I can't because of Christianity.

WHAAAaaaaaaaaa

[Zann-Zel]

That is cool! Wish I could go see it! : )