Cathedrals

Mont Sant Michel

Buenos Aires Cathedral
This neoclassical cathedral was built in the XVIII century and is the resting place of Liberator General José de San Martín's ashes. San Martín was one of the most important heroes in the history of Argentina. He led the battles against Spanish armies that resulted in the country's independence.

Mexico Cathedral
The cathedral and its vestry represent a synthesis of art forms in New Spain. Penetrating its imposing sun-bathed baroque and neoclassical facade, the visitor enters the ethereal half-light of this hallowed shrine, with its five separate naves, its side chapels, and its sacred religious icons. The religious ceremonies are performed with the full dignity of the Catholic faith and, with a little luck, it may be possible to hear the strains of one of the cathedral's monumental organs. The City's soft clay subsoil, subject to continuous movement over the years, has propitiated the gradual sinking of many building such as the cathedral, and sophisticated restoration works, partially visible, have prevented its collapse.
This monumental structure which today dominates Mexico's main square -the Zocalo- is not the same as that which initially replaced the Templo Mayor in 1572 the Archbishop Pedro Moya de Contreras laid the first stone which, after 42 symbolic years, was inaugurated by the Viceroy Duke of Alburquerque and was later re-dedicated in 1667 by the Viceroy Mancera.
The cathedral had the privilege of introducing new architectural styles that subsequently flourished throughout New Spain. Classic evolves into neoclassic and envelops the baroque play of style without detracting from it in any way. Much of this is owed to Manuel Tolsa who added the final touches to the project in 1813 by adding the balustrade and by enlarging the central cupola.
The exquisite interior
Crossing the threshold framed by the magnificent main doors carved in 1659 leads the visitor into a more subtle world, geared towards uplifting the soul with a spirituality that permeates the senses: magnificent fluted columns which soar upward and return to earth in a display of infinite motion akin to the sounds produced by the monumental organs, exquisitely carved the wooden benches crowned by a lectern, golden galleries of the organs and the resplendent relief backdrop of the Altar of Forgiveness.
After exiting the cathedral the adjoining vestry can be visited, the sober interior of which provides a sharp contrast to its capricious exterior facade. There is a difference of almost five feet between the levels of the opposing walls of the cathedral's huge structure, which stoically resists the vagaries of the urban landscape caused by the hustle and bustle of City life.

Manchester Cathedral
In fact evidence of an early Saxon church in Manchester comes from the Angel Stone, which was discovered embedded in the wall of the original South Porch of the Cathedral in the 19th century, and which has been dated to around 700 CE.
It was around the year 1075 that King William the Conqueror gave all the land between the River Ribble and the River Mersey to Roger de Poitou, son of the Earl of Shrewsbury.
He in turn gave the Manor of Manchester to the Greslet or Gresley family.
In 1086 Manchester was recorded in William the Conqueror’s Domesday Book, which mentioned that the place had a Parish Church and it is believed that this church was located at the corner of St Mary’s Gate and Exchange Street.
However, this site was deserted when in 1215 Robert Greslet, Lord of the Manor and 5th Baron of Manchester decided to build the current church adjacent to his manor house (now Chetham’s Library). This became the Parish Church of Manchester

Saint-Sophia Cathedral, Kiev
Designed to rival Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, Kiev's Saint-Sophia Cathedral symbolizes the 'new Constantinople', capital of the Christian principality of Kiev, which was created in the 11th century in a region evangelized after the baptism of St Vladimir in 988. The spiritual and intellectual influence of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra contributed to the spread of Orthodox thought and the Orthodox faith in the Russian world from the 17th to the 19th century.

Basilica del Pilar en Zaragoza
This large cathedral has a very interesting history and is beautiful! It has a very sacred atmosphere. There is a constant flow of pilgrims with masses throughout the day, as well as confession. The plaza outside the cathedral is on a busy avenue with many people coming and going. Lots of pigeons! Look for the religious art shops that sell some of the most beautiful creches I have ever seen!

BIrmingham Cathedral
The church is a beautiful Grade 1 listed building of national importance. It was designed by Thomas Archer in the English Baroque style, and built between 1709 and 1715. It became a Cathedral in 1905 when the Diocese of Birmingham was formed. The word "cathedral" simply means the church that houses the chair of the bishop, and so is the central church of the diocese.
The year 2005 sees the centenary of the Diocese of Birmingham, and will be marked by many special events and celebrations. More details of these events can be found by visiting.

Bratislava Cathedral
St. Martin's Cathedral is a three-aisle Gothic church at the foot of the castle hill. The 300 kg Hungarian Royal Crown rests on a golden pillow located on the top of the 85 m high tower (by the way, large enough to fit a small car) is testimony to the fact that 11 Austro-Hungarian kings and 8 queens were once coronated here in the 16th century.
Once a part of city fortifications, the St. Martin's is a an intriguing and fascinating building with a turbulent history, well worth a visit. Do not just walk in and out, take a walk around the building and you will discover many fascinating corners. The cathedral is still in use today and some Bratislavians hold weddings there.
The cathedral dates all the way back to the beginning of the 14th century when the construction started at a former site of a Romanesque church. Construction continued for over a hundred years and the church was consecrated in 1452.
Interior work continued in subsequent centuries and in the 18th century, the Archbishop of Esztergom invited the famous sculptor Georg Rafael Donner from Austria to design the main altar of the baroque chapel of St. John the Mendicant.
The cathedral also houses crypts where church and lay dignitaries are burried.

Liverpool Cathedral
The foundation stone of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral was laid by King Edward VII in 1904. The cathedral was designed by the architect Giles Gilbert Scott and is the fifth largest in the world rising to a height of 100 metres. It occupies a total area of 100,000 square feet and was built mainly of sandstone quarried in Woolton, a Liverpool suburb.
Services were first held in 1940 but the Second World War and inflation slowed work and the completion of the building only came in 1978.
It houses the largest organ (9765 pipes) in the UK and the highest (66 metres) and heaviest (31 tonnes) ringing peal of bells in the world.
Admission to the cathedral is free but with a suggested donation of £3.00. It's open daily all year from 0800 to 1800hrs and regular services are held every Sunday.

Mont Saint Michel
The « Wonder of the Western World » forms a tower in the heart of an immense bay invaded by the highest tides in Europe.
It was at the request of the Archangel Michel « chief of the celestial militia » that Aubert, Bishop of Avranches built and consecrated a small church on the 16th October 709. In 966 a community of Benedictines settled on the rock at the request of the Duke of Normandy and the pre-Romanesque church was built before the year one thousand.
In the 11th century, the Romanesque abbey church was founded over a set of crypts where the rock comes to an apex, and the first monastery buildings were built up against its north wall.
In the 12th century, the Romanesque monastery buildings were extended to the west and south.
In the 13th century , a donation by the king of France, Philip Augustus , in the wake of his conquest of Normandy, enabled a start to be made on the Gothic section of the “Merveille” : two three-storey buildings, crowned by the cloister and the refectory.
In the 14th century, the Hundred Years War made it necessary to protect the abbey behind a set of military constructions, enabling it to hold out against a siege lasting 30 years.
In the 15th century, the Romanesque chancel of the abbey church, broken down in 1421 was replaced by the Gothic Flamboyant chancel.
With Rome and Saint Jacques de Compostelle, this great spiritual and intellectual centre, was one of the most important places of pilgrimage for the Medieval occident. For nearly one thousand years men, women and children went there by roads called « paths to paradise » hoping for the assurance of eternity, given by the Archangel of judgement « Peseur des ames ».
The Abbey was turned into a prison during the days of the French Revolution and Empire, and needed to be restored before the end of the 19th century.
With the celebration of the monastic’s 1000th anniversary,in the year 1966 a religious community moved back to what used to be the abbatial dwellings, perpuating prayer and welcome the original vocation of this place. Friars and sisters from “Les Fraternités Monastiques de Jerusalem” have been ensuring a spiritual presence since the year 2001.
At the same time as the abbey was developping a village grew up from the Middle Age.It flourished on the south-east side of the rock surrounded by walls dated for the most part from the Hundred Years war.This village has always a commercial vocation.
UNESCO has classed the Mont Saint-Michel as a world heritage in 1984 and this mecca of tourism welcomes more than three million visitors a year.

Berne Cathedral
This is the city's most impressive late-Gothic building. The three-aisled basilica towers above the roofs of the Old Town. The building was started in 1421 and several generations of architects worked on this masterpiece. The tower was completed only in 1893. Its promiment characteristic is the portal, on which the depiction of the last judgment can be admired.

