Münster gardens, Basel

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The simple garden behind the Münster of Basel, Switzerland, features a bronze replica of the church and its cloisters.

The building — constructed from the 13th century to 1500 — was originally a Roman Catholic cathedral and is now a Reformed Protestant church.

To scroll through larger versions of the photos, click on ‘Continue reading’ below and then on any thumbnail in the gallery.

The harp at Nature’s advent strung
Has never ceased to play;
The song the stars of morning sung
Has never died away. . . .

The blue sky is the temple’s arch,
Its transept earth and air,
The music of its starry march
The chorus of a prayer.

So Nature keeps the reverent frame
With which her years began,
And all her signs and voices shame
The prayerless heart of man.

— John Greenleaf Whittier, from “The Worship of Nature

Vintage landscape: Nîmes, France

Garden of the Fountains, Nîmes, France]Garden[s] of the Fountains, Nîmes, France,” between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900, by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.

This is another image from the Library’s photochrom collection, which includes many views of the architecture, monuments, and landscapes of France.

Les Jardins de la Fontaine were built in the mid 1700s.  They were the first public gardens in France.

Vintage landscape: streetside allée

Mount Clemens, MI, ca. 1890, via Library of Congress“Gratiot Avenue and Church Street, Mount Clemens, Michigan,” between 1880 and 1899, by Detroit Publishing Co., via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

From the 1870s until World War II, Mount Clemens attracted film stars and the wealthy to its mineral baths.

The view of this intersection today is here.