Religion
Related: About this forumThe 7 most beautiful religious buildings in the world right now
Ribbon Chapel by Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP Co. Ltd. (Hiroshima, Japan)
Talia Avakian
6h
Every year, the World Architecture Festival creates a shortlist of the most awe-striking buildings on the planet.
From that list, the "building of the year" is determined.
The 2015 festival features 338 finalists, but we're looking at the seven in the religious category, which is especially noteworthy since last year's big award went to a simple community chapel.
The festival and awards announcement will take place in November at the luxurious Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore.
Cardedeu by EMC Arquitectura (Lago de Coatepeque, El Salvador)
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-beautiful-religious-buildings-in-the-world-right-now-2015-8
Agschmid
(28,749 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,732 posts)but I'm kind of partial to the old ones:
King's College Chapel, Cambridge, UK (1446-1550)
Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris (completed 1345)
Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain (not as old, but absolutely unique; construction started 1882, still unfinished)
rug
(82,333 posts)Growing up, I was an altar boy here:
St. Vincent Ferrer Church, Manhattan.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,732 posts)St. Mark's Cathedral, Minneapolis
rug
(82,333 posts)A gorgeous place for a wedding.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,732 posts)Acoustics are spectacular for musical performances, too.
DesertFlower
(11,649 posts)and our church was beautiful. amazing stained glass. i don't think they build them like that anymore.
where I was married! (St. Vincent Ferrer!) Love that church.
rug
(82,333 posts)As altar boys we used to serve at weddings. The front steps were some kind of stone that was rough cut. We had to sweep up the rice after the wedding and the rice would get stuck in the recesses of the steps. The weddings were festive and solemn but there was a lot of muttering from us afterwards.
gopiscrap
(23,761 posts)went to Mass in Notre Dame
Jim__
(14,077 posts)It would be interesting to know how they relate to the religion and the local culture.
Leontius
(2,270 posts)Amazingly simple and enchanting creation.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)but if I had to go to church I would love that one in Lago de Coatepeque, El Salvador.
longship
(40,416 posts)I love Gothic architecture. My favorite, since I've never traveled in Europe, is St. John the Divine in New York City.
I spent some time in New York in the 70's. One of my favorite things was to take in Sunday afternoons at St. John's when the organist would practice. To sit in that empty cathedral while JS Bach and Cesar Frank was belted out, kicking the dust out of the organ pipes, is an astounding experience, for both believers and non-believers.
So! Yup! I like churches. Like Philip Larkin (also an atheist) wrote in "Church Going", there is something about this stuff. There is something about sitting amongst the empty pews. The organ music just adds to the atmosphere.
Church Going by Philip Larkin
Once I am sure there's nothing going on
I step inside,letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,
Brewed God knows how long.
Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence,
Move forward, run my hand around the font.
From where I stand, the roof looks almost new
Cleaned or restored? Someone would know: I don't.
Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce 'Here endeth' much more loudly than I'd meant. The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence, Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.
Yet stop I did: in fact I often do, And always end much at a loss like this, Wondering what to look for; wondering, too, When churches fall completely out of use What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep A few cathedrals chronically on show, Their parchment, plate, and pyx in locked cases, And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep. Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?
Or, after dark, will dubious women come To make their children touch a particular stone; Pick simples for a cancer; or on some Advised night see walking a dead one? Power of some sort or other will go on In games, in riddles, seemingly at random; But superstition, like belief, must die, And what remains when disbelief has gone? Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky,
A shape less recognizable each week, A purpose more obscure. I wonder who Will be the last, the very last, to seek This place for what it was; one of the crew That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were? Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique, Or Christmas-addict, counting on a whiff Of gown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh? Or will he be my representative,
Bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt Dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt So long and equably what since is found Only in separation - marriage, and birth, And death, and thoughts of these - for whom was built This special shell? For, though I've no idea What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth, It pleases me to stand in silence here;
A serious house on serious earth it is, In whose blent air all our compulsions meet, Are recognised, and robed as destinies. And that much never can be obsolete, Since someone will forever be surprising A hunger in himself to be more serious, And gravitating with it to this ground, Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in, If only that so many dead lie round.
Sorry about the formatting. This poem is rarely formatted correctly online. For my dear friend Pinto, now sadly passed, I formatted it correctly as best I could. here. Forgive me if I do not do so now. It nevertheless expresses my feelings, even as a lifelong atheist.
My regards to all.
rug
(82,333 posts)There weren't enough people who knew stone craft and there's probably another century of construction left. They were recruiting apprentices from their neighbors in Harlem.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/23/nyregion/memories-chiseled-in-a-cathedral-s-stone.html
longship
(40,416 posts)When I visited there in the early 70's, the Dean of the cathedral stopped construction. Later that decade, the new dean, with Harlem across Morningside Park, saw a new way and construction resumed.
It remains an astounding building, no matter what ones beliefs. And the organ music is astounding, especially during practice.
kwassa
(23,340 posts)I found it quite amazing. Consecrated on April 26, 1248. Only 767 years old.
47of74
(18,470 posts)Been there 3 times. The last time I was there in 2014 I had converted to the Episcopal church. Still I did as Rick Steeves suggested and checked the Protestant sword at the hotel. It is really awe inspiring.
mackerel
(4,412 posts)rug
(82,333 posts)My favorite is the Pagoda in Vietnam.
mackerel
(4,412 posts)isn't that worship enough!?! LOL
That Church in El Salvador, now that is what spirituality is all about, right there on the water.
rug
(82,333 posts)zentrum
(9,865 posts).cold, except for the simple beauty in the forest. They don't inspire serenity or contemplation in mebut rather alienation.
MADem
(135,425 posts)procon
(15,805 posts)that should have been used to help uplift people and better their lives. These architectural monuments celebrate the fabulous riches of the religion industry with little evidence of piety or self-sacrificing humility taught by the divine beings they claim to represent.