Occasionally, after the service, they will ask if the church is very old and be astonished to learn that parts date from the 12th century.
Dominating it is the castle, perched high aloft a steeply descending volcanic plug, its earliest parts dating from the 12th century.
Most of it is made of tree trunks (parts dating from the early 1800s), and even the scrap-dealer still has a sledge.
St. Paulinus, Crayford, is the oldest local church, with parts dating from the 12th century; the church of St. Mary the Virgin, Bexley, was built in the 12th or 13th century.
This block-square building, parts dating back 150 years, is home to an assortment of enterprises, including Radii Inc., the architectural model maker that created a model of the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site.
Its oldest parts date to the 13th century; the wife of the luckless Erik XIV (who was declared insane and imprisoned in the castle's round tower) got the finest tomb in a side chapel.
Built primarily in the 16th century, with some parts dating back to A.D. 700, the covered passages extended for miles and presented a maze even more convoluted than the alleyways that had preceded it.
Of the lake towns, Bolsena itself has the readiest charm, with its centro storico and Collegiata di Santa Cristina church, a historical layer cake whose earliest parts date from 11th century.
This historic house has an unheated interior and parts date back to the late medieval period.
Stockroom shelves were crammed with dusty parts dating to the 1940s.