Bordeaux Cathedral
St. André Cathedral is a structure made of two different sections: a late 13th-century Roman style single and large nave, and a High Gothic style chancel considered to be one of the most beautiful specimens in that style. This dissimilarity reflects the history of the city.
During the first centuries of English domination (1154-1453), Bordeaux was prosperous and soon it was evident that the cathedral was too small. The city was rich and nothing was too beautiful. Both the transept and the chancel are huge. The construction began when Bertrand de Got, future Pope Clement V, was archbishop of Bordeaux between 1300 and 1305. Because of the One Hundred Years War, the works were virtually stopped except for the Pey-Berland campanile, topped by a high spire, built in 1440 by the archbishop after which it was named.
Construction resumed when English troops have been driven out. Following the war, it was hard times because whole France had to get over its ruins. Due to lack of money, when it was time to build the new nave, it was decided not to demolish the old nave but to link as best as possible the two existing parts of the building. This situation earned St. André to have a chancel taller than its nave.
The cathedral has two façades: northern and southern, at both ends of the transept. The most finished is the northern one with its towers, its 266-ft. (81 m) spires and its portal wonderfully decorated with 14th-century characters. The famous Royal portal, on the south end, presents mid 13th-century statues.
In the 19th century, the cathedral was restored because it was badly damaged during the Revolution. Since all its furniture was gone, it was decided to bring in furniture coming from deconsecrated churches and monasteries. The spire on the Pey-Berland campanile, destroyed by a wind storm in the 18th century, was replaced by a gigantic gilded copper statue, Our Lady of Aquitaine. The great bell was cast in 1853 and weighs 11 tons.
The cathedral is 407-ft (124 m) long by 59-ft (18 m) wide at the transept and 75-ft (23 m) high in the nave and 95-ft (29 m) high in the chancel. It is classified as an "historic landmark" and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 1998.
The Organ
The first mention of a major organ at St. André dates from 1427 built by Jacques de Rasta. A new loft, built in 1531 on the orders of archbishop Charles de Granmont, inspired the following comment from the English chronicler Andrew Boorde, who visited Bordeaux in 1535: "In St. Andrew's Cathedral is to be found the finest, the most splendid organ in all Christendom."
In 1619, when François Cardinal de Sourdis was bishop, the Chapter decided to enlarge the instrument. This restoration lasted over eleven years, but had such disastrous consequences that a further seven years' work was needed before the instrument became playable. Further work was carried out regularly until 1791, when - in common with the rest of the cathedral's furnishings - the organ was dismantled and sold off in the aftermath of the French Revolution. An edit of December 15, 1794 (25 frimaire an III) required the pipes to be melted down to manufacture uniform buttons.
When worship could be resumed, following the concordat of 1801, the 16th-century loft had been empty for ten years. In April 1804, the organ in St. Pierre church in La Réole , now closed, built by the Toulouse builder Micot en 1766 was transferred to St. André. This transfer was entrusted to Joseph Isnard and Simon Bayssac-Lebruyere. However, this instrument proved inadequate for the scale of the cathedral, it was dismantled in 1810 to enable the loft to be repaired. Considering the fact that the organ was not according to their wishes, the churchwardens, instead of learning from this error, lust after the most beautiful instrument in Bordeaux, the one installed in St. Croix church. The archbishop called upon influent musical personalities to support him in this case. on February 11, 1811, they signed a petition approving the exchange of organs between the two churches.
Dom François Bedos de Celles' organ, admirably suited to the acoustics of St. Croix, had undergone only minor modifications in the second half of the 18th century. An inventory of 1756 lists 44 stops: Great 16 stops, Choir 14, Swell 2 (cornet and trumpet), Pedal 8, with a solo Krummhorn and an Echo organ Cornet.
The conflict was settled by the minister of Cults and the exchange was confirmed. Again we called upon Joseph Isnard and Simon Bayssac-Labruyere to carried out the works. The cathedral organ was reinstalled in December 1812 in St. Croix church. Organcases remain in their respective churches. If no major problem occurred in reinstalling the Micot organ, it was necessary to enlarge the cathedral's modest organcase in order to include all Dom Bedos' material. On April 12, 1812, a plan was proposed to build four new turrets for the Choir and Great divisions with various modifications, sculptures and mahogany paint on the organcase, the manufacturing of 68 new pipes to refurnish the Montre left behind in St. Croix, the buildinig of a new wind system and new windtrunks, etc.
However, many problems occurred: polemic about the solidity of new gallery built by Combes and completed at the end of 1811 but mainly several administrative delays and errors in the craftsmen's pay. In spite of these difficulties, the organ was received on March 27, 1817. On demand by organist Ouelly, modifications were made to the original stoplist: addition of a Contre-bombarde stop in the Pedal division, removal of the Grosee Fourniture, addition of a Trompette (treble) replacing the Larigot in the Choir Division. Manual compass was extended from 51 to 54 notes.
But the overall effect was disappointing, Dom Bedos' organ was overwhelmed by the cathedral, eight to ten times larger than St. Croix, and a further rebuilding was undertaken between 1837 and 1841 by the organbuilder Henry, who designed the current convex wings of the case. In 1875-7, Wenner replaced the old two-stop Swell with a full 14-stop Swell organ, and replaced the tracker action of the Great and of the bass notes of the Swell, with a Barker pneumatic action.
More work was carried out in 1921 by Puget, and in 1933 by Gloton. In 1946, the tracker action of the pedal division was replaced by a tubular pneumatic action, by Robert Boisseau, and from 1954 to 1961, the keyboard action was fully electrified by Beuchet-Debierre. In 1962, some pipes dating from Wenner's restoration (1875-7) fell into the nave, and to prevent further collapses, that section of the organ was temporarily rebuilt, using unattractive electrolytic zinc pipes.
At that stage, the organ contained 56 stops: 26 from Dom Bedos de Celles' original instrument, 10 salvaged from early instruments during the 19th century, and 20 modern. Such was the instrument, capable of producing unforgettable sonorities despite its age and composite nature, over with Canon André Lacaze presided as principal organist until his death in 1964. He had already raised the possibility of total restoration and this project was taken up by his successor Christian Robert who was supported by Archbishop Marius Maziers, the Mayor of Bordeaux, Jacques Chaban-Dalmas, and the Minister of Culture.
The principal question to be resolved was how far Dom Bedos' original stops could be preserved. On the advice of André Marchal, of the Commission for Historical Monuments, the option of building a new organ was preferred. After delays caused by architectural renovations of the cathedral itself, the work of building a new organ was carried out by the organbuilding firm Gonzalez, under the supervision of Emile Mothere, Francis Chapelet and Christian Robert.
The new organ is housed in a splendid case designed by the firms of Limouzin and Vernay, in the style which the old organ had had before 1875. The instrument is entirely new except for a few wooden display pipes on the Choir, dating from 1934. The organ was designed in the light of information available about Dom Bedos' original instrument (1748), of the same builder's treatise "On the Art of Organ-building", of the instrument dismantled in 1973, and of the requirements of the modern repertoire.
The builders wished to imitate several features of Dom Bedos' original organ: the flute, flageolet and cornet stops of the Choir; the fifteenth, mixtures and grande tierce of the Great; the cornet of the Echo, and the tracker action. His treatise, mentioned above, described a "Grand Jeu de Tierce de Pédale", which was imitated in the new organ by constructing the Echo as a swell-box, with a Cornet stop; when the box is closed, this keyboard acts as a genuine Echo organ, while with the box open, its Cornet, coupled with the 16' Pedal Cornet, forms the Pedal Grande Tierce advocated by Dom Bedos. The addition of 16' and 32' Bourdon stops on the Pedal and the preservation of a 4' Flute on the Choir also comply with the treatise.
The new Swell was designed to reflect the one built in 1875 by Georges Wenner, with the addition of a full family of Principals (8'-4'-2') and a 5-rank Mixture, all in more acceptable metal. To enable the whole Romantic and Modern repertoire to be performed, the manuals were extended to 61 notes and the pedalboard to 32.
Georges Danion, of the Gonzalez firm, directed the rebuilding operation. Jacques Bertrand was responsible for voicing the stops: his work in reconciling the acoustics of the cathedral, Dom Bedos' principles and all the requirements of experts and organists involved, deserves particular admiration. The organ was inaugurated, in 1982, by Jean-Jacques Grunenwald.
In 1987, a rehabilitation was carried out by organbuilding firm Pesce under the authority of the Commission for Historical Monuments and under the supervision of Jean-Pierre Decavele. On this occasion, a new electronic combinator, designed by Christian Robert. was installed.
Important modernization works have been carried out by organbuilder Marc Hédelin to improve tonal structures (mainly in the Pedal division) and the organist's convenience at the console. The renovated organ was inaugurated by Guy Bovet on May 30, 2002.
The organcase, originating from Le Réole and many times enlarged, is classified as an "historical landmark".

Turin Cathedral
The cathedral, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, stands on the site of three ancient churches, and was built (1492-98) by Meo del Caprino, with an octagonal dome. Attached to the cathedral is the chapel of the Santissimo Sudario, built by Guarini (1694), where is preserved in a casket a cloth believed to be the shroud in which the Body of Christ was wrapped when it was taken down from the Cross, The Church of Corpus Domini records a miracle which took place during the sack of the city in 1453, when a soldier was carrying off an ostensorium containing the Blessed Sacrament: the ostensorium fell to the ground, while the Host remained suspended in air. The present splendid church, erected in 1610 to replace the original chapel which stood on the spot, is the work of Ascanio Vittozzi. The Consolata, a sanctuary much frequented by pilgrims, stands on the site of the tenth-century monastery of S. Andrea, and is the work of Guarini. It was sumptuously restored in 1903.

Trier Cathedral
The Cathedral' precincts still enclose a large and well preserved part of the ancient Roman building, dating from the 4th century. Even at this early date - building had begun in 326 - the enormous and impressive structure was built as a full-scale Cathedral with its foundations on the site of a former palace of the Constantine period.
Towards the end of the 4th century, gates led into a cloistered courtyard and further on, into a three-naved Basilica roughly the size of the present-day Romanesque west-facade, and finally into the rectangular central building, dating from about 380 A.D. Its ancient masonry of red sandstone, interspersed with layers of bricks is still clearly identifiable in the Cathedral's north and south walls. Destroyed and rebuilt, modified and enlarged all the time, the Cathedral was repaired and secured from 1964 to 1974, and thus completely overhauled after the destructions of World War II.
Until today, the Cathedral and the Church of our Lady, near the Great Market, represent one of the largest dual church buildings of early Christian architecture.

