Continued from (roadtrip post 5). Go to the (first roadtrip post).
Another night in a decent Best Western and another "free" breakfast. Breakfast is pretty much the same at all Best Western hotels and we're starting to get a little tired of eating the same every day so tonight we'll try to find a different brand. It's just us two guys so as long as the hotel is reasonable in cost, safe and clean, we're not picky. Planned for today is a drive to the little town of Schulenburg to take a tour of the famous "Painted Church's of Texas."
In the mid-1800's, Czech and German immigrants came to America fleeing poverty and settled in central Texas to chase a new dream. Although they embraced their new lands, they retained their traditional values, culture, food and faith. They settled near each other in communities of 600 families. Each community worked together to build their own church, painting the interiors in colors and symbols which reminded them of their homelands and pooling their money to buy statues for donation to the churches. From the outside, they look nice, but go inside and you will find a European-styled painted church with stained-glass windows, incredible statues, and elaborately painted interiors of brilliant colors. Today, fifteen of these churches survive and four of them can be toured during the week.
St. Mary's Catholic Church: High Hill is at 2833 FM 2672, Schulenburg, TX. 78956. Built in 1906, this is the crown jewel of the Painted Churches. The altar is particularly elaborate. There is a beautiful chandelier and a pipe organ provides accompaniment for the songs of praise each Sunday. Stations of the Cross were imported from Italy and there is a reproduction of Michelangelo's "Pieta."
The apse (the large semicircle arch containing the altar) is painted a pale blue accented in gold leaf with marble painted with turkey feathers. There are eighteen stained glass windows portraying biblical scenes. Each of these were purchased from Germany by separate families and each window contains the name of the family that purchased it. There are only 85 local parishioners, but the church receives numerous visitors for the services.
Just a few miles away at 4148 FM 1383 in the town of Dubina is Saint Cyril and Methodist Church. Dubina (derived from the Czech word for "Oak Grove") was settled in 1856 and is considered "The Mother of Czechs in Texas" as it was the first community in Texas whose residents were all Czechs. Many of the citizens, particularly the older ones, prefer to be called "Bohemians" since Czechoslovakia did not exist until the end of World War I and the region where the original settlers came from was called Bohemia.
The first church was built in 1877 with an iron cross on top which was forged by a freed slave named Tom Lee. That building was destroyed by a hurricane in 1909. In 1912, it was replaced with the salvaged iron cross back on top of the building. Within a year however, that building, along with nearly all of the town's commercial buildings, was destroyed by fire. The church was once again rebuilt with the once more salvaged iron cross back on top. Unfortunately, most commerce was being relocated to the larger cities and only one of Dubina's commercial buildings was rebuilt. The lack of commerce has restricted growth since then and the town remains mostly a farming community. In 1952, conservative church officials decided the bright colors inside was a distraction so they had the interior completely white washed. Fortunately, in 1983, a church member who happened to be a county judge led an effort (endorsed by a large majority of the members) to remove the white wash and restore the original colors. For a number of years, every Sunday after services, church members themselves worked on the long and tedious restoration.
Today you can see the the historically accurate recreation of the brilliant blue ceiling with gold stars, floral stenciling and hand-painted frescoes of angels. The inside is bright from the many large, curved windows which let the sunshine in. Colorful patterns of stylized vines and flowers trace the outline of the windows.
On the west side of the church is the Saints Cyril and Methodist Cemetery. Owned by the church, it has been in continuous use since Dubina's founding. The entrance to the cemetery is marked by a large, stone cross dedicated to the original settlers. Many of the old-style headstones date to the 19th and early 20th centuries with inscriptions written in Czech. It provides an interesting historical perspective for the town and church.
St. Mary's Catholic Church in Praha was our next stop. Originally named Mulberry in the 1840's, the community was populated with outlaws and misfits. The first Bohemian settler, Matej Novak, arrived in 1855. Soon, more Bohemians arrived and began ridding the town of undesirables. By the end of the Civil War, the town was fully populated by Bohemians and Moravians and they changed the town's name to Praha (the Czech name for Prague, the governing city of Bohemia). By 1882, there were 200 families, two saloons, a post office, café, herb center, liquor store , blacksmith shop, wheelwright shop, meat market, dance hall, a cotton gin and a school.
A small stone chapel was built in 1865 which was replaced by a larger wooden structure in 1876 and that one was replaced with the current structure in 1892. The beautiful, ornate ceiling and walls were painted by the famous fresco artist Gottfried Flurry. The parish holds an annual well-attended homecoming, "Prazda Pout" which is held every August 15th. A Veteran's Day Memorial Service is also held every year in honor of the nine native sons who lost their lives in World War II.
I have taken dozens of road trips and enjoyed every single one. Generally, our fluid itinerary consists of a starting point on a specific date with a number of places to see before a vague end date. You never can tell what interesting thing you might run across while traveling back roads so there is no real schedule set and rarely are reservations made until my traveling partner and I agree it's "done for today" time. After all, the point of a road trip is to be spontaneous and enjoy the journey. This sometimes leads to an interesting predicament. Actually, I have never taken a road trip where everything went as expected - sites unexpectedly closed, particular stores or restaurants we wanted to visit recently gone out of business or driving into the late night trying to find a hotel with a vacant room. This trip did not break that string.
To say the rest of the day didn't go as planned would be to engage in careless understatement.
