03-08-09 Votive Candles - Zagreb, Croatia

03-08-09-votive-candles-zagreb-croatia My wife and I arrived in Zagreb via train from Budapest and had most of the day to explore before a flight took us to Dubrovnik. Except for a wonderful lunch we ate at an outdoor restuarant, we kept moving almost the whole time. We saw the Church of St. Mark, with its beautiful tiled roof, the Croatia Museum of Native Art, among many other things.

At one point in our walking tour we passed through the Stone Gate (Kamanita Vrata) which the tour book said was "the oldest city gate." Just inside the gate there is a chapel with votive candles. I still remember feeling the warmth and smelling the strong odor of authentic tallow candles before i saw them. A breeze was blowing through the arcade, stirring the flames of the candles. I would have stayed longer but my wife thinks that my photography in a place like this is an intrusion into people's spiritual lives. Maybe it is. But I am always drawn to photograph votive candles.

Canon 5D f/10 1/500 ISO 400 Canon 24-105 4.0L (105mm) Photographed: June 1, 2007

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