Modena Cathedral
Historians tell us that nine centuries ago Modena was in very bad shape. The ancient Roman settlement was in ruins. The new Christian settlement, which had arisen outside the walls around what had been the ancient necropolis, was flooded by water ("inundatione submersa," the chronicles report). Even the cathedral, erected on the site where Saint Geminianus was martyred, showed signs of collapse. It had been built around 1060, but Canon Ajmone says that it was dangerous to enter it, for fear of crumbling structures. Whether these were real risks or only symbolic threats, given that the cathedral had been conceived and built by a schismatic Bishop, Eriberto, matters little. Modena remained a village besieged by poverty and ruin. The Episcopal see was vacant, and there seemed to be no one on the horizon who could again take up the thread of civil society.
But in that long ago 1099 some truly extraordinary things happened. Modena's fate fell under the gaze of the most charismatic personality of the region: Matilda of Canossa. A supporter of the Pope in the Investiture Conflict, protagonist of the famous humiliation of Emperor Henry IV, Matilda had, from the height of her inviolable castle in the heart of the Apennines, bit by bit enlarged her hegemony to take in the plain below. Monasteries, abbeys, cathedrals: wherever possible, her efforts went toward initiating building projects to establish new sites for the faith, following the model of Cluny. As the century drew to a close, her attention was drawn to that old Roman settlement which, thanks to the act of a saint, had been spared from the scourge of Attila and was now barely surviving. Her intervention was discreet. She understood that it was the right moment for bringing Modena back to the obedience of Peter. The clergy was in shambles, but the people were immediately on her side. As Canon Ajmone reports, "non tanto ordo clericorum sed universus ecclesiae populus conferre coeperunt." That is, against conservative resistances, the party of the people took the upper hand and set out to build the cathedral.
The builder from Como
And here we have the second unexpected event. To build a cathedral, someone who had experience in this field was needed. And who would come into those wild plains, when the news from the north, France in particular, told of great and magnificent constructions in progress? But, once again-it is Ajmone who recounts the story-by God's mercy ("inventus est vir"), the providential man was found. His name was Lanfranco, "mirabilis artifex, mirificus aedificator." Artifex, or creator; aedificator, or builder. Nothing is known about him. Tradition, reasoning according to logic, says he came from Como, where an extraordinary school of builders had been established; witnesses to this are those two shining jewels of the Romanesque, the churches of Sant'Abbondio and San Fedele. With Lanfranco, the Romanesque style took on thrust, beauty, elegance. The structures became lighter; the lines, stripped to essentials, were more graceful and luminous. Also the materials received more care and attention. And, in this sense, Ajmone recounts, in 1099 a third prodigious feat took place. The funds had been found, the architect as well, but the endeavor was at risk for an early end due to lack of its raw material: stones. But the stones too appeared from unknown and unexpected sources. For the foundations, great blocks were reused from some Roman monument, blocks that must have been found not far from there, given their dimensions which were regular but also considerable (1.56 x 1.04 meters, or about 5 x 3 feet, each). Work began on May 23, 1099. After only eighteen days the foundations had been dug and the building began to emerge from the ground. It was June 9th. From that moment on, stones for the walls began to arrive from quarries in the area around Vicenza and Verona. For the interior, Lanfranco set his ingenuity to work, using Roman marble columns alternated with bundled brick pillars, while the inside walls were faced with brick.
The result is a moving synthesis of fidelity to early Christian building tradition and innovation ac cording to the most elevated spirit of the times.
The genius who came out of nowhere
But the true, remarkable synthesis that was created in Modena was between Lanfranco and the other famous artist called to the site: Wiligelmo. He too came out of nowhere, and we might not have known anything about his existence if the plaque commemorating the foundation of the cathedral did not bear, with an emphasis that is decidedly unusual, his name: "Inter sculptores quanto sis dignus onore claret scultura nunc Eiligelme tua" ("Wiligelmo, your sculpture proclaims your worth among sculptors"). Without this fragile piece of evidence engraved in the marble of the bas-relief of Enoch and Elijah, the outstanding genius who left behind him on the facade of Modena cathedral the highest achievements in Romanesque sculpture would be a genius lost in the dark of time. Instead, Wiligelmo, bearing a name that is at the same time archaic and triumphant, is a presence with precise, definite, imperious outlines. He worked on the site at the same time, certainly, as the architectural structure was going up, thus in the early years of the Twelfth Century, and it is certain that he made the panels with stories from Genesis, which were once set lower than we see them today. Like Lanfranco, his history and sensibility led him to realize the extraordinary embrace between romanitas and Romanesque art. The construction site at Modena, in fact, was characterized by this: here, perhaps because of the vicinity of ancient ruins, perhaps for the religious reasons mentioned in the beginning, the air of Rome was strongly felt. It is the Romanesque that, instead of turning in on itself in its albeit charming and humble roughness, becomes almost bold, majestic.
Preciousness in stone Wiligelmo worked like a sculptor of a thousand years earlier. He was capable of virtuoso effects in stone that were decidedly uncommon for his time. In his workshop the stone was worked with a drill, and the join between the blocks was made using techniques absorbed from ancient sources.
All this could answer to "abstractly archaeological criteria"-as the most profound scholar of the construction of Modena Cathedral, Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, has pointed out- if it had not been conceived by Wiligelmo as a mere instrument to make his inventions even more powerful.
With him, on the facade, something happened that is comparable only to what Masaccio would do three centuries later on the walls of the Brancacci chapel. In Florence, Masaccio invented projected shadows (like the one of Peter healing the cripple). Here Wiligelmo invents the human body. How moving is the sight of the sleeping outline of Adam, in whom the beating warmth of the flesh transpires from the stone! Wiligelmo is the first to short-circuit any abstraction or formality of expression. His figures bursting forth from the stone exude all the mystery and power of the life that constitutes them. Within their muscles is all the heaviness of human finiteness, but at the same time also the light that only the fact of being children of God can imbue into the body of living beings.
In 1106, Modena Cathedral received its first consecration. The body of Saint Geminianus, in the presence of Countess Matilda, Pope Paschal II, and Bishop Dodone who had been appointed in the meantime, was transferred from the old church to the new one. The clergy had wanted to make this move earlier. The people demanded instead that it be done in the presence of the Pope. The body of the saint who had defended Christianity from the Arian heresy in these plains and had protected them from the scourge of Attila was exhumed. The saint appeared "integrum et illibatum" ("whole and unviolated"), reports Deacon Ajmone, who was an eyewitness to all these events. Only seven years had passed, and Modena once again had her saint and her cathedral.
Matilda of Canossa
"Matilda, by the grace of God if she is something," was the way Matilda, the famous and powerful countess of Canossa, the pro-papal protagonist of the war of investitures which saw Rome opposed to the emperor, used to sign her name. Born in 1046, she was one of the most powerful women of the entire Middle Ages. Her fortress was in the heart of the Emilian Apennines. There, on May 28, 1077, Emperor Henry IV, after being locked outside its walls, kneeling in the snow, was pardoned by Pope Gregory VII.
Matilda had a contemplative nature. In reality her life was a constant battle. She died in 1115, leaving all her goods to the Church and opening by this gesture a long dispute between Rome and the Empire. Dante was struck by her figure (he calls her "Matelda"), and puts her in Purgatory, where he meets her just before his rendezvous with Beatrice.
The Countess's Cathedrals
The Bishop of Mantua wrote that all the cathedrals in the lower Po valley are "nourished by Matilda's milk." In effect, a large number of building sites were initiated by the Countess's direct intervention. The rotunda of San Lorenzo in Mantua dates to 1083. In 1077 the Benedictine abbey of San Benedetto in Polirone Po was founded, linked directly with Cluny, where Matilda chose to be buried. Dated in the next century, instead, are Cremona Cathedral (1107-1117), the abbey at Nonantola (1121, picture at right), and Piacenza Cathedral (1122).
Saint Geminianus
Bishop of Modena, he lived in the Fourth Century. Nothing is directly known about him. He is mentioned in 390 because his delegate, Teodulo, participated in Milan in a Council called by Saint Ambrose. His predecessor Antonio, instead, was present in Sardica at the anti-Arian Council of 343 and is mentioned by Athanasius in his Defense Against the Arians.
Geminianus probably belonged to the caste of senators, as is gathered from his name. He probably died on January 31 (his feastday), 397. All the information we have about him comes from much later biographies, even if traces of his veneration have always been present in Modena. As early as the Fifth Century a church had been erected over his tomb, contiguous with the present cathedral and completely outside the center of the Roman town. In the early Middle Ages, moreover, Modena is often mentioned as Civitas Geminiana. The saint is venerated also in Tuscany, naturally at San Gimignano, and in Pontremoli where the cathedral is dedicated to him.

St. Paul's Cathedral
A Cathedral dedicated to St Paul has overlooked the City of London since 604AD, a constant reminder to this great commercial centre of the importance of the spiritual side of life.
The current Cathedral – the fourth to occupy this site – was designed by the court architect Sir Christopher Wren and built between 1675 and 1710 after its predecessor was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. Its architectural and artistic importance reflect the determination of the five monarchs who oversaw its building that London’s leading church should be as beautiful and imposing as their private palaces.
As the Cathedral of the capital city, St Paul’s is the spiritual focus for the Nation. This is where people and events of overwhelming importance to the country have been celebrated, mourned and commemorated since the first Service took place in 1697.
Since then important services have included the funerals of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and Sir Winston Churchill; Jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria, King George V; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; the launch of the Festival of Britain; the Service of Remembrance and Commemoration for the 11th September 2001: the 80th and 100th birthdays of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother; the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, to Lady Diana Spencer and, most recently, the Thanksgiving for the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen.
Over the centuries, St Paul’s has changed to reflect shifting tastes and attitudes. Decoration has been added and removed, services have been updated, different areas have been put to new uses. Today, the history of the nation is written in the carved stone of its pillars and arches and is celebrated in its works of art and monuments.
In the crypt are effigies and fragments of stone that pre-date the Cathedral, relics of a medieval world. From Wren’s original vision, Jean Tijou’s beautiful wrought iron gates of 1700 still separate the quire from the ambulatory; children still test the acoustics in the Whispering Gallery; and the 1695 organ which Mendelssohn once played is still in use.
The magnificent mosaics are the result of Queen Victoria’s mid-19th century complaint that the interior was “most dreary, dingy and undevotional.” The American Memorial Chapel stands behind the High Altar in an area that was bomb-damaged during the Second World War – a gesture of gratitude to the American dead of the Second World War from the people of Britain. An altar has now been installed on a dais in the heart of the Cathedral, bringing services closer to those who attend them.
Throughout, St Paul’s has remained a busy, working church where millions have come to worship and find peace. It is a heritage site of international importance which attracts thousands of people each year, a symbol of the City and Nation it serves and, above all, a lasting monument to the glory of God.
St Paul’s Cathedral is the cathedral of the Diocese of London. The Diocese is made up of five episcopal areas: Willesden, Edmonton, Stepney, London and Kensington. Four of these have an Area Bishop, to whom the Bishop of London, The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Richard Chartres, delegates certain responsibilities. The Bishops are assisted by Archdeacons. Archdeaconries are further divided into deaneries which are groups of parishes. The Bishop of Fulham is the Suffragan Bishop for the whole Diocese. In 2004 the Diocese celebrates its 1400th anniversary. The administrative centre is London Diocesan House. For more information please go to www.london.anglican.org

Bologna Cathedral
Chief among the sacred edifices of Bologna is the cathedral, dedicated to St. Peter and erected by the commune in 910 to replace the ancient cathedral which stood outside the city walls. Destroyed by fire in 1130, it was but rebuilt in 1165 in its present form it dates from 1605, according to plans drawn by the Magenta, a Barnabite. The façade however, was designed by Alf. Torreggiani, who also added the first two chapels to the church. The majority of the paintings are by famous masters, as, for instance, Ventura da Bologna, Ercole Graziani, Francesco Tadolini, Onofrio Zanotti, del Bagnacavallo (Bartolommeo Ramenghi), Ludovico Caracci, and others. There is also a lower church with five altars. Worthy of note is a crucifix of cedar wood dating from the time of the old cathedral. The church of San Petronio, dedicated to the patron of the city, was built by order of the Secento, at public expense, in 1390. A competition was announced for the plans, and among all the designs the preference was given those of Antonio Vincenzi, while the supervision of the work of erection was entrusted to Andrea Manfredi da Faenza. However, the original drawings, providing for an octagonal dome 500 feet high, were not adhered to. The façade still remains incomplete, only the lower part being covered with sculptures in marble. The ornamentation of the larger door is the work of Pietro della Fonte; many of the figures compare favourably with the works of an age in which the art was more highly developed. In the architrave is the Madonna and Child. The two naves are adorned with statues of Sts. Petronius and Ambrose. The carving of the doors was done by Sigismondo Bargelloso, aided by Andrea Magnani and Gabriele di Zeccaria. The two side doors are also adorned with magnificent carvings, the work of other artists. It is a three naved church, the twenty-three chapels being adorned with the masterpieces of distinguished artists of different ages. Worthy of note is the statue of St. Anthony of Padua by Sansovino. A sun-dial is to be found there, likewise two clocks, among the first to be made in Italy with pendulums.

