Six hundred years ago three men rode into what is now the German lakeside town of Konstanz, each claiming to be the pope. The endless wrangling to determine which one had the best claim (it turned out to be Martin V) is known to history as the Council of Constance. And if you went there now – you fly to Zurich, then take a train – you’d find events in progress to commemorate the anniversary.
Some are church-based, but they branch out into celebrating nature, gardens (the whole area around Lake Constance is a sort of garden, beautifully kept) and music. I was there last week and heard a plainsong concert in the abbey church of Salem on the far side of the lake. And there was jazz in the idyllic gardens of a villa called Arenenberg, once owned by the Napoleon family. But most memorable was an organ recital at Konstanz’s Minster church, entirely given over to two massive, complex and absurdly vulgar improvisations performed by Giampaolo Di Rosa, a young virtuoso and titular organist of the Portuguese Church of S Antonio in Rome.
