A sculpture trail inspired by York Minster’s stone grotesques has opened in the city.<\/p>\n
The Watchers of York features 12 sculptures designed and painted by a mix of established artists, charities and students.<\/p>\n
The sculptures – a combination of people, animals and mythical creatures – have been placed around the city to form a trail until 31 August.<\/p>\n
Make It York, a firm owned by City of York Council to deliver tourism and cultural activities, produced the trail alongside York Minster to celebrate the “quirky charm” of the Gothic cathedral’s statues.<\/p>\n
The carvings, found on many cathedrals and churches, were often installed as decorative elements or intended to protect the building from evil spirits.<\/p>\n
They are sometimes confused with gargoyles, which look similar but contain a water spout through the mouth and act as rain gutters.<\/p>\n
Discussing the trail grotesques, a Make It York spokesperson said: “Some watch over the rivers, others guard green spaces and gateways.<\/p>\n
“Several keep an eye on the city’s historic streets.”<\/p>\n
All connect and are inspired by the city’s “rich history, character and cultural identity”, the organisation added.<\/p>\n
The installations are all accompanied by information about the figures, including their origins, backstory and symbolism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sculpture trail inspired by York Minster’s stone grotesques has opened in the city. The Watchers of York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-524345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}