Agrigento's Cathedral
The festivity of S. Gerlando is one of most ancient of the city of Agrigento; in fact laughed them, nearly sure, to between slazione of its body from the sepolcro primitivo to an altar to the inside of the Cathedral. In antichi times trasla- the zione was equivalent to one canonizzazio- of official. It was completed from Kind bishop (1154-1171) with to all the clergy of the diocese and to the faithfuls in 1159. The festivity traditional of the Saint is two: that one that remembers its birth to the sky, 25 February of 1100, and celebrates in the same day with the maximum liturgica solennità, and that one of the translation that it is celebrated goes, until to little years ago, second Sunday of Passover. This celebration had a popular character since the people participated to you much numerous. Along he puts into effect it them via Dome constructed themselves of the logge or porticati in wood that came adorns to you, with stoffe multicolors, from the merchants come from every part of the Sicily in order to sell theirs robe. The fair of S. Gerlando lasted fifteen days and, in ricor- the renza of the festivity, it came completed with that one of the animals that ammas- savano in the public square of the Seminary and all the Way Dome. Since all those who in the dioce- kept an ecclesiastical benefit, in sign of submission to the Bishop, had to pay so-called "catte- the dratico one", for the occasion in great part came or they were made to represent, carrying, second the several ones prescrizio- ni, or a sum in money 01' homage of some wax coils that then came little does not introduce you to the Saint before the solemn pontificale to which they assisted dressing the own standards. The people manifested its dc zione to the Saint offering money, de you or votive tablets that then veniv hung to the walls of the nail head or r its vicinities. Characteristic of the festivity of Gerlando was the sale of tamburi boys who all wanted to have and; navano untiringly during ~ days. According to the old ones, from which have it; felt to tell, this use rif is gone to first and then to the successive slazioni of the reliquie of the Saint - and ticolarmente to that one spettaco intentional from bishop Orozco Covarruvias in the 1598 - when ir not only the numerous ones came with ternite of the city, but also d Diocese, that bags proceeded wrapped they, with visiere descents, the ~ faloni, the banners and the flags and the immancabili, numerous tambm which ciascuna of they it was equipped.

