So I was reading this cool book about the Holy Grail, and I get to a section about the monastery of San Juan de la Peña, where the Holy Grail was sheltered from the Moors for a time. This monastery is amazing - Romanesque cloister as Navajo cliff dwelling? Check out the pictures:







That weird freestanding cloister sorta reminds me of the little garden by the Houses of Healing in Return of the King:



Which also reminds me: some movie reviewer described Minas Tirith as "a cross between Mont Saint Michel and the Hoover Dam." The Mont Saint Michel part is true enough:


Views from Mont Saint Michel cloister.


Pretty close, except for the pointed arches. Minas Tirith is definitely a Romanesque city. I've noticed something cool about the throne room in Minas Tirith, something that reinforces the idea that Aragorn's return would be analogous to the restoration of the Holy Roman Empire. The throne room looks suspiciously like the cathedral at Aachen which holds the throne of Charlemagne. See...


Throne room at Minas Tirith


Cathedral of Aachen

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Cool, no?