Day Four - Brindisi, Italy

We arrived in Brindisi, and the day started out nice, but turned overcast and drizzly.  But still a very interesting little town.

So we are now in Brindisi.

When we got off the dock, we started walking around the town, and snapped a few pictures as we walked along the waterfront.

 Now the sky is turning darker, and it's getting colder, too.

Dan at one of the squares.  Hardly any tourists at all!

I thought this was cool - they had refaced the old building, but still kept one of the angel figurines.

This is the new entrance to the Temple.

This Temple is a replica of the one in Jerusalem.  The Knights of the Templar recreated it exactly, except for size.  This was a very interesting find!  They are restoring the fresco paintings, which cover the inside of the Temple.

A look into the basement.  I forget what the guide said about this.

In the picture below, you can see scratch and pock marks on the marble column.  The Knights of the Templar believed the pillars represented the Christian faith, and before they went to battle, they would take their swords and cut into the marble so their swords would be strengthened by their faith.  On other columns, the marks are quite high, and those were made by Knights on horseback.

I took the picture below standing outside the old entrance to the Temple.  It's a little courtyard where they are storing some things they found inside the Temple.  If you look to the right of the door opening, you'll see marble carvings.  They were all around the door frame.  They are restoring most of the carvings.

I thought this was so sweet.  It's a tree that they are trying to grow, and they have surrounded it with blocks from the Temple to protect it.  I think it's an olive tree.

These blocks were taken from a tomb they found in the Temple.

Here's a much better picture of the carvings around the old entrance.

This is the gentlemen who served as our guide when we visited the Temple.  He is pointing at a cross with two cross pieces.  The Knights carved these into the stones.

Here's a close up of another cross carved into the stone.

Oh, this was really neat - I stood on the fulcrum of the Temple, and when you look around at the columns, you only see the inside columns, not the columns on the outside walls.  But if you take one step left or right, you can see the outside columns. 

Here you see only one set of columns.

And one step to the right shows the columns on the outside wall, too.

Just an interesting picture of a street scene in Brindisi.