Norwich Cathedral
I. The changes of the East Anglian see, and its history before its removal to Norwich in 1094, will be found noticed at length in Part II. The first stone of the existing cathedral was laid (possibly on the site of an earlier Saxon church) by Bishop Herbert (called de Losinga, 1091‑1119), in 1096; and the building itself, together with the adjoining priory, was so far completed in 1101 that sixty Benedictine monks were then placed in the latter. Bishop Herbert's work is said to have comprised the choir and its aisles, the tower, and the transepts. Bishop Everard (1121, deposed 1145) added the nave. In the year 1171 the church was much injured by fire, but was restored and completed by John of Oxford (1175‑1200). The Lady-chapel, which was destroyed by Dean Gardiner, in the reign of Elizabeth, was added at the eastern end by Bishop Walter de Suffield (1245‑1257). In 1272, the last year of the reign of Henry III, the church again suffered greatly from fire, during a fierce struggle between the monks and the citizens of Norwich. It was restored, and was solemnly consecrated in honour of the Holy Trinity on Advent Sunday, 1278; on which day also Bishop William Middleton was enthroned. The Bishops of London, Hereford, and Waterford, and the Archbishop of Seez assisted at the consecration; and the king, Edward I, his queen, and court were present. The present spire was added by Bishop Percy (1356‑1369). In 1463 it was struck by lightning, and was repaired by Bishop Lehart. The beautiful Beauchamp chapel was added during the Decorated period, but its exact date is unknown. The west front was altered by Bishop Alnwick (1426, translated 1436), partly during his life, and partly by his executors after his death in 1449. The vaulting of the nave was the work of Bishop Walter Lehart (1446‑1472); the clerestory and stone roof of the choir of Bishop Goldwell (1472‑1499). Bishop Nykke, or Nix (1501‑1536) added the vaulting of the transepts, and probably altered the lower arches of the choir. The cloister, commenced by Bishop Walpole in 1297, was completed by Bishop Alnwick in 1430.
II. The Norman work of this cathedral, and the magnificent series of lierne vaults above its nave, choir, and transepts, are its most important features. No English cathedral (with the exception, perhaps, of Peterborough) has preserved its original Norman plan so nearly undisturbed. "Although retaining the chevet termination of the continental cathedrals, the general plan of this church differs most essentially from them. Its great length as compared with its breadth is such as is never found on the Continent; and the bold projection of the transepts is also a purely English feature, though in this instance hardly carried to the extent which the length of the nave required. A central and two western spires or towers were absolutely indispensable to complete such a design as this, which could never be made to look short by such an addition, while they would have the full value of their height from the lowness and extreme length of the church."
III. Leaving for the present the gateways leading into the Close (see § XXI), we commence our examination of the cathedral with the west front, which, originally Norman, was greatly altered by Bishop Alnwick (1426, translated 1436). The central door was completed during the lifetime of the Bishop, and displays in its spandrels his own arms and those of the see, with the inscription, "Orate pro anima Domini Willelmi Alnwyk." On either side are canopied niches, from which the figures have disappeared. The window above was added by the Bishop's executors after his death in 1449, in accordance with the directions of his will. It is of great, perhaps disproportionate, size, although the tracery with which it is filled is good, and resembles as nearly as possible that of the west window of Westminster Hall. Norman turrets rise on either side; and the fronts of the aisles are Norman, with Perpendicular additions in the parapets and windows. The pinnacles which crown the flanking turrets are entirely modern.
IV. The nave [Plate I], which we now enter, is throughout Norman, with the exception of its vaulted roof, and of the chapel constructed by Bishop Nix in the south aisle. Its lower part is assigned, and with probability, to Bishop Everard (1121‑1145), who no doubt followed the original plan of his predecessor, Bishop Herbert.
The nave, which extends 250 feet from the western door, and comprises fourteen bays to the intersection of the transepts, is the longest in England, with the exception of that of St. Alban's, which extends to 300 feet. Three bays of this length, however, are included in the choir. The great open arches of the triforium, which at once attract attention, thus form a more peculiar feature in the general view of the nave than its unusual length. The arrangement occurs in early Norman work on the Continent, but is found in no other English cathedral. There are, however, examples in some important churches, as at Waltham Abbey, and St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield.
The nave piers are unusually massive, and alternate regularly in design as far as the tenth pier from the west end. On the east and west faces of the first pier are circular half-piers, with cushioned capitals. On the inner face of the second are three semi-attached shafts, with plain caps. A single shaft is set in the angle of each pier, and a billet-moulding encircles the arch. Vaulting-shafts, alternately double and single, ascend to the spring of the triforium arches, and to the level of the clerestory, alternately. The bases of these shafts were apparently altered at the time of the erection of the roof by Bishop Lehart in the fifteenth century.
The triforium, of which the arches are scarcely less in size than those of the nave below them, extends over the whole space of the aisles, and is lighted at present by Perpendicular windows inserted at the back by Bishop Alnwick, who raised the exterior wall for this purpose. Throughout, the triforium arches have triple shafts on their inner sides, and a zigzag moulding above them. They reach to the level of the clerestory, which is set back within a wall-passage, forming a series of triple arches, as at Oxford. The central arch, at the back of which is the window, is raised on slender shafts, resting on the capitals of those below. A billet-moulding surrounds this arch. The clerestory lights are Perpendicular, like those of the triforium. The capitals and bases of piers and shafts are throughout plain, and there is no undercutting, either in the zigzag or billet-mouldings.
The alteration of the western doorway is at once evident from within, the original Norman arch remaining above Bishop Alnwick's Perpendicular insertion. A lofty Norman arcade of two arches remains on either side of the doorway. The two northern arches are some inches higher than those south; and following the indication thus afforded, it will be seen that all the arches of the nave on the north side are slightly higher than those opposite — a fact for which it is difficult to account, but from which we may perhaps conclude that one side of the nave was completed before the other.
V. The beautiful lierne-vault of the nave was the work of Bishop Walter Lehart (1446‑1472), the original Norman roof, which was of wood, having been much injured when the spire of the cathedral was struck by lightning in 1463. The shafts which carry the roof, and which rest on the capitals of the Norman vaulting-shafts already noticed, are of the same date as the roof itself. Bishop Lehart's device — a hart lying in the water (Wa'ter Lie-hart) — alternates with an angel bearing a shield, on the corbels at the bases of the longer shafts.
The bosses of the roof are carved with minute figures, said to be 328 in number, which form a complete sacred history, beginning at the tower end with the Creation, and ending with the Last Judgment. All were originally painted and gilt, and a proper restoration of colour would render them far more decipherable than they are at present, even with the aid of glasses. In the centre of this roof, between the west door and the choir screen, is a circular opening of some size. Similar openings exist in the roof of Exeter Cathedral, and in other vaults of the Decorated and Perpendicular periods; and it has been conjectured that they served for censing the church on great festivals, and for other occasional ceremonies.
The great west window is best seen from the upper part of the nave. It is filled with stained glass by Hedgeland, as a memorial of Bishop Stanley, died 1849. The design is of more pictorial character than usual, but the result is very far from pleasing. The subjects are — the adoration of the Magi, the finding of Moses, and the Ascension, after Raffaelle; the brazen serpent, after Le Brun; and Christ blessing little children, after West. In the centre of the nave, over the tomb of Bishop Stanley, is a black marble slab, the inscription on which should be read.
VI. The nave-aisles are covered by a plain quadripartite vault, springing from shafts set against the piers of the nave, and from half-piers with semi-attached shafts against the opposite wall. Each bay is divided by a plain arch, slightly horse-shoed. Perpendicular windows have been inserted, probably by Bishop Alnwick; and a blank arcade, of five arches in each bay, fills the wall below them. In both aisles some of the original Norman window-splays, with shafts at the angles, remain.
In the north aisle a door in the eighth bay, now blocked up, opened to the green-yard of the priory, in which was a cross, where sermons were occasionally preached. In the tenth bay is a memorial window for William Smith, died 1849, for forty years Professor of Modern History at Cambridge. Opposite, between the nave and aisle, is an altar-tomb, from which the brasses have been removed. It is that of Sir John Hobart, Attorney-General to Henry VII. This monument was enclosed in a chantry, which was destroyed during the Civil War. (See Part II., Bishop Hall.)
In the south aisle the seventh and eighth bays were converted into a chantry by Bishop Nix (1501‑1536). The sides of the piers and the vaulting are much enriched with panels and tracery of late Perpendicular character. The Bishop's arms occur in the spandrels; and at the east end of the eighth bay are three canopied niches. The iron-work on which the 'sacring-bell' hung, remains; but the railing which surrounded the chapel, together with a stone pulpit which projected into the nave, were destroyed by the Puritans during their occupation of the cathedral. In the sixth bay is the tomb of Chancellor Spencer, on which the rents of the dean and chapter were formerly paid; and in the ninth is the plain altar-tomb of Bishop Parkhurst (1560‑1575), from which the brasses have been removed. Against the wall is the monument of Dean Gardiner (1573‑1589), who pulled down the Lady-chapel; and against the pier at the foot of Chancellor Spencer's tomb, a mural monument for a Fairfax, one of the Fellows of Magdalen who resisted James II.
One of the windows in Bishop Nix's chapel has been filled with stained glass as a memorial for members of the family of Hales, of Norwich. In the last bay of this aisle toward the east, and in the fifth bay from the west, are doors opening to the cloisters. (See § XVIII.)
VII. The lower pier of the tenth bay of the nave on either side differs from all the rest, and is circular, with a spiral ribbed ornament, like that of the Norman piers at Durham. These piers probably mark the original extent of the choir, which, as in many other Norman cathedrals, seems to have stretched beyond the central tower, and to have comprised three bays of the nave. Beyond this point eastward, the vaulting-shafts are cut short about half way below the crown of the arches, and terminate there in heads, serving as corbels.
The organ-screen at present crosses the nave at the east end of the eleventh bay. The lower part, which is ancient, has been restored, and was no doubt the work of Bishop Lehart, whose device appears in the spandrels. The upper part, which was completed in 1833, is heavy and ugly, and its effect is by no means improved by the decoration of the organ which stands above it. Extending westward, between the piers on either side of the screen door, were small chapels with altars; that north dedicated to St. William, a boy said to have been crucified by the Jews in 1137 (see Part II, Bishop Everard, and compare the notice of "Little St. Hugh," Lincoln Cathedral), that south to St. Mary. Both were destroyed during the Rebellion.
The ante-choir, which fills the space under the organ-loft between two piers, was the chapel of our Lady of Pity. Its upper portion is cut off by the floor of the organ-loft. The walls north and south are covered with a Perpendicular panelling, which is said to have formed part of a screen separating Jesus Chapel from the north-east aisle of the choir.
VIII. The choir itself extends beyond the screen to the extreme eastern apse, the graceful curve of which, seen beyond the Norman arcades of the central tower, is very picturesque and striking. Bishop Lehart's roof extends to the western piers of the tower. The lower arches of the choir have plain mouldings, instead of the billet seen in the nave. In other respects the two bays west of the tower differ not at all from those of the nave. The stalls [Plate II] are arranged on either side of the choir as far as the transept. They are sixty-two in number, for the prior, sub-prior, and sixty monks. Their carving and details, which are Perpendicular, and probably of the middle of the fifteenth century, are excellent, and deserve the closest examination. Remark especially the birds serving as crockets, and the curious circular heads at the foliation-cusps of the arches. Until very recently these stalls were encrusted with paint, which has been removed, and the broken portions carefully restored.
The misereres below [Plate III] are still more interesting than the stalls, and are of two periods: the earlier, dating probably from the commencement of the fifteenth century, are distinguished by a ledge or seat with sharp angles; the later, which date from the end of the same century, have a ledge rounded at the sides, and sinking inward at the centre. They have been carefully examined and described by Mr. Harrod. All will repay careful notice; but the most interesting are as follow:—
IX. The central tower, the first story of which is early Norman, and probably part of Bishop Herbert's work, is open to the roof, as a lantern. The upper stories are also Norman, but of later date. The tower is raised on four very lofty circular arches, having semi-attached shafts in front, and in the rebates. Above, on all four sides, are three arcades, all circular-headed, the upper and lower pierced with passages leading to the roof. The lower arcade is of six arches on each side. That in the centre is narrower than either of the others, and merely relieves the wall, "except in the extremity of each face, where it is pierced by a large circular aperture, which however does not go quite through the wall." The upper arcade of three arches is the loftiest, and is pierced for windows. Two large shafts support each a group of smaller ones, from which the arch springs within which the window is set, all the shafts being "admirably proportioned to the great height at which they are placed." The windows are filled with stained glass, which produces a singularly good effect. Above this arcade the lantern is closed by a flat wooden ceiling of the worst possible design, which it is hoped may be speedily removed.
The transepts (§ XII) which open south and north from the tower, were formerly separated from the choir, but have been thrown into it during the recent alterations, so as to admit of their use during divine service.
X. The portion of the choir [Plate IV] which extends eastward of the tower has been greatly altered, although the original Norman ground-plan remains unchanged. The roof and clerestory had probably been injured in 1463, when the spire was struck by lightning. About ten years afterwards the present lofty clerestory and stone vault were erected by Bishop Goldwell (1472‑1499).
Early in the following century the arches on either side, as far as the apse, were changed from Norman to Perpendicular.
The original arrangement of the choir seems to have differed in no respect from that of the nave. The Norman arches of the triforium, which are without the zigzag ornament of those in the nave, remain untouched; but the shafts running up in front of the piers have been cut away, except at the junction of the choir with the apse, where the shafts themselves have been Perpendicularized, but their Norman capitals retained.
Bishop Goldwell's clerestory is very light and graceful. Groups of slender shafts, rising in a line with the triforium arches, form an arcade in front of the lofty windows [Plate V], and assist in carrying the lierne roof, which is, however, not so rich as that of Bishops Lehart or Nix. "The bosses, which are so elaborate and varied there, are here very poor, the bishop's rebus forming the subject of the majority of them."— (Harrod.) "In the centre of the roof . . . is a small round hole, from which, I believe, hung the light of the Sacrament, the usual place of which was before the altar, and not above it. From hence, at Easter, might the light have been let down to fire the great sepulchre light. The hole is not a forced one; it was made when the roof was built."— (Id.)
The apse, which, like the eastern part of the choir, was originally early Norman, and the work of Bishop Herbert, is semicircular as far as the top of the triforium. The clerestory, added by Bishop Goldwell, is pentagonal; and the manner in which the change is effected deserves notice. The lower story of the apse consists of five arches, now entirely closed at the back. They have the zigzag ornament, and the shafts of their piers are much enriched. They were originally open half-way up, and contained stone benches for the clergy. The bishop's throne stood beneath the central arch: (see the original arrangement in the aisle without, § XVI.) This was the most ancient position for the episcopal chair — at the back of the high altar; a position which it still occupies in many continental churches, as it formerly did at Canterbury. The triforium arches of the apse are slightly below the level of those in the choir. They are five in number; and their groups of shafts, with the space seen at the back of the arches, lighted by windows filled with stained glass, produce a very fine effect. The capitals here are slightly more enriched than in the choir. Two grotesque heads serve as brackets on either side of the first pier. The clerestory of the apse has no arcade, or wall-passage. The glass with which its windows are filled, as well as that in the triforium windows below, is entirely modern, by Warrington, and tolerably good.
The view looking westward from the apse should be noticed. The unusual height of the choir (83 feet) as contrasted with that of the nave (69 feet), and open arcades of the central tower, are the features which most attract attention.
XI. The four lower arches on either side of the choir, between the apse and the central tower, have been closed from behind, and converted into recesses covered with florid tracery on the vaulting and back. The fronts of the piers between the arches are also covered with tracery and tabernacle-work. Above the arches are square panels with shields of arms, in all of which the bull's head of Boleyn is conspicuous; and the whole is crowned by a pierced parapet which rises above the base of the triforium. The small turrets in the tabernacle-work perhaps refer to the castle, which forms the arms of Norwich. The shields, which are those of Boleyn and quarterings, constitute a "memorial of Sir William Boleyn of Blickling, who died 1505, and whose monument was in the first arch on the south side; and we may therefore conclude that his screen-work was erected by the Boleyn family after his death."
"The Norman workmen had built this end of the choir slightly out of the straight line, so that a line drawn through the centre of the nave would strike the east end of the presbytery some inches south of the actual central point of it. The Perpendicular walls have been built so as in some measure to correct this deviation; and the consequence has been, that the central shaft of the two eastern arches on the south side, would, if it had been left in its place, have overhung the parapet; but it has been completely removed, and the wall made flat up to the spring of the arches. All the shafts in the same position on the north side are pared down in a similar way."
In the recesses on the north side of the altar, are —
1. (beginning from the west) mural tablets for Bishop Horne (died 1792) and Dean Lloyd (died 1790).
2. The monument of Dr. Moore (died 1779); whose periwigged head is in grotesque juxtaposition with a cherub making a very ugly face, and drying his eyes with what seems to be his shirt. On a panel in front of the pier is a tablet for the youngest son of Bishop Hall, who died in 1642.
4. The fourth recess on this side is known as "Queen Elizabeth's seat," because it was prepared for that Queen's occupation on her visit to Norwich in 1578. In it now appears Chantrey's very fine sitting figure of Bishop Bathurst (died 1837), much out of place, but well deserving of attention. It was the latest work of the sculptor. The quatrefoil opening at the back of this recess was perhaps in connection with the Easter sepulchre, which seems to have been placed here (see § XIV). It will be seen that the Perpendicular bases terminate above this opening — proving that some erection was in the way which prevented them from being carried to the ground.
On the south side, beginning from the east, the tomb in the (1) first recess is that of Sir William Boleyn (died 1505), father of Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire, and consequently great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth. Blickling, about thirteen miles from Norwich, was the property of the Boleyns before its purchase by the Hobarts; and is generally thought to have been the birth-place of Anne Boleyn, who is known to have spent her early years there. Sir William Boleyn's tomb is plain; but the alteration of the lower arches of the choir, as has already been pointed out, was evidently intended to be his memorial.
2. In the second recess is the monument of Bishop Overall (1618, 1619), with a quaint coloured bust looking out from a niche above. The monument was placed here by his friend and secretary, John Cosin, after his own elevation to the see of Durham.
3. The third recess contains the tomb of Bishop Goldwell (1472‑1479), the builder of the present clerestory and roof of the choir. The recess was not closed by a wall, like the others, and is now glazed at the back. The canopy of the tomb, covered with Perpendicular tracery, divides the arch. The trellis-work tracery of the vaulting should be remarked. The altar-tomb, of which the sides are enriched with ornamented panels, is at the south-west corner of the recess; and in the space, east, an altar was placed by Bishop Goldwell during his lifetime, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, SS. James the Greater and the Less. The effigy, which has been painted and gilt, is interesting in spite of much injury, and is remarkable as being "the only instance of the monumental effigy of a bishop, prior to the Reformation, in which the cappa pluvialis, or processional cope, is represented as the outward vestment instead of the casula, or chesible."— (M. H. Bloxam.) The ornaments of the cope and maniple are graceful, and deserve notice.
In front of the high altar was the monument of Bishop Herbert, founder of the cathedral. It was much injured at the Rebellion; and of a new one, which was erected in 1682, the slab alone now remains fixed in the pavement. In front of the apse stands a very beautiful brass lectern [Plate VI], of late Decorated character, and deserving careful attention. A pelican "in her piety," with its claws resting on a globe, forms the support. Round the base are three small and excellent figures: a bishop with a crozier, giving his benediction; a priest with chalice; and a second priest (or deacon?), once perhaps carrying the paten.
