Rosary Church- Beauty in ruins
Searching for new places around Bengaluru for a weekend visit has been my favorite past time for quite sometime now!
Having visited the conventional (yet awesome!) places like Nandi Hills, Pyramid Valley, Big Banyan Tree (ದೊಡ್ಡ ಆಲದ ಮರ) I try to find out those hidden gems that neither attracts more crowd nor is well known.
One such search led me to Rosary Church in Shettihalli near Hassan. Courtesy: some blog on the net. At times I wonder what would I have done if other people had not written about their experiences. I could never have visited as many places as I have now.
Anyways, this is a church on the banks of the river Hemavathi apparently built in the 1860s. It gets submerged during the monsoon and resurfaces as the water recedes. Around 200 Kms from Bengaluru it takes around 2-2.5 hours.
Having slept late the night before, I somehow struggled and got up by 4.30 in the morning and by the time we left, it was almost 5.30. Thanks to Bengaluru traffic on both ORR and Tumkur road, it took us longer than anticipated to leave the city limits.
Stopped at Swati delicacy on the way at around 7 for breakfast. The place was already filled with people but the food was nothing to speak of. I took my usual Idli-Vada and idli was hard as a rock and I just couldn't finish it. After coffee and bio break we headed towards Hassan.
Bengaluru has been reeling under high temperatures this year and even Feb felt like May with temperatures at 37-38 degrees. Even at 7.30, we felt the need to turn on the AC in the car but slowly as we inched toward Hassan there was a drastic shift in weather. All of a sudden it got misty and visibility decreased. Cool breeze and fog surprised me. It felt like peak winter!
We reached Shettihalli around 8.50 and asked a few local people for the direction just to be sure, but there are multiple ways to reach the spot and going by the tyre marks plenty of vehicles travel on this route. We could see from far that water was quite less but there was still plenty of water to pump out and irrigate a few fields around. Many villagers were passing by in bikes.
Once we got down we realised that we were the only people at the place. The church just presents itself infront of you. In ruins yet majestic.
The place itself is small and a full round can be finished in 10 min. Temperature was slowly rising. There were pigeons, swallows, grey crested finch, eagle, sparrows. Right next to the water body and bushes around it seemed like a good location for all type of birds to thrive. This is when I regretted not owning a DSLR cam as I couldn't capture the beauty of these birds. But whatever direction we looked at, I could see variety of birds. The place sure is a heaven for bird watchers and photographers.
The church itself is in complete ruins and what saddened me more is the defacing done by people by writing their names on the walls. Even at the highest point I could see writings and I was quite surprised that people took all that trouble to ruin a ruin even further!
We spent some time clicking photos and experimenting with pose and mobile photography. You can drive your vehicle right in to the middle of the church. It was almost 10 and sun had slowly started rising and I could feel the heat and humidity building up.
We slowly decided to head back as there was nothing much to do.
We pondered about visiting some place on the way but there is nothing that is very close by. And as I've already visited Belur, Halebidu and Shravanabelagola we decided to just head back home.
While we were returning we saw many bikers in their super bikes zooming past us in the opposite direction. (most probably towards the church). Journey on the way back was filled with a few stop overs to click some beautiful pictures (though I can't vouch for the quality as they are mobile clicks).
Having visited the conventional (yet awesome!) places like Nandi Hills, Pyramid Valley, Big Banyan Tree (ದೊಡ್ಡ ಆಲದ ಮರ) I try to find out those hidden gems that neither attracts more crowd nor is well known.
One such search led me to Rosary Church in Shettihalli near Hassan. Courtesy: some blog on the net. At times I wonder what would I have done if other people had not written about their experiences. I could never have visited as many places as I have now.
Anyways, this is a church on the banks of the river Hemavathi apparently built in the 1860s. It gets submerged during the monsoon and resurfaces as the water recedes. Around 200 Kms from Bengaluru it takes around 2-2.5 hours.
Having slept late the night before, I somehow struggled and got up by 4.30 in the morning and by the time we left, it was almost 5.30. Thanks to Bengaluru traffic on both ORR and Tumkur road, it took us longer than anticipated to leave the city limits.
Stopped at Swati delicacy on the way at around 7 for breakfast. The place was already filled with people but the food was nothing to speak of. I took my usual Idli-Vada and idli was hard as a rock and I just couldn't finish it. After coffee and bio break we headed towards Hassan.
Bengaluru has been reeling under high temperatures this year and even Feb felt like May with temperatures at 37-38 degrees. Even at 7.30, we felt the need to turn on the AC in the car but slowly as we inched toward Hassan there was a drastic shift in weather. All of a sudden it got misty and visibility decreased. Cool breeze and fog surprised me. It felt like peak winter!
We reached Shettihalli around 8.50 and asked a few local people for the direction just to be sure, but there are multiple ways to reach the spot and going by the tyre marks plenty of vehicles travel on this route. We could see from far that water was quite less but there was still plenty of water to pump out and irrigate a few fields around. Many villagers were passing by in bikes.
Once we got down we realised that we were the only people at the place. The church just presents itself infront of you. In ruins yet majestic.
The place itself is small and a full round can be finished in 10 min. Temperature was slowly rising. There were pigeons, swallows, grey crested finch, eagle, sparrows. Right next to the water body and bushes around it seemed like a good location for all type of birds to thrive. This is when I regretted not owning a DSLR cam as I couldn't capture the beauty of these birds. But whatever direction we looked at, I could see variety of birds. The place sure is a heaven for bird watchers and photographers.
The church itself is in complete ruins and what saddened me more is the defacing done by people by writing their names on the walls. Even at the highest point I could see writings and I was quite surprised that people took all that trouble to ruin a ruin even further!
We spent some time clicking photos and experimenting with pose and mobile photography. You can drive your vehicle right in to the middle of the church. It was almost 10 and sun had slowly started rising and I could feel the heat and humidity building up.
We slowly decided to head back as there was nothing much to do.
We pondered about visiting some place on the way but there is nothing that is very close by. And as I've already visited Belur, Halebidu and Shravanabelagola we decided to just head back home.
While we were returning we saw many bikers in their super bikes zooming past us in the opposite direction. (most probably towards the church). Journey on the way back was filled with a few stop overs to click some beautiful pictures (though I can't vouch for the quality as they are mobile clicks).
We stopped over at Hassan to meet an old college friend of mine and had lunch on the way and reached home by 3.30.
Rosary Church was beautiful when it was out of water and I've heard it gives a totally different view when submerged under water so may be come monsoon it may be worth paying another visit!
Doesnt look like ruins... Looks like somebody has done some paintings... will definitely visit
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