Church architecture

[Starlight]

When I am in christian churces especially catholic, anglican and ortodox churches i feel like i am in heaven. The architecture is amazing. It draw me closer to God. And even better if a choir sing old christian songs and hymns

Notre Dame France

What do you think about church architecture`?

 

[metis]

When I am in christian churces especially catholic, anglican and ortodox churches i feel like i am in heaven. The architecture is amazing. It draw me closer to God. And even better if a choir sing old christian songs and hymns

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Notre Dame France

What do you think about church architecture`?

Ditto, and I especially love the Andalusian-style [Spanish] in many of the Catholic Churches.

 

[Firenze]

I love church architecture, especially the stained glass. It gives me an appreciation of the ability of humans to create.

 

[sun rise]

What do you think about church architecture`?

As I recently noted in another thread, when I was in Italy in the 1990's, I felt the power of the architecture and thought how much more so would it have been for people in the past, especially ordinary peasants.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

What do you think about church architecture`?

I find the architecture to be remarkable.

ּBut what was the cost in terms of plundered wealth and labor? So, for example, ...

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For a deeper understanding of the impact of building on medieval society, one should turn to the remarkable article, also by Barbara Abou-el-Haj: The Urban Setting for Late-Medieval Church Building: Reims and its Cathedral Between 1210 and 1240. Reims cathedral, as she details, was constructed in a campaign which extracted so much wealth away from the city that it actually stunted the growth of the urban zone, well into the early modern period. The burghers who had to navigate hostile taxes eventually did the same as their predecessors in Vezelay: they broke into the Bishop’s prison fortress, beat and murdered his men.​

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The expense of medieval building was not just economic but social, even moral. Resources could be endlessly funneled towards projects dreamt up by the clerical elite. The only limit to the marshaling of these funds was the breaking point of the community. That limit, in the end, is rather similar to the more famous peasant revolts caused by taxation itself: indeed the same revolts which could engage noble priesthood to take up arms against the state too. The interesting similarity between these two cases is just another demonstration of the fact that, in the medieval period, there was no distinction between secular and religious. [emphasis added - JS] [source]​

 

[Regiomontanus]

When I am in christian churces especially catholic, anglican and ortodox churches i feel like i am in heaven. The architecture is amazing. It draw me closer to God. And even better if a choir sing old christian songs and hymns

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Notre Dame France

What do you think about church architecture`?

The building can indeed be inspiring and beautiful. But, IMHO, the Orthodox Divine Litergy moves me even more, even if in a delapidated structure!

 

[metis]

ּBut what was the cost in terms of plundered wealth and labor? So, for example, ...

But they were built to last.