Sunday, 31 January 2021
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| today's route |
Puppy pick-up
The boarding place was our first stop, and it was really nice to see the puppies again. Invigorating, but nice. Since I knew I'd be cleaning their bedding while they were gone, I'd asked to have them washed, too. They were definitely clean, but this place isn't a grooming salon, so Gracie hadn't been brushed, meaning she still had a lot of unneeded hair on her. While the dogs were gone, Lily and I enjoyed a nearly hair-free floor. In fact, I got used to it, so this morning I got a shock when, within a couple of minutes of picking up the dogs, we had hair on the floor again. Oh well.
On the road
I've heard about the painted churches in this part of the state but never seen any of them. It was hard to find information online that would tell me whether, given the pandemic, they were open for visitors. Actually, I wasn't even sure what they'd look like if I did find them open. But since I was in the neighborhood, dropping by seemed like a worthwhile goal. There are others - for instance, at Fredericksburg in the Hill Country - but I found 6 here in the east within a day's drive of each other.
Less than 2 miles from the boarding place is Airport Blvd. in Austin, which becomes US 183 just south of town. We stayed on US 183 for more than an hour, turning off when we got to Gonzales. My first goal was Shiner.
Shiner
The sign said "Welcome to Shiner - Cleanest Little City in Texas." And they weren't kidding. The cleanliness was noticeable - zero litter, no grime on the buildings - even those that were empty - and it made every other town look slovenly. Shiner's population was 2,069 10 years ago, and it's the home of Saints Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church.
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| Sts. Cyril & Methodius Church in Shiner |
The church was built in 1921 and is absolutely gorgeous inside.
I got there just as Sunday mass was ending, and waited for the congregants to file out of the church before going in. Once inside, though, I was stunned by the church's decorations, and stood in the back trying to take them in. But because there were still quite a few people in there, I didn't want to take photos that I thought might seem intrusive, as if this were a tourist spot instead of a house of worship. I'll have to go back sometime for photos, because the church was breathtaking.
Back on the road
Just outside the town of Hallettsville, I happened on some signs saying that area where I'd pulled over was the "Holy Mother Mary Apparition Site." There's not a lot there, as this article suggests, https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/shrine-honors-apparition-of-virgin-mary. What I saw was a small valley with several little shrines and a few religious symbols. Still, it wasn't something I expected to see.
Hallettsville
Hallettsville, "City of Hospitality," with 2,550 residents, is the "Home of the Brahmas" (I'm guessing high school team), as well as the Lavaca County Courthouse.
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| Lavaca County Courthouse in Hallettsville |
Built in 1897, it looks Gothic to me, but I'm informed online that it's in the Richardsonian Romanesque style (whatever that is). You might be able to see the word "Peace" on the front of the building. The other 3 sides continued with "Hope," "Love," and "Joy." I imagine they were put up as Christmas decorations, but in these continuing days of coronavirus, they're sentiments that haven't grown old.
Sublime
From Hallettsville, I drove another half hour east to the town of Sublime. Since it wasn't that far out of the way, I thought it made sense to visit there on the day I'm visiting painted churches.
The town is unincorporated and I have no idea how many people live there, other than not very many. It seems to have about 6 streets, all of which are about 1 lane wide and 2 blocks long, and most of which aren't paved. (Google lies when it says they have names; instead, the signs say LCR [Lavaca County Road] 142A or B or C.)
I guess it's an agricultural town, but there's obviously not much disposable income there. I thought it was interesting that I myself saw both a Baptist and a Lutheran church, both of them decent-sized buildings. I wouldn't have thought the area could support 2 congregations that could support 2 churches, but I guess they take their town's name seriously in a religious sense, despite the standard of living apparently being not at all sublime.
In this small town I saw a small Trump sign and a large Biden/Harris sign - this one saying "Make America Think Again." Speaking of which, I was interested to note that over the course of my 8 hours of driving today, I saw 7 Trump signs and 16 Trump flags. It seemed like a lot, considering what's been happening, but I think it may be a lot fewer than there were. I covered 230 miles of rural east Texas - the sort of country where every town has a 4-H Club - and I would have thought it was prime Trump country, so maybe 23 signs of support aren't all that many. What I also saw were lots of homes flying both US and Texas flags. Between Hallettsville and Sublime I saw a Confederate flag next door to a Texas flag across the road from a UT flag. So take your pick.
