On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Big R
I spent a year living in Barbados as faculty at the University of the West Indies. While my departure was under strange circumstances, I met my fiancee and so I travel there frequently while we wait for her visa to process.
Barbados has eleven subnational units, called parishes because they were originally organized as Anglican parishes and intended to support a church. Thus, each parish has an “official” church. My fiancee and I toured the island and visited all eleven. The first six were in October 2021; the last five we picked up right after the new year.
The parish churches in Barbados vary from really impressive neogothic edifices to what seem like the country churches in nowhere, America. But they all offer a fascinating view of the ways that a society navigates their own spiritual needs over nearly four hundred years.
The church in St. Joseph is abandoned due to land subsidence. Supposedly you can go in the church, but the yard this day was guarded by a cow who didn’t seem happy we were there.
The church in St. Thomas is used but not open aside from services. It’s the most “country parish church” of them all – just a little building next to a highway, no traffic, no activity.
Christ Church is beautiful and quite large. It’s in a fairly busy part of the island and has some lovely stained glass, so it’s open to the public. As with many of the oldest churches, there’s also graves under the floor of the church which is one of the weirdest things every time I encounter it.
The St. John parish church is a tourist destination, complete with vendors and bus parking, because it sits at the top of a cliff looking over the east coast. It has one of the most spectacular views. It also has, in its graveyard, the last resting place of the last known descendant of the last Byzantine emperor. At least, that’s the story he told and the story recorded on his grave.
St. Andrew is a poor folks’ parish and it looks it.
St. Peter’s parish church was the original seat of the bishop of Barbados, as the community at the center of St. Peter, Speightstown, was the capital at the time the bishopric was established. The seat has moved to the current capital of Bridgetown in St. Michael parish, but St Michael’s cathedral is arranged so that I couldn’t get a decent picture of it. Maybe next trip I’ll have a better shot to share!
St. Michael’s Cathedral is the largest church in Barbados. It’s also quite old, as the graves in the walkways and floor attest. Unfortunately, because it’s in the middle of the city and surrounded by trees and power lines, I’m not very satisfied with this shot.
Couldn’t get at a good angle for the front of St. George’s, as there was a funeral entering the church, but it’s grand and impressive. Also, right next to the entrance to the churchyard is a family grave marker showing two women with different last names who lived at the same time, buried together. Victorian lesbians or sisters who loved each other more than their husbands? Messy family drama can be seen even after everyone is dead and gone.
eclare
What interesting churches and history! Thank you.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Love Barbados, and was super sad that we had to put off our trip till November.
We stayed in a nice little Brit-run property in St James parish, a couple of hundred yards down from the toney joint where Tiger Woods got married. On the plus side, several of the escort types that were available for the money class at that place were also staying there at the time, so the scenery was fantastic.
Had the best fish meal of a lifetime at The Fish Pot in Speightstown, in a 400 year old British fort – the fishermen pulled up next to it, so you knew those fish were swimming only a couple of hours before.
stinger
Fascinating! The prettiest church, to my mind, is the one closed due to subsidence. A nice bell tower rather than the square crenellated towers. Thanks for the pix!
WaterGirl
The first and the last are my favorites. As charming as they are beautiful.
Ramalama
The Church at St. Joseph is a gorgeous ruin. Love the entry ways. I think I’m going to make a trip to Barbados one fine day.
One of my first jobs was inventorying the historical headstones in the abandoned burial grounds in and around Boston. It was hot, messy (rat holes and garbage thrown over the gates) but so interesting. I think looking at old Churches is a close second for me.
Mom Says I*m Handsome
My family visited Barbados several times for R&R when my dad was stationed in Caracas. I’ll never forget sitting in our bungalow, listening to the radio, when “Fat Bottomed Girls” came on. I was entranced! But the DJ didn’t announce the artist, so my mom suggested I call the radio station. Phone book out, number dialed, and the DJ told 12-year-old me that it was Queen — thus starting my life-long love affair with the band. Simpler times…
Lovely photos of the churches. Given my dad’s obsession with visiting churches & cathedrals wherever we went, I have to assume I’ve seen one or three of these. Mostly I remember driving around the island in those ubiquitous Mini Mokes.
SkyBluePink
My early days were in the land of beautiful ornate churches on every corner
and I still love churches, ornate or not
Really enjoyed these photos!
way2blue
Interesting that most of these churches/chapels have square bell towers. I don’t think I’ve seen that before. I’m used to seeing the very tall, tapering type… Thanks for sharing.
J R in WV
We have visited some amazing graveyards, from tiny overgrown family plots on ridges here in WV to a fascinating one in Key West, similar to the above ground burial grounds in NOLA. I think the best headstone was in Key West, where the fellow was Identified as a good Christian for 43 years, died at about 104, was pretty obviously a pirate for some years way back in the day. It was pretty eroded 50 years ago, hope it is still legible.
The tiny country graveyards abandoned when the family either died out or moved away are pretty sad. Mostly just field stones to mark anonymous people who passed on back in WV’s pioneer days. Sometimes remnants of a fence to keep livestock out.
Queen of Lurkers
We went to Barbados about twenty years ago for a week or so to watch cricket. The north/east of the island is less touristy and fascinating. The major roundabouts on the island are named after cricketing giants. Haven’t made it back again, but it’s always on my list of “places I want to go back to.”
Marc
My grandmother, uncle, aunt, and one of their sons were members of Christ Church and are buried there (no, not under the floor, in the adjacent cemetery). My grandparents emigrated from Barbados to Brooklyn in 1924, the four of them moved back there in the early 70s to run a B&B. I’ve been there twice, myself, once as a teenager and again three years ago. A beautiful place, but the contrast between the rich resort areas and the rest of the island is, for me, kind of depressing.