Something we can all agree on: Your favorite house of worship, from a design perspective

"Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose the former and have seen no reason to change."

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So is the Hagia Sophia:

Not even for Sophia. ;-)

And St. John the Refined is less flashy. ;-)

When's the last time you felt humbled by a one room adobe hut? :rofl:

a church. The only places that have ever nudged me at all to believe in a higher being... is far from humanity in the glory of nature, whether it be desert, mountain, forest, or ocean.

So give me wretched excess, and flashy overkill

Give me the Pantheon of Rome...

been so beyond awesome, I can't find a better word than "divine".

And that's how I feel every time I look at this:







Or this:

I love the blue domes with stars.


I also like Sacre Coeur in Paris.


I loved Troitsky Sobor in St. Petersburg and was sad when it burned; it was a landmark for me.

It contains all of the design elements needed to meditate, pray or just breath.


The time and money it takes to help the poor and unfortunate is sacrificed for the money and time it takes to build opulent designs that a real spiritual omnipresent being couldn't care less about.

The time and money it takes to help the poor and unfortunate is sacrificed for the money and time it takes to build opulent designs that a real spiritual omnipresent being couldn't care less about.


That statement of yours is true. Some small percentage of the poor for a handful of generations was somewhat more poor than they might have been because the powers of the church decided to pay Bernini for this instead:



But we still have this now, and those poor are long gone to be replaced by many more, who will be replaced by still more. But in all history, who else would and could have created St Peters?

And most likely, by slaves - but you can still appreciate them

Just kidding. :)

Stunning -and it's not even finished yet!

Love his stuff

http://www.italyguides.it/us/roma/pantheon.htm

"The Pantheon is the Roman monument with the greatest number of records: the best preserved, with the biggest brick dome in the history of architecture and is considered the forerunner of all modern places of worship. It is the most copied and imitated of all ancient works.

Michelangelo felt it was the work of angels, not men."


(He likes it! Hey Mikey!)


"On entering the door, the effect you feel is meant to be overwhelming. You suddenly find yourself in this huge empty space which causes vertigo and makes you feel tiny. This is how you were supposed to feel in front of the gods and anyone going in today can have the same sensation as the Romans did almost 2000 years ago.

The space is a perfect sphere symbolising the vault of heaven; the height of the dome is the same as its diameter creating perfect balance and unique harmony; it is round so as to place all gods at the same level of importance."

...that for most of western history, a thousand years, it was also to largest domed structure in the world. The loss of the Roman skills in making concrete made it impossible to duplicate or surpass the Pantheon. Even today it is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome on the planet - and likely to remain so since noone will ever get permission to build something like it ever again.

Externally as a building per se



Internally



Personally

Thanks!

first building I was really impressed by as a kid - amazing for 13th Century. I grew up not far from there.

My home parish.

Granted, all I've "seen" up close and personal were Giza and the Sphinx

:hi:

Underground remains of the Serapeum in Alexandria - which housed the last remnants of the great Alexandria Library. According to the experts, those niches in the walls once held scrolls/manuscripts. In another chamber there's a huge stone "conference table."

I spent many hours walking around that place. Truly inspirational - I got all the awed, tingly feelings the religious often describe in churches, only without any of the underLYING supernatural bullshit.

Speaking of which...the Serapeum was named for Serapis, a god completely invented by the ruling Ptolemies in Alexandria. According to some historians, this brand-new god was a hard sell at first. Neither the Greeks nor the native Egyptians liked him very much. But within a couple of generations, he had temples all over the Mediterranean area.

My other favorite places in Alex - Quitbay Fort, built atop the ruins of the Pharos Lighthouse. And the downright psychedelic multi-story underground tombs of Kom el-Shuqafa, where Graeco-Roman and ancient Egyptian religious symbology is all mixed up in a big, colorful mash. One shrine down there features a bin of mixed human and horse bones. It's a shrine to Nemesis. Who, aside from being a goddess you didn't want to screw around with, was the patron of jockeys and horse racing.

....which are basically giant pipe organs with seats inside.

not necessarily office safe.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khajuraho_Group_of_Monuments

I saw that in 94

Amazing. Those complexes just go on!

I saw some very striking things in Cambodia

;)

Fez, Morrocco.



I didn't see this interior view.



San Juan Capistrano Mission chapel



Sainte Chapelle, Paris

I love to go in old cathedrals and check out the artwork.

I've also been to the cathedral in St. Louis, which is Romanesque on the outside, has two green tiled domes, and is nearly all mosaic on the inside, with side chapels designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

And the white marble cathedral in Denver.

Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Houston was built in the 1880s, and has that 14th century bramble bush look inside, and lots of different sorts of stained glass windows. it's one of the few places in Houston that transports you back in time.