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The biggest churches in the world: Anglo-Norman eleventh-century cathedrals

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Re: The biggest churches in the world: Anglo-Norman eleventh-century cathedrals

#51

Post by inglor_cz »

Bayart wrote: post #36
teleforce wrote: post #7

In order to understand how the architecture of middle ages and modern intertwined between Christian and Muslim worlds, please check this excellent video [1]. It's never ceased to amaze me by the fact that now most of the mosques now look more like Christian's Hagia Sophia and churches now looks more like Muslim Spanish Moors' Mezquita. Also it's often an oblivious fact that Norman also conquered Sicily (after Muslim'…

>churches now looks more like Muslim Spanish Moors' Mezquita I've never seen any church that looks like that. The only Eastern architectural plan I can think of as having been exported West is the round style of the Dome of the Rock after it became a Templar headquarter. >obviously they had learnt a lot from the Islamic architecture that they brought and implemented the concepts to Britain and other parts of Europe T…

The elephant in the Mediterranean room is Rome, all the monumental architecture, including Islamic buildings, builds on Roman architectural knowledge a lot, adding its own decorations and elements.

We tend to forget that the entire North Africa and huge regions of the Near East, including today's Syria and Jordan, were Roman provincies for long centuries. This cultural bedrock did not go away during later conquests, it only eroded away very slowly.

Re: The biggest churches in the world: Anglo-Norman eleventh-century cathedrals

#52

Post by brazed_blotch »

I always thought this was the normal size for churches until I left home (I grew up by St Albans Cathedral, also known as the Abbey amongst locals as the church previously had a monastery. You can still see where it was attached before it was demolished). I'm stuck between feeling disappointed that I can't visit churches like these where I currently live and privileged that I grew up near one!

Re: The biggest churches in the world: Anglo-Norman eleventh-century cathedrals

#53

Post by Bayart »

srcreigh wrote: post #2

The cathedral with the highest nave (ie height of ceiling in the main worship area) is the Hagia Sophia. Its nave is ~7.5m/25ft higher than any other cathedral. Although it still stands, it is technically not a church anymore. The Romans took it for a while and then the Turks. It had been a museum and last year became a mosque again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia

>ie height of ceiling in the main worship area

That's not what a nave is. "Nave" quite literally means "boat". It refers to the elongated, cage-like, spined structure of basilical and later on Latin cross plans.

Saint Sophia can't have the highest nave because it doesn't have one to begin with, it has a dome. They're very different structures.

Re: The biggest churches in the world: Anglo-Norman eleventh-century cathedrals

#54

Post by dageshi »

bencollier49 wrote: post #4

Cathedrals are fascinating storehouses of religious and general historical knowledge. If you're ever in the vicinity of a British cathedral, taking a decent guided tour is well worth the time, as the building will likely have gone through around a thousand years of slow (or dramatic) change, intimately linked to the history of the local area. In Hereford, for instance, the font has a lockable cover to stop locals ste…

There's a good time team on Salisbury Cathedral that's worth a watch, sadly the quality of the uploaded version is only 360p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so8WBdhsUnw

Re: The biggest churches in the world: Anglo-Norman eleventh-century cathedrals

#56

Post by Bayart »

inglor_cz wrote: post #51
Bayart wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>churches now looks more like Muslim Spanish Moors' Mezquita I've never seen any church that looks like that. The only Eastern architectural plan I can think of as having been exported West is the round style of the Dome of the Rock after it became a Templar headquarter. >obviously they had learnt a lot from the Islamic architecture that they brought and implemented the concepts to Britain and other parts of Europe T…

The elephant in the Mediterranean room is Rome, all the monumental architecture, including Islamic buildings, builds on Roman architectural knowledge a lot, adding its own decorations and elements. We tend to forget that the entire North Africa and huge regions of the Near East, including today's Syria and Jordan, were Roman provincies for long centuries. This cultural bedrock did not go away during later conquests,…

You should also credit Persian architecture, from which Islamic tradition drew equally (although, for obvious reasons, less around the Med than in Asia).

Re: The biggest churches in the world: Anglo-Norman eleventh-century cathedrals

#57

Post by bencollier49 »

rich_sasha wrote: post #34
bencollier49 wrote: post #4

Cathedrals are fascinating storehouses of religious and general historical knowledge. If you're ever in the vicinity of a British cathedral, taking a decent guided tour is well worth the time, as the building will likely have gone through around a thousand years of slow (or dramatic) change, intimately linked to the history of the local area. In Hereford, for instance, the font has a lockable cover to stop locals ste…

Peterborough Cathedral is very grand and beautiful, but all human figures, sculpted and painted, have their faces removed (chipped off or painted) from Reformation days.

Unfortunately that's common in a lot of places. Many of the cathedrals were actually used to billet roundhead troops, and they seem to have spent their free time doing that sort of thing.

Re: The biggest churches in the world: Anglo-Norman eleventh-century cathedrals

#58

Post by bencollier49 »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #44
bencollier49 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the Sagrada Familia looked better when it was unfinished. Now it's painted, it looks like something halfway between a particularly elaborate Christmas cake and a Terry Pratchett cover from the 1990s.

I was there 25 years ago, went up one of the towers. Was a magical place even though, or perhaps because, it was very much unfinished. Surely it still isn't finished? I thought it was expected to be finished in 2026. Do you have any urls showing the current state? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia

There seems to have been a new impetus to the construction in the last ten or so years. No idea of the schedule though. I guess I should have said "more unfinished".

Re: The biggest churches in the world: Anglo-Norman eleventh-century cathedrals

#59

Post by matthewaveryusa »

In the Chester, Saint John photo (4th one) you can clearly see a non-grouted horizontal line across the stone walls. I’ve seen this in many cathedrals and was wondering 1) what it’s for and 2) if that’s part of the original construction. My guess is that it’s some sort of contemporary mitigation to avoid cracks?

Re: The biggest churches in the world: Anglo-Norman eleventh-century cathedrals

#60

Post by gorgoiler »

matthewaveryusa wrote: post #59

In the Chester, Saint John photo (4th one) you can clearly see a non-grouted horizontal line across the stone walls. I’ve seen this in many cathedrals and was wondering 1) what it’s for and 2) if that’s part of the original construction. My guess is that it’s some sort of contemporary mitigation to avoid cracks?

The electricity cable, running across the three identical half-cylinder pillars?
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