Smallville : Churches & Parks
Since the middle of the Nineteenth Century, there have been several waves of settlement in the Eden Bay region, mostly Europeans. First the French, then the English, then Poles, Ukrainians, Italians... It has trickled down somewhat now, but people are still coming in from all corners of the world, lured by the opportunities and the quality of life in the region. Each wave of immigrants brought its own culture and, in Smallville, it shows in the name of the churches. Of which there are many -- at some point, Smallville vas nicknamed the City of the Bells, for each hour and half-hour was ringed in everywhere. Now only the Cathedral Sainte-Adèle has this privilege --fortunately, because sleep would be hard otherwise. P. R. didn't visit every small church and chapel, but only the main ones.
1. The baptist church, St.Temperance, and its park :
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3.The Lutheran church, St.Ephrem, close to the old City Hall & police station, and to the mayor's house. Three generations of Zabnises have played in the nearby Serenity Park.
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5. En route to another church, P. R. went through the more secluded Melancholia Park; by then, she was getting the nagging feeling all the city's parks had been designed by the same landscape artist. And... those names !
6. In the middle of the town, close the the new City Hall, there is St.Antoine -- which was the main church before the Cathedral was built.
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10. Closer to the outskirts of town, the small St.Saturnina, with coloured glass windows imported from Italy at great cost by the Italian community.
11. The austere St.Tomàs church
12. Most churches are neighbourhood churches, with few parishioners now. Some have even been decommissioned. This one, St-Ephrem, has been converted into a small art gallery and concert hall.
13. One of the smallest, St.Apostolska, near the Wessermeyer College.
14. St.Gilda, right in in what is now one of Smallville's busy commercial neighbourhood.
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16. At the point, P. R. got confused. Hand't she already seen that church ? Yes, St.Ardua, near the Towers :
Ardua and Gilda were twin sisters, the legend has it, and the Italian community, then in full swing, decided that there would be sister churches. Which is somewhat confusing indeed for tourists who walk around without a map -- like P. R.
17. St Ardua and the Towers are graced with one of the big city park, Fortitude Park. There, P. R 's questions about the builder of the city's parks were answered : indeed, it was the same man, Viktor Wessermeyer, a German-Polish immigrant of the very early TwentiethCentury, who lived a long and productive life, albeit a sad and bereft one. A poet as well as an architect, and a romantic at heart with a rather somber inclination, he favoured a particular path design, interlocking circles or half-circles supposedly figuring infinity. O....K.... P. R. thought to herself after thanking the kind old gentleman who'd enlightened her at length. At least, there are parks in Smallville !
18. The design was reproduced when the Towers were built, as an hommage.
19. P. R. had been directed to the cemetery where Wessermeyer had been buried -- the old one, close to St-Adèle : there are almost no cemeteries left in the city, they have all been pushed to the city limits. But that one was kept, enclosed in walls and transformed into another park, where admirers of Wessermeyer can come and meditate on his grave. Jim Morrison's it ain't, but still, faithfulls come each year on his anniversary ; Wessermeyer had been famous enough as a poet to deserve that, and have a college named after him. As per his wishes, a tall dark tree was planted near his tomb.
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