Originally Posted by
Wallachian
I believe it is from the Popauti Monastery in Botosani, Moldova, Romania.
Ah nice, so far north and so late and still so much Byzantine influence in their armour.
Originally Posted by
Wallachian
Don't know much about Nubia but are there money monasteries with murals in Sudan?
Yes, there are still many to discover in the sand, especially in Old Dongola, where Polish archaeologists uncover new churches and murals like every year. However, as more south one moves as more humid the climate, and ergo less well preserved churches and their murals become. Also, many churches are endangered by the continous & dubious dam projects of the Sudanese goverment, of course within the Nubian territory.
If you are interested here one of the most exciting known murals from Nubia (12th century):
It shows some kind of feast, eventually dedicated to virgin Mary, and includes weird caps with veils, masks with cowry shells and stuff like that.
Originally Posted by
Wallachian
I would have thought that many of the Christian places of worship would have been destroyed with the Muslim conquest.
Ah no, most churches were not touched but just decayed and occasionally buried under the sand. Only a handful of churches were actually converted into a mosque, and even where they had been used as a mosque it occured that the Muslims dont even touched the murals but just covered them with seperate plaster. I heard tho that during the late 19th century the Mahdi and his successors ordered to destroy churches, but I am not sure how true that is. Fact is tho that the Sudanese used the bricks of the great churches from Soba to build Khartoum. A shame, would have loved to see murals from that far south.
Originally Posted by
Wallachian
There is a great monastery painting in Moldova showing the fall of constantinopole with cannons firing and all
Moldovian Cannon unit confirmed?