Jesus Christ didn’t need fancy churches, but thank goodness that some
people didn’t listen too well and built magnificent buildings to
glorify God. Today, there are thousands of churches: some small and
simple, whereas others are humongous and ornately decorated.
Let’s take a look at some divinely designed churches around the world, both classic and modern in style:
Las Lajas Cathedral
The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Las Lajas, or the Las Lajas Cathedral
[wiki] in Colombia, was built in 1916 on a site where, according to
local legend, the Virgin Mary appeared. The story goes like this: an
Indian woman named María Mueses de Quiñones was carrying her deaf-mute
daughter Rosa on her back near Las Lajas ("The Rocks"). Weary of the
climb, the María sat down on a rock when Rosa spoke (for the first time)
about an apparition in a cave.
Later on, a mysterious painting
of the Virgin Mary carrying a baby was discovered on the wall of the
cave. Supposedly, studies of the painting showed no proof of paint or
pigments on the rock – instead, when a core sample was taken, it was
found that the colors were impregnated in the rock itself to a depth of
several feet.
Whether true or not, the legend spurred the building of a gothic church worthy of a fairy tale.
Sagrada Familia
A fantastic photo detailing the exterior of the La Sagrada Familia church
by Christopher Chan [Flickr]
La Sagrada Familia [official site | wiki], or Catalan for "The Holy Family", is a yet-to-be-finished Roman Catholic basilica in Barcelona, Spain.
The church’s design is rich with Christian symbolism, with façades
featuring intricate details describing the birth, life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Perhaps the most awe inspiring is the
eighteen towers representing the 12 Apostles, 4 Evangelists, the Virgin
Mary, and a central tower – the tallest of them all – representing
Christ.
The construction of the Sagrada Familia basilica started in 1882,
directed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, who devoted his life to it.
When people said that the construction had taken a very long time, Gaudí
replied that he was building the church for God, and that his client
wasn’t in a hurry. He then became known as "God’s Architect."
In 1926, Gaudí got run over by a street car. Because of his raggedy
attire and empty pockets, no one wanted to take him to the hospital.
Eventually, he was taken to a pauper’s hospital where no one recognized
him until his friends found him and tried to move him to another
hospital. Gaudí refused, saying that he belonged with the poor, and died
a few days later.
Because Gaudí refused to work with blue prints, preferring to use his
imagination and memory instead, construction of La Sagrada Familia was
halted after his death. Part of the church was even burnt during the
Spanish Civil War. Construction of La Sagrada Familia was restarted
afterwards and continues until today.
St. Basil’s Cathedral
As its name implies, St. Basil’s Cathedral
[wiki] on the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, is named after Saint Basil
(who is also known as Basil Fool for Christ). The story goes that in the
1500s, an apprentice shoemaker/serf named Basil stole from the rich to
give to the poor. He also went naked, weighed himself with chains, and
rebuked Ivan the Terrible for not paying attention in church. Most of
the time, admonishing anyone with name "the Terrible" wasn’t such a good
idea, but apparently Ivan had a soft spot for the holy fool (as Basil
was also known) and ordered a church to be built in his name after Basil
died.
St. Basil’s Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church, sports a series of
colorful bulbous domes that taper to a point, aptly named onion domes,
that are part of Moscow’s Kremlin skyline (although the church is
actually not part of the Kremlin).
Oh, and Ivan the Terrible lived up to his name after he supposedly
blinded the architect who built the church so he would not be able to
design something as beautiful afterwards.
Hagia Sophia
Technically, Hagia Sophia
[wiki] (Greek for the Church of the Holy Wisdom of God) is no longer a
church, it is now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. It began its life as an
early Christian church, then rebuilt as the seat of the Eastern Orthodox
Church in Constantinople, then a mosque when the city fell to the Turks
in 1453 before it finally became a museum.
Hagia Sophia as we know it today was completed by Byzantine Emperor
Justinian I in 537. When completed, the temple was so large and richly
decorated that Justinian proclaimed "Solomon, I have surpassed thee!".
It remained the largest church for one thousand years after it was
completed.
Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine
architecture, with a large central dome and interior intricately
decorated with mosaics, marbles, and stone inlays. The dome, often
referred to as the vault of heaven, was a new architectural feature at
the time, necessitating the invention of a new pillar support system.
Today, the restoration of Hagia Sophia is a delicate balance of
restoring Christian iconographic mosaics under historic Islamic art,
which would have to be destroyed to reveal the work underneath.
St. Peter’s Basilica
The largest religious building in the world, not to mention the
center of Christianity, I suppose, belongs in this list. St. Peter’s
Basilica in Vatican City is built over the tomb of St. Peter the
Apostle, and is the largest church in the tiny country. It is truly
immense: the church covers an area of 5.7 acres (2.3 ha) and has a
capacity of over 60,000 people.
