Details
Founded: 1757Category: Religious sites in Latvia
Historical period: Part of the Russian Empire (Latvia)
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Igene church is one of the few wooden churches in Latvia. It was built in 1757. The shape of the dimension, layout and proportions of the church are archaic bearing evidence of preservation of ancient traditions of wooden craft. The church was and financed by the owner of Igene Manor Alexander von den Brincken. The one-nave log building is planked with horizontally painted boards, there is a polygonal apse, sacristy and a square bell tower with a polygonal roof peak brought forward from the building.
There are several valuable items in the church: the altar (1752) and pulpit, which were not very successfully painted in 1932. During the restoration, when the top layer of the black colouring was cleaned, paintings were uncovered, which indicate that the pulpit and the altar are older than the church itself. The fitting of the door lock (18th century) and the wind-cock on the tower (1757) are peculiar.
References:Claude Monet lived for forty-three years, from 1883 to 1926, in Giverny. With a passion for gardening as well as for colours, he conceived both his flower garden and water garden as true works of art. Walking through his house and gardens, visitors can still feel the atmosphere which reigned at the home of the Master of Impressionnism and marvel at the floral compositions and nymphéas, his greatest sources of inspiration.
In 1890 Monet had enough money to buy the house and land outright and set out to create the magnificent gardens he wanted to paint. Some of his most famous paintings were of his garden in Giverny, famous for its rectangular Clos normand, with archways of climbing plants entwined around colored shrubs, and the water garden, formed by a tributary to the Epte, with the Japanese bridge, the pond with the water lilies, the wisterias and the azaleas.
Today the Monet's Garden is open to the public.