XII. The transepts, like the choir and the lower part of the central tower, are no doubt the work of Bishop Herbert. The general arrangement in both is the same as that of the nave and choir; they vary, however, in details. The north and south ends of both consist of three stories, in the lower of which are two windows with a blind arcade between, and in both the upper stories three Norman windows filled with Perpendicular tracery. Between the windows rise vaulting-shafts, the upper part of which is cut off by Bishop Nix's roof. The north and south ends of both transepts are divided from the rest of the church by panelled screens.
In the south transept, the lower part of the walls are lined by a Norman arcade; the arches of which, on the east side, are intersecting; and behind them a staircase ascends to the upper stories of the tower. A bad stained window, the subject of which is the Ascension, has been judiciously removed from the choir, and has found a place here. The monument of Bishop Scambler (1585‑1595) is in this transept; as well as a memorial for those of the 9th (East Norfolk) Regiment of Foot who fell in the Afghan campaign of 1842. A clock, with figures of James I's time, which struck the quarters with their axes, formerly stood here; and was probably the successor of a very curious one erected between 1322 and 1325, with elaborate machinery, resembling that of the clocks at Wells and Exeter.
The very rich roof of the transept was the work of Bishop Nix (1501‑1536). "Its bosses illustrate the early history of Christ, the Presentation, the Baptism, the Disputation in the Temple, and some of the early miracles."
The south transept, like the north, had an apsidal chapel projecting from it easterly; which has long disappeared. At the south-east angle is the vestry, a long vaulted room of the Decorated period, with a chamber above it. It has been suggested that the vestry was originally the sacristy; and that the upper room was a chapel of St. Edmund.
In the vestry is preserved the painted reredos or altar-piece of the Jesus Chapel (§ XV); a picture, according to Dr. Waagen, "of great significance in the history of English painting." "It contains, in five compartments, the Scourging, the Bearing the Cross, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension; and judging from the forms of art, may have been executed between 1380 and 1400. Here that idealistic tendency so often mentioned is still throughout adhered to; the well-arranged drapery is of great softness; the colouring powerful, and in many of the heads of great warmth; finally, the treatment in size-colours broad, and in full body. Both the figures and the raised elegant patterns of the gold ground entirely resemble the indubitable English miniatures of the same period; so that there is no question in my mind as to the English origin of this picture. Excepting the Bearing of the Cross, of which much has fallen off, the preservation may be called good, and a glass over it prevents any further mischief." An engraving from this altar-piece will be found in the Norwich volume of the Archaeological Institute, together with a paper on the subject by Mr. Albert Way, who (as does Mr. Digby Wyatt) considers it a work of the Siennese school (circa 1370). The heads, he observes, especially that of St. John, "recal strikingly the works of Simone Memmi. That artist, however, died as early as 1345."
The Norman arch opening from this transept into the south choir-aisle, was filled with a screen-work of rich late Perpendicular tracery by Robert Castleton, Prior of Norwich from 1499 to 1529. A doorway opens below the screen-work. The design is graceful and singular; and in every way superior to that of the screens (of somewhat later date) with which Wolsey filled the Norman arches at Oxford. The iron-work of the lock should be remarked, with the Prior's initials, R. C., P.N. (Prior Norwicensis).
XIII. In the north transept, over a door at the north end, now closed, is a circular wall-arcade, curiously ornamented above with a billet-moulding disposed in triangular arches, with a rudely carved animal's head projecting between them. A circular arcade against the east wall of the transept marks the position of a staircase leading to the tower. The bosses of Bishop Nix's roof relate to the Nativity, and to the events immediately succeeding. The eastern apsidal chapel (possibly St. Osyth's) remains, but must be entered from without; the communication having been closed between it and the transept; (see § XIX). The screen between this transept and the north choir-aisle is modern, and its carvings deserve attention. To make room for it, however, according to Mr. Harrod, a fine Early English doorway was destroyed.
XIV. The aisles, which extend quite round the choir, and from which three apsidal chapels projected at the east end, were Bishop Herbert's work. The details closely resemble those of the nave-aisles.
On the floor of the north choir-aisle, which we now enter, is a "remarkable Purbeck coped coffin-lid, . . . presenting the very unusual addition of a bevelled edge, in which an inscribed brass was inserted entirely round it."— (Harrod.) The brass itself has disappeared, although the nails remain. It is possibly the monument of Prior Nicholas de Brampton, died 1268; "but if so, it must be a very early example of the brass fillet." A long raised seat along the wall above this coffin-lid marks the site of the monument of Sir Thomas Erpingham, the "good Sir Thomas" of Agincourt; (see § XXI). It has long since been destroyed. A chapel, probably St. Stephen's, was entered through the arch which remains in the opposite wall, and corresponded with the Beauchamp chapel in the south choir-aisle. No trace of this Chapel now remains. On the wall adjoining is the Elizabethan monument of Dame Elizabeth Calthropp, died 1582.
A vault of early Decorated character crosses the north choir-aisle, and supports a gallery. The vault is of two bays; and in the eastern bay, at the head of the arch, is the quatrefoil opening into the choir which has been already noticed; (§ XI). The vault has long had the name of the "Confessionary," and Blomfield (History of Norfolk) suggests that the priest, in the choir, heard confessions through the foiled opening, whilst the people remained in the aisle. The vault could not possibly, however, have served for this purpose, since the opening on the choir side is only a few inches above the pavement, and the priest must have laid himself on the ground in order to hear the confession through it. Professor Willis suggested that it was made as a hagioscope, to afford a view of the high altar from the aisle. Mr. Harrod, with more probability, considers that the Easter sepulchre stood within the choir at this place, and that the opening "permitted the important duty of watching the sepulchre light during the ceremonies of Easter, without entering the choir." The gallery over the vaulting in the aisle, he adds, "might contain a pair of organs for assisting the service here and in Jesus Chapel adjoining." . . . "The old singing-school was in the north aisle, east of the gallery, and in front of the entrance to Jesus Chapel; a position having no possible recommendation, unless it were that the organs were placed above."
XV. Immediately beyond this vault, is Jesus Chapel; one of the three apsidal chapels which terminated the Norman cathedral toward the east. It is formed by intersecting circles, like the corresponding chapel in the south aisle; the apse or eastern end being a smaller semicircle. Jesus Chapel was entirely altered during the Perpendicular period, when its present windows were inserted. The manner in which the original Norman arcade has been converted into a piscina and sedilia, deserves notice. An altar-piece formerly in this chapel is now preserved in the vestry; (§ XII). In front of the altar is a tomb said to have been brought here after the destruction of the Lady-chapel. It is probably that of Sir Thomas Windham and his two wives; but the brasses have been removed.
XVI. The original arrangement of the apse is here seen at its back. The arches were filled with a stone screen, terminating about half way up, and forming, on the inner side, a series of benches or sedilia for the clergy. The central arch had a stone chair or throne for the bishop, raised on steps at the back of the altar. (Portions of this throne still remain, walled up on the western side of the arch.) The side screens are ornamented at the back with an arcade of intersecting arches. At the back of the bishop's throne is a circular-headed recess, which was once possibly the opening to a vault below the apse. It has been suggested that the tomb of Bishop Herbert, the founder, may have been entered from here; or that the vault may have contained the bones of Roger Bigod, Constable of Norwich Castle, whom Bishop Herbert seems to have regarded as co-founder with himself, and who was certainly buried in the cathedral.
The Early English doorway, now blocked up, at the east end of the aisle, gave admission to the Lady-chapel, built by Bishop Walter de Suffield (1245‑1257), and destroyed by Dean Gardiner in the reign of Elizabeth. Its foundations, proving it to have been of considerable size, have been traced; as well as those of the apsidal Norman chapel, destroyed by Bishop Walter, which corresponded with those still remaining north-east and south-east.
XVII. St. Luke's Chapel, in the south choir-aisle, resembles the Jesus Chapel opposite. It serves as the parish church of St. Mary-in-the-Marsh; and has been benched and "restored." In the aisle opposite is a font of Perpendicular date, much enriched with sculptures of the seven sacraments. These have been completely mutilated, and the numerous small figures are headless.
A chapel, called the Beauchamp Chapel, but probably founded temp. Edward II by William Bauchun, opens south, below St. Luke's. The south window of this chapel, the canopied niche at the east end, which perhaps contained a statue of the Virgin, to whom the chapel was dedicated, and the bosses of the groined roof, which illustrate her life, death, and assumption, — should all be noticed. The Beauchamp Chapel now serves as the Consistory Court.
At the back of the choir, opposite this chapel, is a long stone seat, with panelled front, and small figures. It formed part of the monument of Bishop Wakering (1416‑1426), which was shattered during the rebellion.
XVIII. Crossing the south transept, which has been already described, we pass into the cloisters through a door at their north-east angle. They are among the most beautiful in England; and the roof especially, the bosses of which are covered with elaborate carvings, deserves the most careful examination.
The Norman cloister was destroyed in the fire of 1272; and the present structure was commenced by Bishop Ralph Walpole in 1297. It was continued, according to William of Worcester, by Bishop Salmon and others, between the years 1299 and 1325; and completed, by different benefactors, between the years 1403 and 1425. Mr. Harrod, however, seems to be perfectly justified in asserting that the cloisters were begun and completed during the Decorated period, and that the portions said by Worcester to have been built between 1403 and 1425 were in reality only repaired and altered at that period.
The eastern and southern walks are those assigned by William of Worcester to Bishops Walpole and Salmon, and said to have been built between 1297 and 1325. The Prior's door, through which we pass into the cloister, is of this date, and of very unusual character [Plate VII]. Under canopies which cross the mouldings of the arch, are sculptured — at the top of the arch the Saviour in majesty, with an angel in the niche immediately below on either side; in the two lower niches on the west side, St. John the Baptist and Aaron (?) (this figure may perhaps represent an Archbishop with the pall and a high mitre; smaller figures are placed under the feet of each); in those on the east side Moses and David. The Law and the Gospel, or the priesthood and the "regale," seem to be thus typified.
The large and beautiful windows of the east walk are all early Decorated, and, like the others in the cloister, were originally glazed in their upper portions. Three niches or sedilia, with canopies resting on four heads, of a peasant, a bishop, a king, and a priest, are now built up in the east wall, close without the prior's door. Their original use is unknown. The door in the sixth bay led into the "slype," or passage between the transept and chapter-house. The open arches beyond led into the chapter-house itself, which has long been destroyed. [The entrance, and portions of the wall-arcade, formerly within the chapter-house, remain on the exterior of the cloisters.] The door beyond, again, was probably that leading to the staircase of the dormitory. The so‑called "dark entry," a vault at the south end of this walk, formed an approach to the Infirmary, which extended east of the cloister. The bosses of the roof in the east walk contain subjects from the four Gospels, together with some very beautiful knots of foliage.
The south walk, built by Bishop Salmon (1299‑1325), has a slight difference in the tracery of its windows, which are of more advanced Decorated character. The greater part of the bosses of the roof illustrate the Revelation of St. John. Other subjects are added, from sacred and legendary history. That engraved below evidently represents the dedication of a church. At the angle of the south and west walks a very fine view of the cathedral and its spire is obtained. Here also the original disposition of the triforium may be seen. The roof sloped from close under the clerestory to the worn Norman arcade in the exterior wall. All above this arcade is Perpendicular work.
The west walk is said by William of Worcester to have been built early in the fifteenth century; but a careful examination of the windows will shew that they belong to the Decorated period, as do the piers and arches; although the whole walk is of later character than those east and south. Some alterations were, however, made here at the time mentioned by Worcester. The refectory door, which opens at the south end of the walk, is of this period; and the ancient lavatories [Plate IX], in the first two bays, have arches and niches at the back of them, which are also Perpendicular. In the next bay but one is a door which led into the Guests' hall; of which an Early English doorway, and a fragment of an Early English window, remain in the adjoining garden. Considerable portions of the locutory and principal entrance of the priory remain in the Canon's house opening at the north-west end of the walk, and are of transitional and Early English character.
The subjects from the Revelation are continued in the roof-bosses of this walk.
The north walk of the cloister contains eight Perpendicular windows, set in Decorated frames; one early Decorated at the east end, and two late Decorated at the west. The bosses represent the legends of different saints, together with a few subjects from the New Testament.
The east, south, and west walks have an upper story, lighted by small windows looking into the quadrangle. The north walk is without this addition.
XIX. The exterior of the central tower and spire may be well seen either from the south walk of the cloisters, or from the lower close. The tower was entirely refaced in 1856; but its Norman arcades and ornamentation have been carefully preserved. The flanking turrets, with their reed-like shafts, are Norman as high as the foot of the spires which crown them. These spires are Perpendicular; as is the parapet of the tower itself. The arcades and circular openings of the tower may be compared with those of the Norman transeptal towers at Exeter, — which are, however, of somewhat later date. The spire, which rises gracefully between the pinnacles of the turrets, was added by Bp. Percy (1356‑1369). It was, however, much injured by lightning and 1463, and was then repaired by Bp. Lehart. Its height, from the battlements of the tower, is 169 feet. The entire height from the ground is 287 feet,— exceeding that of the (late) spire of Chichester (271 feet), and of Lichfield (258 feet), but falling much short of Salisbury (404 feet).
The face of the south transept has been re-cased,— a process which, however necessary, has deprived it of much of its antique character. The conical spires which terminate the square Norman flanking turrets are modern.
The exterior of the choir is well seen from the lower close. Flying buttresses carried from the wall of the triforium connect it with Bishop Goldwell's noble clerestory above (see § X). Seated figures of the apostles form the pinnacles of the buttresses; and the clerestory itself, which is flat roofed, is surrounded by battlemented parapet. At the south-east and north-east angles of the choir project the Norman apsidal chapels — intersecting segments of circles, with circular stair turrets at the point of intersection. A blind arcade passes round below the upper story, which has a second arcade of large and separated arches. Each chapel has three windows below; one at the east end, and two in the nave.
The general view of the cathedral from the south-east [see Frontispiece] comprehends all these details. That from the north-east should be looked out for toward sunset, when a very fine effect is occasionally produced. The visitor should pass beyond the lower close, to the portion of the Precincts known as "Life's Green," and place himself as near as possible to the north wall of it. The various lines of the choir and transept, with trees clustering between them, and the tower and spire rising in the background, form a composition of unusual grace and beauty.
From the east end of the north transept projects a chapel in a ruinous condition, probably that of St. Osyth. It has long been used as a storehouse. It apparently resembled in every respect the eastern chapels of the choir. The vaulting, filled in with flints, and carried on even with the large Norman arch formerly opening from the transept, should be noticed. The east window was altered in the late Decorated period.
The north transept retains its ancient font. In a niche over the door is a statue said to represent the founder, Bishop Herbert.
XX. The Bishop's palace, which was formerly connected with the north transept by a vaulted passage, was founded by Bishop Herbert, but almost entirely rebuilt by Bishop Salmon (1299‑1325). It has been much altered and added to at different times; but still contains some portions which may have belonged to Bishop Herbert's work. Bishop Salmon's great hall was destroyed after the Rebellion; at which time it was used by the Puritans as a "preaching house." A ruin in the garden is said to be the remains of the grand entrance. The Bishop's chapel, at the east end of the palace, was restored by Bishop Reynolds in 1662. It contains the monuments of Bishop Reynolds himself (1661‑1676), and of his successor, Bishop Sparrow (1676‑1685), both of whom are buried in it.
XXI. The principal entrance to the palace is through a fine Perpendicular gateway, built by Bishop Alnwick about 1430. Far more interesting, however, are the two gateways leading into the Precincts; both of which deserve especial notice. The earliest is St. Ethelbert's Gate [Title-page], at the south end of the close; built by the citizens of Norwich after the disturbances of 1272, to replace the great gates which were then destroyed by them. The lower part is accordingly good early Decorated. The upper portion, of intermixed flint and stone, is modern, and was added early in the present century. The chamber above the archway served as a chapel, dedicated to St. Ethelbert. The spandrels on either side of the principal arch are filled with foliage, from which project figures of a man with a sword and round shield, and of a dragon which he is attacking. On the side toward the Close is a Decorated window, and some ancient flint panelling. The entire gateway is a good example of the period.
The second, or Erpingham Gate [Plate X], stands opposite the west front of the cathedral, and is said by Blomefield to have been built by Sir Thomas Erpingham (Shakespeare's "white-headed" knight, who fought at Agincourt), as a penance imposed on him by Bishop Spencer, on account of his former patronage of Wickliffe and the Lollards. The truth of this story, however, has been entirely disproved by Mr. Harrod. It seems to have arisen from a misreading of the word "yenk," think — answering to the "have mynde" or prayer for remembrance which appears on many brasses, which is placed on labels in front of the gate. This word was read by Blomefield as "pena," and on this slender foundation, together with the fact that Sir Thomas's statue above is "on his knees, as if begging pardon for his offence," the story of the penance was constructed. The arms of Sir Thomas and of his two wives appear on the gate; which could not therefore have been erected until after his second marriage, which took place about 1411 Bishop Spencer, who is said to have imposed the penance, had died in 1406.
The gatehouse itself "consists of a noble, well-proportioned arch, supported on each side by a semi-hexagonal buttress; arch, spandrels, and buttresses being covered with sculpture. The arch-mouldings are divided into two parts; the outer one containing a series of fourteen female saints, the inner one twelve male saints, admirably executed, with a light and elegant canopy over each. Four labels with the word 'yenk' are placed between the bases of the shafts of the main archway, across clusters of oak-leaves and acorns, from which the pedestals of the lower figures emerge. The canopies are masses of luxuriant foliage, designed with the most exquisite skill. The spandrels contain the device of the Trinity on the left, the arms of Erpingham on the right. The buttresses are covered with shields and devices of the families of Erpingham, Clopton, and Walton (those of Sir Thomas Erpingham's wives), and bear on the top two figures of ecclesiastics . . . . . . The upper part of the gate is much plainer than the rest, and is of flint with stone dressings. In the centre, under a canopy of the same period as the other sculptured decorations, is a kneeling figure of Sir Thomas Erpingham."
XXII. The open space west and north of the cathedral served as a general cemetery; and in it, on the left hand, between the Erpingham gate and the west door of the church, Bishop Salmon, about 1316, built a charnel-house, with a chapel of St. John the Evangelist above it. The chapel now serves as the Grammar-school; and the crypt, in which all bones fit for removal were "to be reserved till the day of resurrection," is now divided into cellars, let as storehouses. In this crypt were two altars, of which traces remain. At one of them a mass was daily said for the souls of the founder and his family, for all bishops of the see, and for the souls of all those whose bones were carried thither. The porch by which the grammar-school is entered was added by Bishop Lehart (1446‑1472), and deserves notice for its unusual character. Remark also the foiled openings (see woodcut) giving light to the crypt.
On the lawn opposite the school is a statue of Lord Nelson, who for a short time was a pupil here.
XXIII. The scanty remains of the monastic buildings which adjoin the cloisters have already been noticed; (§ XVIII). The present Deanery, a little east of the south-east angle of the cloister, contains some Early English portions, which may have belonged either to the priors' apartments, or to the Infirmary. Three late Norman pillars which remain in front of a house in the lower close are however considered by Professor Willis to mark the site of the latter building.
The Chapter Library, which comprises a good collection of books (although without any that call for especial notice), is preserved in one of the houses in the Precincts.
XXIV. The best distant views of the cathedral — which however are none of them very satisfactory — are to be gained from the castle hill, from the new church at Thorpe, and from Mousehold-heath. Mousehold forms the high ground south of the city, and was the spot on which Kett, the "tanner of Wymondham," fixed his camp during the rising of the Norfolk peasantry in the reign of Edward VI.

