The visit to St. Stephen's Basilica was both gratifying and annoying. It is a beautiful place and it is nice to see a place that really lives up to its reputation. On the other hand, visitors are restricted to a modest area near the door making it's hard to get the nice symmetric shots I enjoy taking. Nevertheless, here it is in all its glory... or at least all of it could access.
When you walk in the door, there is dome light just over your head. This makes for a nice image to show off the carefully patterned decorations, the guilding, and the generally darker character of the interior.
Looking to the left across the rear of the building, we marble columns and walls in a remarkable array of colors capped by the carefully painted ceiling.
As you can see the artificial lighting is minimal providing the space with light similar to what must be the traditional look. On the left below is the central dome of the basilica lit with the blueish light of the many windows placed up high in that structure.
Between me and the dome is a large columned structure that I had to lean around and over the ropes to get the image below. This is about as good a view of the dome as it is possible to get without venturing into forbidden territory.
You'll notice a woman and small child are indeed in this space. I suspect they (or at least the woman) are members of the church as they were ushered straight in to the main part of the building.
As near as I can tell, all the marble is really real, not paint work. I found a small section where the stone had been shipped around the edges and it was the same all the way through.
The marble and the guilding complemented by the soft yellow fo the ceiling make an impressing scene.
Here's a view (as good as I could getgiven my lmitations) of the altar area.
A second attempt the see the dome is worse than the first one. At this angle, everything is strongly distorted.
Back outside, we can see the decoration motif of the interior repeated on the ceiling above this large door.
And from a vantage down the street a block, we see the entire front of the building.It is an impressing place and quite beautiful.
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