This is the breath-takingly awesome pipe organ that overwhelms the space behind the altar in the basilica of the monastery of Monte Cassino in southern Italy. This organ has over 5000 pipes (!) and is one of the most impressive worldwide of its kind.

Perched atop a 1,700 ft high section of the Appenines, the monastery itself has a history that totally blew me away… founded in the 6th century AD, it was destroyed several times through wars and earthquake, the most recent destruction being the bombing by the allies on February 15th, 1944 as it was thought to be a German stronghold. In reality it served as a shelter for civilians, hundreds of whom died in the intensive 3-hour bombardment.

Amazingly, the entire monastery and basilica were accurately reconstructed according to plans and pictures of the original architecture, financed entirely by the Italian government. It was reconsecrated by Pope Paul VI in 1964.

Shot handheld with EOS 5D and 16mm end of my EF 16-35. I used two takes of different exposures and created an HDR image in Photomatix. I avoided using maximum HDR effect, simply using the program to compensate for the extreme range of shadow and highlight as it takes the best exposed areas of each shot. Also did a bit of color correction and stretching to fine tune the symmetry.