St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
The St. Alcxander Nevsky Patriarchal Cathedral Stauropigial Memorial-Church in Sofia repre sents the material expression of gratitude of the Bulgarian people for the remarkable self sacriftee of the 200,000 Russian heroes who by their unprecedented valour, resolution and boundless fraternal love, at the price of their blood and life, in the Russo-Turkish Liberation War (1877-1878) broke the chains of the neany five century Ottoman bondage and gaven the pepole their priceless freedom.
The St. Alexander Nevsky Patriarchal Cathedral Stauropigial Memorial-Church rises in the center of Sofia, in a big square bearing its name. Its importance is determined by the proximity of the National Assembly, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the ancient St. Sophia Orthodox Church, the Synodal Palace, the Higher Institute of Mechanical and Electrical engineering, the Higher Institute of Art, the St. Cyril arid Metodius National Library and the St. Kliment Ohridskl Sofia University. Its foundation-stone was laid in 1882, building work began in 1904 and the church was completed in 1912. Built under the guidance of chief architect Professor Alexander N. Pomerantsev in co-operation with his gifted assistants, architects Alexauder N. Sniirnov and Alexander A. Yakovlev, at present the St. Alexander Nevslky Memorial-Church is a source of legitimate pride for the Bulgarian people and love for the Russian people. In its dimensions it is without an equal on the Balkan Peninsula, while the aesthetic achievements of its architecture and ornamentation rival those of the most renowned monuments of this kind in the world.
The St. Alexander Nevsky Memorial-Church is an impressive five nave basilica of a cruciform domed type with basic Byzantine style elements, influenced in some parts by eastern models. Its builtup area is 3,170sq.m . and its total volume about 86,000sq.m. Its external length is 73.50m. and the width 50.52m. From the pavement level to the tower cross, the height of the memorial-church is 50.52 m, that of the central dome 46.27m and of the roof bridge 28m. The main dome has a commanding position over a number of half-domes, rounded and straight on the apses of the church which lend it impressive stateliness. It is balanced by the lighter, soaring tower which gives the entire edifice the character of a monument.
On the eastern side of the monitorial-church there are three altar apses, the central one of which, in comparison with the two lateral, projects and forms a semicircle. Over this apse, from a slightly receding point, rises the semispherical part of the main body of the church. There are similar projections, one on the southern side and another on the northern. Over the semidoms of these projections, on a broad cylindrical drum rests the main dome in the shape of an inverted bowl. Its diameter measures 18 m.
On the western side of the main three-door vaulted entrance of the northern rises the bell tower which ends in a dome. The latter is placed on threefold columns, between which there are wide apertures. Through them one sees the twelve bells, the largest of which is weighs 11,758 kg, the second largest 6,002 kg, the third 2,911 kg and the smallest 10 kg. On a nice and calm day the ringing of the largest bell is heard as far as 30km from Sofia. Below the bells ,it a considerable height over the main entrance is placed the mosaic icon of St. Alexander Nevsky by the Bulgarian artist Professor Anton Mitov.
The interior'of the St. AIexander Nevsky Patriarchal Cathedral Memorial-Church strikes one with its dimensions, the harmony of its architectural lines, its spaciousness and rich artistic decoration. The inside represents three naves and two aisles, the central nave considerably wider and lateral ones. Its central part is placed between four massive pillars which support the drum of the main dome through triangular spherical surfaces. All three naves are connected by high arches while smaller arches link them with the aisles.
Famous Russian and Bulgarian artists took part in the decoration of the St. Alexander Nevsky Patriarchal Cathedral. it is in formless which depict the Trinity, sciences from the Old and New Testament, apostles prophets, Russian and Bulgarian saints and some events from the history of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. One is particularly impressed by the murals: "The Atmighty" by the Prof. Peter E. Myassoedov, in the interspace of the central dome; "The Eucharist" by Prof. M. Sudkovski, on the eastern wall of the central altar of the church; "The Wedding at Cana in Galilee) by the well-known mosaicist Prof. Vladimir D. Boiotnov, on the wall surface of the southern arched recess; "Twelve Year Jesus in the Shrine" by Prof. Ivan Mrkvicka, on the wall surface of the northern arched recess; the large fresco "The Last Judgment" by Academician A. A. Kisselev, over the stand of the choir, which is reminiscent of V. M. Vasnetsov's fresco of the same name in Vladimir's Cathedral in Kiev; "The Resurrection of Lazarus" and "The Resurrection of the Son of the Widow from Nain" by A.M. Korin; "The Sermon on the Moun" and "Christ Blesses the Children" by Prof. I. Lanskoi; "The Taming of the Storm" by Prof. Nikola Marlnov; "St. Mary Magdalene" by Assen Belkovski; "St. Ivan of Rila Returns the Gifts to King Peter" by Academician G. Zhelyaskov; "The Temptation of Jesus Christ" and "The Beheading of St. John the Baptist" by Prof. Ivan Mrkvicka. The latter is a mural of great impact, originality and masterful execution.
The iconostases, the big and small bishop's thrones, the pulpit, the rail lattices of the solea, the balustrade of the choir stand, the entire flooring of the church and the seat of the priests along the wall of the altar apse are done in onyx and marble brought from all parts of the world, in a Byzantine style, interspersed with Old-Bulgarian patterns. One is particularly impressed by the small columns in light-green "onyx brazillano"; the two magnificent columns dividing the front of the central iconostasis, freshened by wide bands of light-ochre veined Moroccan (onyx ro"ge); the columns of the small bishop's throne - "rouge oriental"; the dark-green columns of the iconostasis, the pedestal of the thrones and the large columns below the balcony of the choir - "verde di mare", the rectangular tablet with the state insignia of the time placed in the middle of the back wall of the big bishop's throne - "onyx d'or", etc. The walls and pillars of the memorial-church are sheeted to a height of two meters with light-green artificial marble, manufactured by tire Berlin firm "Axeno Brothers", which his a startling and unattainable similarity whit the natural product.
The ceiling of the canopy of the big bishop's throne and the space over the central altar are ornamented with high-grade glass mosaics of a Venetian type, which in the former are figural and in the latter symbolic. The figured [mosaics were designed by the Bulgarian Prof. A. Mitov, and executed In Italy by the firm Paolo Triscornia di Freddo - Carrara. The symbolic mosaics over the central altar were done by the same firm on the spot, after the designs of architect Yakovlev, one of Prof. Pornerantsev's assistants.
The royal gates of the three iconostases and the gates of the chapels in the narthex are in bronze with galvanized gilding on the face. Such are also the cornices over the side altars, the tympanum over the holy gates of the central iconostasis, the crown of the big bishop's throne, etc.
The illuminates in the interior of the church, such as chandeliers, icon-lamps, candlesticks, are in copper alloy with double galvanize(l gilding. They are pieces of exquisite work in Byzantine style done by the firm of "Schmidt and Sohn" in Munich . The largest of the chandeliers, the central one, has three crowns, it hangs at a height of 27m, weighs some 2 000 kg, and has 136 electric candles.
The St. Alexander Nevsky Patriarchal Cathedral Memorial-Church is equipped with a special stream and air, installation. It consists of four ventilation caloorific systems which play a dual role. The Vienna's firm "Zentralheizungswerke" supplied the installations. An alarm and intercommunication system ensures the correct and safe operation of this installation. The air conditioning installation and the intercom system are housed in the crypt of the memorial-church.
The crypt runs below the entire interior of the church, porch altar and 1s3.75 m high. Its ceilings are vaulted in various ways and are interesting from an architectural point of view. Here is also the "foundation-stone" of he church , marked by by a large rectangle, covered by a pyramided roof. At present it is used as an exhibition hall and branch of National Art Gallery.
Being the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedral on the Balkan Peninsula and one of the most lavishly adorned Orthodox churches in Europe, the St. Alexander Nevsky Patriarchal Cathedral Stauropigial Memorial-Church constitutes a valuable and high-quality exhibition of the Christian religion and art, illustrated by more than 400 artists. it also constitutes a major national treasure. Its value is no only to its nominal price but also to the impossibility to replace it.