Our next intended stop was the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I know, looking at flowers doesn't sound very manly, but Chip and I are both comfortable in our heterosexual manhood, flowers are pretty and you can take some really good photos so that's where we headed. Unfortunately, the Wildflower Center is on the southwest side of Austin, we were on the northeast side and we entered Austin city limits right at rush hour. I'm a native Texan. I got my degree from the University of Texas. I used to love Austin. But that was before it became "the place to be" and grew into a gridlocked metropolis of a million people, each with their own car and all of them driving at the same time on streets that were barely adequate for the city 25 years ago or roads that are perpetually under construction. In stop-and-go traffic (mostly stop), it took us 2 hours to get across town near the Flower Center only to find the road into it was closed due to construction. By the time we kind of sort of figured out how to get to it, it was closing time!
OK, so now we're both tired, worn out and frustrated. To heck with it, we'll get a room and settle in for the night. Well, that's what we thought we would do. We stopped at a Marriott, a Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn, LaQuinta - no room anywhere. As I drove us west, Chip was on the phone calling every hotel we could find. Finally found a Comfort Inn with an available 2-bed room in Fredericksburg, 80 miles away. We jumped on it. The room was a decent price. By the time we arrived, we would have paid more! I'm pretty sure I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Another night in a decent Best Western and another "free" breakfast. Breakfast is pretty much the same at all Best Western hotels and we're starting to get a little tired of eating the same every day so tonight we'll try to find a different brand. It's just us two guys so as long as the hotel is reasonable in cost, safe and clean, we're not picky. Planned for today is a drive to the little town of Schulenburg to take a tour of the famous "Painted Church's of Texas."
In the mid-1800's, Czech and German immigrants came to America fleeing poverty and settled in central Texas to chase a new dream. Although they embraced their new lands, they retained their traditional values, culture, food and faith. They settled near each other in communities of 600 families. Each community worked together to build their own church, painting the interiors in colors and symbols which reminded them of their homelands and pooling their money to buy statues for donation to the churches. From the outside, they look nice, but go inside and you will find a European-styled painted church with stained-glass windows, incredible statues, and elaborately painted interiors of brilliant colors. Today, fifteen of these churches survive and four of them can be toured during the week.
The apse (the large semicircle arch containing the altar) is painted a pale blue accented in gold leaf with marble painted with turkey feathers. There are eighteen stained glass windows portraying biblical scenes. Each of these were purchased from Germany by separate families and each window contains the name of the family that purchased it. There are only 85 local parishioners, but the church receives numerous visitors for the services.
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| The apse with the altar |
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| Stained glass window in St. Mary's |
Just a few miles away at 4148 FM 1383 in the town of Dubina is Saint Cyril and Methodist Church. Dubina (derived from the Czech word for "Oak Grove") was settled in 1856 and is considered "The Mother of Czechs in Texas" as it was the first community in Texas whose residents were all Czechs. Many of the citizens, particularly the older ones, prefer to be called "Bohemians" since Czechoslovakia did not exist until the end of World War I and the region where the original settlers came from was called Bohemia.
The first church was built in 1877 with an iron cross on top which was forged by a freed slave named Tom Lee. That building was destroyed by a hurricane in 1909. In 1912, it was replaced with the salvaged iron cross back on top of the building. Within a year however, that building, along with nearly all of the town's commercial buildings, was destroyed by fire. The church was once again rebuilt with the once more salvaged iron cross back on top. Unfortunately, most commerce was being relocated to the larger cities and only one of Dubina's commercial buildings was rebuilt. The lack of commerce has restricted growth since then and the town remains mostly a farming community. In 1952, conservative church officials decided the bright colors inside was a distraction so they had the interior completely white washed. Fortunately, in 1983, a church member who happened to be a county judge led an effort (endorsed by a large majority of the members) to remove the white wash and restore the original colors. For a number of years, every Sunday after services, church members themselves worked on the long and tedious restoration.
On the west side of the church is the Saints Cyril and Methodist Cemetery. Owned by the church, it has been in continuous use since Dubina's founding. The entrance to the cemetery is marked by a large, stone cross dedicated to the original settlers. Many of the old-style headstones date to the 19th and early 20th centuries with inscriptions written in Czech. It provides an interesting historical perspective for the town and church.
A small stone chapel was built in 1865 which was replaced by a larger wooden structure in 1876 and that one was replaced with the current structure in 1892. The beautiful, ornate ceiling and walls were painted by the famous fresco artist Gottfried Flurry. The parish holds an annual well-attended homecoming, "Prazda Pout" which is held every August 15th. A Veteran's Day Memorial Service is also held every year in honor of the nine native sons who lost their lives in World War II.
To say the rest of the day didn't go as planned would be to engage in careless understatement.
Our next intended stop was the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I know, looking at flowers doesn't sound very manly, but Chip and I are both comfortable in our heterosexual manhood, flowers are pretty and you can take some really good photos so that's where we headed. Unfortunately, the Wildflower Center is on the southwest side of Austin, we were on the northeast side and we entered Austin city limits right at rush hour. I'm a native Texan. I got my degree from the University of Texas. I used to love Austin. But that was before it became "the place to be" and grew into a gridlocked metropolis of a million people, each with their own car and all of them driving at the same time on streets that were barely adequate for the city 25 years ago or roads that are perpetually under construction. In stop-and-go traffic (mostly stop), it took us 2 hours to get across town near the Flower Center only to find the road into it was closed due to construction. By the time we kind of sort of figured out how to get to it, it was closing time!
