Pairs of plaques
In Vienna, Paris, and Norwich
I.
Two plaques on a building in Vienna (Landstraßer Hauptstraße 26):
The upper one says: “LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN lived in this house in 1817.”
The lower one says: “The house to which the above memorial plaque was originally affixed was located on this spot.”
II.
Two plaques on the north wall of the nave of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, my favourite church in Paris:
The first one tells of the church’s consecration.
On Sexagesima Sunday, 15 February 1626, in the pontificate of our Holy Father Pope Urban VIII and in the reign of King Louis XIII the Just, this church and its Altar were consecrated and dedicated to the honour of God and the Virgin Mary under the invocation of the Protomartyr St Stephen, by the Most Reverend Jean François de Condy, archbishop of Paris etc.
The one beneath is somewhat more exciting:
And, during the ceremonies of dedication, two girls from the parish fell from up in the gallery of the choir along with the railing and two of the balusters. They were saved miraculously (the attendants at the service too—for nobody was found under the rubble) considering the great number of people who attended the said ceremonies.
One of my correspondents pointed out to me the following meditation on this incident by the elder Holmes.1 You’ll see he doesn’t get the details quite right.
III.
I and my friends Stephen and Emma came upon this horrible tree in central Norwich on Christmas Eve 2018.
Accompanying plaque 1:
THE TREE OPPOSITE IS A MONGOLIAN | LIME PLANTED BY THE LORD MAYOR | ON 14 OCTOBER 1993 TO MARK | THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF | THE NORWICH SOCIETY
Plaque 2:
Oliver Wendell Holmes, ‘The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table [final instalment]’, The Atlantic Monthly 2, no. 12 (October 1858): pp. 619–33 [620].