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Athens of the South – Buckle of Music City?

Categories: News

Bet that one made ya’ll look! LOL I recently went to Nashville for the Lari Goss Tribute at TBN with my family and a couple from church and their beautiful nine month old baby girl. Along with my love for Southern Gospel Music and attending concerts, traveling is something that I enjoy. (Guess that’s a good thing, considering how much we do it!) Anyway, different places along the way offer some fun tourism…so, what do you say to a mini tour of Nashville?

Nashville was named for Francis Nash, the American Revolutionary War hero, and founded by James Robertson, John Donelson and a party of Overmountain Men in 1779. Over the years, it has received many nick-names, the most familiar being “Music City, USA.” But, did you know that it has also been called the Buckle of the Bible Belt? Yep, it boasts of more than 700 churches, a number of Christian music companies and headquarters for other Christian businesses. To top it off, when we dropped into the Gaylord Opryland Resort on our way to the hotel, a Gospel Music convention was being held there! It reminded me of mini NQC. We peeked our heads into a room set up just like the exhibit hall at convention, it was filled with booths carrying music, clothes, shoes and everything you can imagine! Wish I would have taken a picture!

The Gaylord in all its beauty...

The Gaylord is also where Legacy Five hosts their New Years Eve Celebration every year. It displays gorgeous gardens under a glass roof with water falls and running streams, fine restaurants and shops. Usually, we see it decorated for Christmas, but not this time! – Summer was in! After walking in from the July heat, it was very refreshing to walk close to the water and feel a little chill in the air from the mist. As we were walking along, we heard drums rolling, as if a marching band were present. A little confused, we came around a corner to find the DreamWorks parade with all the life size characters from Madagascar! Of course, my favorites were the Penguins, Puss in Boots and King Julian. (Though, my pic of Puss came out blurry!) 🙁 We didn’t know that they did parades, and we couldn’t have timed it any better had we tried! It was really fun. In and around the area designated for Madagascar, I found this “pagan” totem thing – and I couldn’t leave without my picture taken with it! LOL…

 

Another nick-name that Nashville picked up was Athens of the South. We stopped in to Centennial Park where a full scale reconstruction of the original Greek Parthenon stands. This thing was massive! The columns were so big, you couldn’t even wrap your arms around half of one! (And that’s no exaggeration either!) From the sign out front, this Parthenon is the WORLD’S only replica of the original in Greece. Originally, this structure was built for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition held May 1st through October 31st 1897. Because it was made of temporary materials for the fair, and the fair was such a success, it was decided that the Parthenon should be built on a permanent basis. Construction started in 1921 and the exterior was finished in 1925, but a lack of financial recourse’s kept it from being fully completed until May 20, 1931, when it was opened to the public. It says that, “The original temple, dedicated to Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom, occupied the most sacred area in ancient Greece, the crest of the acropolis, a hill overlooking Athens.”

Off to the side stood a statue of a man by the name of John W. Thomas. This man played a big part in securing Centennial park in Nashville and impacted many others that he came in contact with. I was very pleased to see that, engraved on the base/stool of the statue, it specifically pointed out that this man was a Christian…and from what was said of him, a very good one. Here is a shot of his statue and the Parthenon behind…

Well, that’s our little tour of Nashville! I hope ya’ll enjoyed these pictures and a few little fun facts! We’ll see where our travels take us next time!

Author: lynnschronicles

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