Moravia
Back to Hallettsville and turning north, I came to the town of Moravia, which has a highway sign but may be a ghost town, according to this article. http://texasescapes.com/Moravia-Tx What Moravia still has, though, is a painted church.
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| Ascension of Our Lord Catholic Church in Moravia |
Right next to the church is a very full cemetery, with names like Hanacek, Broz, Halata and Konvicka, showing the Czech origins of the original settlers.
Praha
Less than a dozen miles from there I came to the town of Praha, which is Czech for Prague. The town is either unincorporated but functioning, or it's a ghost town, depending on who you believe. What I know is that there were a number of houses in the neighborhood of the church, which makes it not very ghost-y to me.
And a note about my labels: I'm giving these churches the names on the signs in front of each of them. As you can see on this historical marker (below), they all have other names assigned on various websites and articles. I stuck with what they say they want to be called, according to their own signs.
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| St. Mary's Catholic Church in Praha |
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| the front doors |
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| close-up of base (above left) |
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| ceiling decoration |
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| detail of side panels |
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| Is this for St. Joseph? I'm not a Catholic so don't know the symbolism - sorry. |
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| detail behind the altar |
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| organ balcony |
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| confessional |
I didn't want to use a flash on these photos, but when I tried to lighten them on the computer, the colors tended to wash out. What you see is my best compromise between too dark and too colorless.
High Hill
Eleven miles away is St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in High Hill which, again, is either an unincorporated town or a ghost town. And, again, I saw quite a few houses around the church, so I'm going with unincorporated rather than ghost. This church is considered The Queen of the Painted Churches.
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| St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in High Hill |
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| the sanctuary |
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| closer view of the ceiling |
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| closer view of the sanctuary |
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| St. Joseph? |
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| organ balcony |
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| some of the stained glass windows |
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| much fancier cornerstone than usual |
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| 3rd side of the cornerstone |
Back on the road
From High Hill I turned down High Hill Road, which became a farm-to-market road, which became Piano Bridge Road. Along that road I passed a sign saying "WEAK Bridge - No Turnaround," which seemed ominous. It's just that they didn't define "weak" so I had no idea whether that included me or not. But since I've crossed other bridges that had warning signs on them, and since I've turned around in places where I had no business trying to turn around, and since I didn't have a clue what an alternate route would be, I decided to keep going.
The bridge turned out to be a very old iron bridge, made in "Cleveland, O." (it said on the bridge), and had a wooden ramp up to the bridge on one side and down from the bridge on the other. It also had a sign saying "Gross Weight 16,000 Lbs." so I decided not to worry. And it turned out the only thing I had to worry about was how narrow it was - we just barely fit on it.
Another quarter mile or so farther along was what's left of the town of Dubina.
Dubina
Wikipedia says it's an unincorporated town of 44 people, but from what I saw, it's a ghost town. I didn't see any houses anywhere near the church.
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| Sts. Cyril & Methodius Catholic Church in Dubina |
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| another Czech inscription at the base |
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| the sanctuary |
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| closer view of the detail |
In the foyer where I was, the church offered a brochure with a very detailed history of the area. It said the church was built in 1911 (after the previous one was destroyed in a hurricane) and the interior painting was finished in 1913. But that's not what you see above. Instead, in 1952, some brilliant interior decorator decided to paint over all the original decorations. Local artisans repainted the interior in 1983, and that's what you see now.
Ammannsville
A 6-minute drive farther brought me to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Ammannsville, still another unincorporated/ghost town with houses around the area.
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| St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Ammannsville |
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I was sorry that this church wasn't open; a sign on the door said visitors were welcome during regular business hours, which didn't include the Sunday afternoon when I was there. This church is known as the Pink Church, and though they say it's because the interior is pink, I honestly don't know why. At this link https://austinot.com/painted-churches-of-texas there's a photo of the interior, and maybe in real life it's pink but in this photo I'm not seeing it.
Back on the road
And from Ammannsville, it was another 45 minutes to Bastrop State Park. We passed a few oil wells, lots of cows, and farms everywhere. I saw a mama cow licking her calf, who stood there much more patiently than do most little kids getting groomed by their mamas - very sweet.
By the time we got to the campground, I was pooped. I'd left the campground this morning at 7:00, and we didn't get into Bastrop until 3:30. Long day. But the dogs had slept like logs for the whole driving trip (except for bouncing like mad every time we stopped), so they were ready for more walks. The campground had plenty of big dogs, but I was lucky in the numbers not being as high as they could be because the campground wasn't completely filled, though it'd looked like it would be when I made my reservation.
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