What are things like this

doing on a building like this?

That's what St. Bernard of Clairvaux wondered in the 12th Century:

"What are these fantastic monsters doing in the cloisters under the very 
eyes of the brothers as they read?  What is the meaning of these unclean 
monkeys, strange savage lions and monsters?  To what purpose are here placed 
these creatures, half beast, half man? I see several bodies with one head 
and several heads with one body.  Here is a quadriped with a serpent's 
head, there a fish with a quadruped's head, then again an animal half 
horse, half goat... Surely if we do not blush for such absurdities we 
should at least regret what we have spent on them."

The answer to his question is...


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