Dark And Gothic Glastonbury Tor Print

Description

Glastonbury Tor, pictured here, is a truly magical piece of the British landscape. The legends about this great hill are numerous, but perhaps most well known today is that Glastonbury Tor is Avalon of the legends of King Arthur. Yet even apart from Arthur, I think anyone looking at this black and white print of that beautiful Gothic tower standing atop the tor would be enchanted. St Michael’s Tower is all that remains of a medieval monastery. Standing alone like that on the peak of the tor, it has the dramatic feel of something ripped from a fantasy novel, doesn’t it?

I took this picture part way up Glastonbury Tor. It was quite a walk but well worth it for the amazing view over Somerset, but that commanding view also helps explain why the history of human activity on the site stretches back into the misty pages of the distant past. Today the tor stands in a very different landscape, though. In the past, Glastonbury Tor, like mystical Avalon, was an island. It stood in a marshy landscape that was later drained for farming.

This is a particularly dark black and white edit as I wanted to emphasize the Gothic mystery of the tower and the fantasy aspect of the legends that abound here. The path to the tower is both a metaphor as well as a wonderful visual cue that leads the eye to the tower at the top.

The medieval tower at the top of Glastonbury Tor in this print is all that remains of a 14th century church that was destroyed in the 1539 dissolution of the monasteries. The tower and the tor beneath it are protected monuments today. This print is one of the most popular from my brief wandering in Southern England. I think that’s because it appeals not only to art lovers but people who like historic and sacred sites. And Glastonbury Tor has a history of being a significant site going back well into prehistory.

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