Tag Archives: Monastery

The Great Grape Chapel Showcase

Medieval marketplaces are a popular theme with LEGO castle builders, but you’ve never seen one with colors and creative lore like this! Tabaya‘s bustling scene introduces the Fellowship of the Wine, a sacred order dedicated to the fermentation of the sacred grape. The monastery is built from a distinctive mix of flame yellowish orange, medium lilac, sand green, and brick yellow. It’s a color combination I’ve never encountered before but really sings, especially paired with fall foliage. Tabaya’s model is filled with playful architectural choices, influenced, no doubt, by limited parts in the chosen colors. But the builder also celebrates the playful connections possible in LEGO without the constraints of historical accuracy or realism.

Medieval Monastery and Market

Tabaya excels at fantasy minifigs and has created the perfect ensemble to bring the scene to life: The Fellowship of the Grape. I like to think that consuming the magical wine grown by the order turns the hair purple. The six statues, each holding a different sacred object, give the fictional church specificity. This is great world-building.

Minifigs from Fellowship of the Wine

 

Monastery with goats in the shrubbery

Oddly coloured LEGO foliage always catches my eyes. So this creation by Joe hits the sweet spot. Not only is the trees foliage purple and violet, the grass is lime coloured. The path leading towards the monastery is earth orange. So all of the secondary colours are accounted for, which creates a very pleasing aesthetic. You wouldn’t want to roll down these grassy hills, because the high grass is made using lots of sharp katanas. You can see this is not the living-in-poverty type of monastery as they somehow were able to afford a goat.

The Pilgrim

Giant LEGO monastery inspired by a Classic Castle faction

Debuting at Brickworld Chicago back in June, builder Casey McCoy represents LEGO’s Black Falcons well with this epic monastery. And this creation is jam-packed with awesome details! Let’s start with the exterior walls, which alternate between gentle curves and harsher slopes. All of this on top of a beautiful smattering of textured brick that draws the eye to key points: the ornate stonework around the entrance, the elegantly simple bell tower, or those stunning stained glass windows. I appreciate the common architectural themes between the upper and lower structures. However, with the addition of beveled corners and more intricate stone work on level #2, the build tells a story of the later addition of the upper section, perhaps after the monastery was established.

Order of the Falcon: Monastery by the Eastern Sea - 2

Explore more of the monastery below!

A micro monastery nestled in the rocks

There’s a lot more to this tiny build than a monastery on some rocks. In fact, the building isn’t its best feature! Talented LEGO builder Roanoke Handybuck did a great job at interlacing those light bluish grey elements to form the rocky outcropping. The pink flowers attached to reddish brown horns and minifigure hands are a superb fit too. But perhaps the most clever aspect is the use of only 3 pieces – two crowbars and a hotdog element – to try and recreate a Japanese torii archway.

Clifftop Monastery

If you like this, you should stick around and see more of Roanoke’s Handybuck’s handy-work.