Lets Revisit A Few "Alien" Gargoyles That Are Perched On A Scottish Abbey And A French Chapel

Can you imagine the surprised look on tourist faces, back in the mid-90's, when they first noticed this gargoyle, on this beautiful, 12th century Scottish Abbey? I'm sure back then, many tourists at the Paisley Abbey in Scotland , who never saw any of the "Alien" movies, probably wondered if aliens roamed the beautiful Scottish countryside centuries ago. Back in 1997, this gargoyle did receive some attention, when it's image appeared on the internet for the first time.

but it failed to attract such attention and the whole thing remained relatively unknown outside of the small Scottish town of Paisley.

www.thevintagenews.com...

Soon afterward, a picture showing the "Paisley Abbey Alien", went viral on Facebook and Twitter. In 2013, this gargoyle received an increased amount of media attention, when some speculated, that the Swiss artist, H. R. Giger, drew his inspiration for his famous "xenomorph" alien from it. Many people began to think that the alien creature in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi, horror "Alien" movie, was based on the Paisley Abbey gargoyle.

The truth behind the gargoyle sculpture became known, when Reverend Alan Birss, the minister of Paisley Abbey, was interviewed by the BBC. He stated that 12 of the 13 original gargoyles, from the 12th century, were totally refurbished in the early 1990's. It would seem that the stonemason, who redesigned one of these gargoyles, was perhaps a fan of the "Alien" movies and used his artistic license to incorporate some design elements from the movie, with his own imagination.

At first, a photograph depicting Paisley Abbey Alien went viral on Twitter and Facebook, which soon led to media attention. An investigation was inbound. Amidst the growing hype, the BBC interviewed the minister of Paisley Abbey, Reverend Alan Birss, who put a stop to all the fan theories which were getting out of hand.

It turned out that the Paisley Abbey gargoyles went through refurbishment in the early 1990s, after which the famous xenomorph appeared. Only one out of 13 gargoyles remained in its original form, while the other 12 were built from scratch.

www.thevintagenews.com...

Here's another gargoyle, that's on the Chapelle de Bethléem (Bethlehem Chapel), a Medieval chapel in Nantes, France, that shows an "unorthodox" decoration, based on the Alien movie franchise. Can you imagine the look on a future archeologist, who discovers these strange gargoyles for the first time?

Isn't Darth Vader on a church somewhere? I seem to remember it.

theres also the famous astronaut engraving in a church
wich was an later addition

a reply to: Sillyolme

Yes..

The Darth Vader grotesque is a limestone grotesque by Jay Hall Carpenter. It is located at the Washington National Cathedral, Northwest, Washington, D.C., United States. The Darth Vader grotesque is one of many grotesques that are part of the National Cathedral's rain control system.

a reply to: Bigburgh

COOL!

Personally, I don't like it. I mean, I like the new sculptures, but I don't consider them gargoyle's, and I don't like the mash up of the old buildings with the new designs.
Put them on a new building, and I'm all for it.


But I didn't even know about this, so thanks for the thread.

a reply to: humanoidlord

In Salamanca, Spain.

originally posted by: chiefsmom
Personally, I don't like it. I mean, I like the new sculptures, but I don't consider them gargoyle's, and I don't like the mash up of the old buildings with the new designs.
Put them on a new building, and I'm all for it.


But I didn't even know about this, so thanks for the thread.

My thoughts exactly!

They ruined the breath taking architectual design of the castle and the cool historical gargoyles of that time period!

In a few hundred years, conspiracy nuts will be going crazy over this.

Primary schools in Scotland used to have stone carvings of their teachers:

goo.gl...

Nuke it from orbit!

lol.

It's just stupid religious stuff or drugs.



When I went to Notre Dame, I swear they had one that looked like my first wife!

a reply to: ArMaP

Probably a diver trapped in seaweed, but still interesting.

a reply to: drewlander

No, it's a recent update to the carvings on that building, actually representing a modern astronaut.

a reply to: ArMaP

yep this one

a reply to: drewlander

nope its an astronaut that was added later to the church to show the advancaments of the 20nth century

a reply to: Groot

Someone will find a copy of the alien movie in a couple hundred years, draw a parallel to that church and think it was a documentary lol

a reply to: shawmanfromny

What would possess someone to put something that hideous on a building??? Much less an abbey!! Gack!!

Then again, never really cared for gargoyles, either.

Both look pretty demonic.

originally posted by: shawmanfromny
Can you imagine the surprised look on tourist faces, back in the mid-90's, when they first noticed this gargoyle, on this beautiful, 12th century Scottish Abbey? I'm sure back then, many tourists at the Paisley Abbey in Scotland , who never saw any of the "Alien" movies, probably wondered if aliens roamed the beautiful Scottish countryside centuries ago. Back in 1997, this gargoyle did receive some attention, when it's image appeared on the internet for the first time.

but it failed to attract such attention and the whole thing remained relatively unknown outside of the small Scottish town of Paisley.

www.thevintagenews.com...

Soon afterward, a picture showing the "Paisley Abbey Alien", went viral on Facebook and Twitter. In 2013, this gargoyle received an increased amount of media attention, when some speculated, that the Swiss artist, H. R. Giger, drew his inspiration for his famous "xenomorph" alien from it. Many people began to think that the alien creature in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi, horror "Alien" movie, was based on the Paisley Abbey gargoyle.

The truth behind the gargoyle sculpture became known, when Reverend Alan Birss, the minister of Paisley Abbey, was interviewed by the BBC. He stated that 12 of the 13 original gargoyles, from the 12th century, were totally refurbished in the early 1990's. It would seem that the stonemason, who redesigned one of these gargoyles, was perhaps a fan of the "Alien" movies and used his artistic license to incorporate some design elements from the movie, with his own imagination.

At first, a photograph depicting Paisley Abbey Alien went viral on Twitter and Facebook, which soon led to media attention. An investigation was inbound. Amidst the growing hype, the BBC interviewed the minister of Paisley Abbey, Reverend Alan Birss, who put a stop to all the fan theories which were getting out of hand.

It turned out that the Paisley Abbey gargoyles went through refurbishment in the early 1990s, after which the famous xenomorph appeared. Only one out of 13 gargoyles remained in its original form, while the other 12 were built from scratch.

www.thevintagenews.com...

Here's another gargoyle, that's on the Chapelle de Bethléem (Bethlehem Chapel), a Medieval chapel in Nantes, France, that shows an "unorthodox" decoration, based on the Alien movie franchise. Can you imagine the look on a future archeologist, who discovers these strange gargoyles for the first time?

they look silly with eyes hah

^^^ cant we just disable the quote option for opening posts?

Or better yet, just apply it (the disabled quote button) to all posts that go over a certain number of characters, or even better, just apply it to any post that goes over a certain amount of pixels, so it will catch posts with few characters but many images or videos.



Anyway...

Since we are talking modern cathedral carvings, I would be remiss not to mention the eerie, apocalyptic, "2012 the movie"-esque Cathedral of St John the Divine in NYC...
Seen here!! (duckduckgo image search)