As many of the members her know, I live in Kemnath, Germany which is a town of about 5,000 people a little over an hour west of the Czech border in Northern Bavaria.  After Mass this past Sunday I got to talking with the local priest about how pretty the Church is.  He mentioned that our church (Pfarrheim Maria Himmelfahrt, english-Assumption of Mary Parish) was built before the discovery of America.  It was built in 1448 and is a wonderful example of late medieval church construction.  It has been in constant use as a church for over 500 years.  It is built in the cruciform style with two naves below the apex and seats about 400-500 people.  I have been to many of the most famous cathedrals in Europe including, St Paul's, Notre Dame, Rheims, Pisa, and Bayeax but for some reason the smaller parish churches that have been lovingly maintained for centuries are more impressive to me.  They are not visited by tourists but if you want to really see beautiful paintings and architecture you can go into just about any old church in Europe whether Protestant or Catholic and see some beautiful art.One of the things I love about Europe is that just about everywhere positively drips history and the town I live in is no exception.  Being a historian, it is awe-inspiring to me to sit in church every Sunday and think about how old it is and how many people have passed through those doors.I hope to add to this thread later by adding some photos of the church and general downtoan area of Kemnath.