231–240 of 341 posts
Is this one of the longest running construction projects of all time?
Cathedrals (or technically in this case, a church) being built over decades or centuries is pretty common! This might be one of the quicker ones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_Cathedral took six centuries, although they started and stopped a few times.
Is this one of the longest running construction projects of all time?
When this is done in 2026, we’ll be as far away from the start of construction as they were from the end of it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is this odd split in American society that makes this possible. You can go through your entire life, end up a professional journalist at the Times and not actually have asked someone about their sincerely held faith and practice. Kids rarely talked about religion in HS, outside of like the Interfaith club. (I ran my high school's and we had an annual panel of a rep from each major religion. I was was quite popu…
Well, the other thing is that many, perhaps most, religious people don't know very much about their religion. Very few Catholics would know the difference between a cathedral and a minor basilica, say (which is what started this thread off in the first place). Actually, I'd argue that this isn't a religious question, anyway; it's administrivia.
For most, faith and culture are intertwined as they go about their day. You fast because of course you do, not because you know the thousand-year history of that practice and the relevant scriptural phrases.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is this odd split in American society that makes this possible. You can go through your entire life, end up a professional journalist at the Times and not actually have asked someone about their sincerely held faith and practice. Kids rarely talked about religion in HS, outside of like the Interfaith club. (I ran my high school's and we had an annual panel of a rep from each major religion. I was was quite popu…
I have the opposite impression. Among Westerners Americans seem like the group where Christianity still plays the largest role in the average person's life. They talk about it a lot, to the point that I find it annoying. It's not just people who believe in it, the atheists and secular ones among them constantly complain about how bad religion is and how much they hate it. That's something you simply don't see in West…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is this odd split in American society that makes this possible. You can go through your entire life, end up a professional journalist at the Times and not actually have asked someone about their sincerely held faith and practice. Kids rarely talked about religion in HS, outside of like the Interfaith club. (I ran my high school's and we had an annual panel of a rep from each major religion. I was was quite popu…
There is this constitutional right in American society that makes this possible. Change two words in your opening sentence and the rest reads like the system is working as intended!
I feel like the only person in the world who was thoroughly underwhelmed by it and really don’t see how its future space requirements for a staircase can be justified. This isn’t me trying to be edgy, I like cathedrals, this one (and his general style) just left me cold. Duomo in Milan was far better imo.
Before the modern era constructing expensive religious buildings could perhaps be justified, but after the 1800s people ought to have known better and these can't lay claim to represent the city as earlier projects could. It belongs in the same category as the castle at Disneyland.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are lot's of city centres in Europe in France, Italy, Belgium etc. where entire neighborhoods survived, and they look great.
I think the ultimate city if you like old European architecture is probably Prague. It's a big city and most of it is amazing. You're totally right that France/Italy/Belgium all have amazing towns to visit. But in case someone is looking for a random tip elsewhere: Český Krumlov ( https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8Cesk%C3%BD_Krumlov ), which is in today Czechia (handy in case you happen to visit Prague), but used to…
Looking at the surrounding building of the Sagrada, just makes me wonder again, what the hell happened to modern architecture. Modern architecture has destroyed our cities. It's hard to find a building build after WO2 that's actually pretty, let alone an entire neighborhood. Nothing compared the historic cities of Europe. In a time when it's cheaper then ever to build, they've not been able to build anything even clo…