Before St. Peter’s Basilica as we know it was built, there was
already a church there built in 324 C.E. by Emperor Constantine, the
first Christian emperor of Rome. That church lasted for about 1,200
years until the crumbling structure was torn down to build the
modern-day basilica. St. Peter’s Basilica was built by the who’s who of
the Renaissance era: Michelangelo designed the dome, Gian Lorenzo
Bernini designed the main square, and Donato Bramante was the first
architect of the church.
Notre Dame
Interior HDR of Notre Dame (Image Credit: mircea tudorache [Flickr]). [Update 5/9/07: Oops, not Notre Dame de Paris. It's Notre Dame in Montreal. Still, I left it up because it is quite a beautiful photo.]
Notre Dame de Paris
[wiki] or simply Notre Dame is the quintessential example of Gothic
Architecture. Construction of the church started in 1163, when Bishop
Maurice de Sully decided to build a cathedral befitting his status as
the bishop of Paris. Notre Dame was completed some 200 years later – one
of the first European cathedrals to be built on a truly monumental
scale.
A particularly striking feature of Notre Dame are its Rose Windows –
massive (at the time they were the largest windows in the world)
circular stained glass windows that depict scenes from the bible.
Legend has it that when Notre Dame’s bell "Emmanuel" was recast in
the 1600s, women threw their gold jewelry into the molten metal to give
the bell its unique ring.
At the end of the 18th century, during the French Revolution, the
church was ransacked, its treasures plundered and many of the statues of
saints were beheaded. Notre Dame was dedicated to the Cult of Reason
and then the Cult of the Supreme Being – for a while, it was even used
as a barn!
In 1831, Notre Dame was made famous by Victor Hugo, who wrote "The
Hunchback of Notre Dame," about Quasimodo, a hunchback bell ringer who
fell in love with the Gypsy Esmeralda. The popularity of the book
spurred a gothic revival in France and helped the restoration of the
cathedral back to its original splendor.
Hallgrímskirkja
Hallgrímskirkja
[wiki] (Icelandic for the Church of Hallgrímur), the tallest building
in Iceland, is named after Hallgrímur Pétursson, a 17th century poet and
clergyman.
The church’s unusual design (some had likened it to a rude hand
gesture) is supposed to represent volcanic columns rising between the
steeple tower – a reference to Iceland’s many volcanoes.
The iconic building looks like it belongs in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of
the Rings. Indeed, many aspects of Tolkien’s work was inspired by Norse
mythologies and many of the fictional names in the book are Norse in
origin, although there is no reference that Hallgrímskirkja served as a
model any of the towers in the book.
Jubilee Church
You can’t miss the distinctive curved walls of The Jubilee Church
[wiki] in Tor Tre Teste, Rome. It was designed in 1996 by architect
Richard Meier, who said that the modern-styled church is the "the crown
jewel of the Vicariato di Roma’s (Archdiocese of Rome) Millennium
project." And right he was!
The curved walls not only serve the engineering purpose of minimizing
thermal peak loads in the interior space, they are also a religious
methapor:
Three circles of equal radius generate the profiles of the three shells that, together with the spine-wall, make up the body of the nave. While the three shells discretely imply the Holy Trinity, the reflecting pool symbolizes water in the ritual of Baptism.
Notre Dame du Haut
If there was a church modeled after Elvis’ hair, Le Corbusier’s Notre
Dame du Haut is it. The pilgrimate chapel is located in Ronchamp,
France. Indeed, it is more famous than the little town that most people
simply call the structure itself Ronchamp.
The cleverness of unusual design of the billowing concrete roof is
apparent when it rains: water pours off the slanted roof onto a
fountain, creating a dramatic waterfall.
Although quite different from his usual design, Notre Dame du Haut is considered one of Le Corbusier’s finest work.
The Crystal Cathedral
The Crystal Cathedral [official site | wiki] is neither made of crystal nor is it a cathedral. Nevertheless, the Christian megachurch in the city of Orange Garden Grove, California, is one amazing church.
Built by "The Hour of Power" televangelist Rev. Dr. Robert
H. Schuller (who started out with a "drive-in" church located in an
actual, old drive-in movie theater!) and his wife Arvella, and designed
by architect Philip Johnson, the church is made almost entirely out
glass with a web-like framework of steel.
From the outside, the Crystal Cathedral is shaped like a giant
four-pointed crystal star, with the main "cathedral" rising 12 stories
above the ground, featuring a mirror-like exterior composed of some
12,000 panes of glass. The view is even more amazing from the interior,
where the transparent glass lets in the surrounding view, sunlight and
the sky.
The Crystal Cathedral also has one of the largest pipe organs in the
world, called the Hazel Wright Pipe Organ, with 5 consoles controlling
270 ranks, 31 digital ranks, and more than 16,000 pipes!
source : http://www.neatorama.com/2007/05/07/10-divinely-designed-churches/
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