The Church with a Road Running Through It

Gmünd, Austria, has a church in two pieces, with a road between them. The minister preaches from the pulpit in one half of the church, while the congregation sits in the other half to listen. The two parts are open to the air, so that each party can see the other. It's called The Divided Church, for obvious reasons.

There's a story behind this church, although it's not a case of the government building a road and the church refusing to move, as you might expect. The road was there first, and it had a little roadside shrine where travelers could pray for safe travel over the mountain -or for mercy as they were led to execution. In 1748, the shrine was expanded into a chapel, with an open side so that the pastor could preach to people who gathered outside on the road. Eventually, the pastor arranged to have a room built for congregants to sit in out of the weather just across the street. Read how the shrine grew into a chapel and then a unique church, and see more pictures, at Amusing Planet.

(Image credit: Johann Jaritz)


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I use the pointer on my cats, but I feel they make most dogs too crazy. I think dogs need the satisfaction of catching something. The dogs that I have witnessed chasing a laser became frantic, over excited, and borderline violent. It did not even seem like they were having fun.
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"I wonder if there is any human equivalent to what animals experience when they encounter a laser pointer’s red dot." It makes me think of all those movies where something horrible but mysterious is happening on the horizon, and everyone is just standing around and staring with "what the f..." expressions on their faces.
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