Bestiary

Basel Minster

Chapel Osogna

There are chapels everywhere here (between Bellinzona and Biasca). They dot these mountains, labours of love, built by poor shepherds and farmers.

The medieval bestiary (book of beasts) derives from an anonymous Greek 2^nd C AD (probably Alexandria) which described the behaviour of animals and their significance in terms of a moral Christian interpretation. This was translated and supplemented by the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville (c 625 AD) which described birds and beasts, relating the etymology of their names to their habitat and physical characteristics. Medieval life was entwined with the natural world and mysterious forces of life and death, and this is the period when the grotesque appeared, often chimera a combination of animal, bird even human features in a single creature. Entwined animals is a feature of Celtic Christian art that influenced the Romanesque and its Byzantine styles which were anti-classicism.

The animal world was vast, the imaginary played a huge role, people believed in unicorns. Since John Ray, Linnaeus, Darwin, Freud, Rilke, Ted Hughes and WWF animals impact upon us in many different ways, both consciously and unconsciously.

This is granite country, with beautiful slab walls.

Biasca