Chester Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary at Chester is a living symbol of continuous progress, combined with constancy of purpose. For the worship and service of God have been offered on its site for over one thousand years; yet, over the centuries, no less than three different buildings have sheltered these primary tasks.
The story of Chester Cathedral can be traced back to the time of the Saxon Minster, which in 907 housed the remains of St Werburgh. During the period from 1092 to 1540 the Benedictine Abbey of St Werburgh flourished on the same ground. The story continues with the foundation of a Cathedral for Chester Diocese by Henry VIII in 1541, and on to our own day. As a result, the present building contains materials belonging to every Christian century since the tenth.
Today we can celebrate this theme, reflected in the vows taken by the Benedictine Monks themselves, of stability and openness to change. For Chester Cathedral is a remarkable building, both historically and architecturally. But it is much more than just a repository of the past. It is a living church, encompassing many activities within its active and diverse ministry. The Cathedral joins together in our own generation a community of people, who put prayer at the centre of their lives, and are also ready to share their faith in Christ with others: through daily worship, preaching and education, as well as through caring work in the city and beyond. It also embraces all those, whatever their nationality or beliefs, who value the beauty of Chester Cathedral and wish to share its riches, whether architectural, historical or musical.
In the tenth century, as a protection from marauding Danes, the remains of St Werburgh were brought from Staffordshire to Chester. St Werburgh was a Mercian princess, who became a nun and subsequently an Abbess. She was noted for her holiness; and during her life, as after her death, miracles of healing were associated with her. So in 907 Werburgh's Shrine at Chester, placed in an existing Saxon Church or Minster, became a place of pilgrimage. The Minster itself was served by canons who acted as parish priests, guarding the relics and conducting worship.
The first church on the site of Chester Cathedral gave way, in the eleventh century, to a second. Hugh, called Lupus ("the Wolf"), the first Norman Earl of Chester, decided to found a monastery in the City: possibly to compensate for his previously extravagant lifestyle! To assist him with this task, he invited his friend Anselm, Abbot of Bec (later Archbishop of Canterbury), to come to Chester from Normandy with some of his monks. In 1092, the Benedictine Abbey of St Werburgh came into being; and a second Norman church surrounded by monastic buildings - cloisters, refectory, kitchens, dormitory, bakery, brew house, infirmary, wine cellar - gradually took shape
The Norman Abbey buildings with their heavy, rugged architecture, had not been too long in existence when, about 1250, a third church - basically what we know today as Chester Cathedral - was started. By this time the monks of Chester had been influenced by the lighter, more elegant style of so-called Gothic architecture, with its characteristically pointed arches, which was becoming popular in Europe. So, with great imagination, they built yet again: putting up their medieval church over the Norman, and taking down the earlier construction from inside. Building the new Abbey and church was a slow process, extending over 250 years or so.
During this period, the community of St Werburgh's Abbey prospered and grew. The monks, who were committed to the vows of stability (staying in one house), obedience (to the Abbot and to each other) and openness to the future, prayed and studied and worked: in the kale-yard, the hospital and the school room. They were also hospitable: entertaining guests from a wide area, including those traveling to and from Ireland, through what was then the port of Chester.
The third church building had not long been completed when, in 1540, Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, and St Werburgh's ceased to exist. It was a mark of the King's high opinion of the Abbey that he gave it back. So, in the following year 1541, the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary came into being as the seat of the Bishop of the newly-created Diocese of Chester (formerly part of Lichfield). At that moment Thomas Clark, the last Abbot became the first Dean. This moving fact testifies to the obvious message of Chester Cathedral: continuity and change.
In subsequent years, the Cathedral seems to have been neglected; and it was not until the later part of the nineteenth century that a major restoration - masterminded by Sir Gilbert Scott - took place. His additions to the building's exterior continue to be controversial; but there is no doubt that his work on the interior, including the Quire, rescued the Cathedral from virtual disintegration, and so enhanced its appearance that it can be admired and enjoyed today as a place of worship and beauty.
When Frank Bennett was Dean (1920-37), the Cathedral's doors were opened to tourists and pilgrims, and not just to worshippers. Under Dean Addleshaw in 1975 a Bell Tower was introduced to the Cathedral grounds: the first to be built away from a Cathedral since the Renaissance. In more recent years new stained glass, better heating, brilliant fabrics and sculptures have been added.
Prayer and worship form the heart-beat of Chester Cathedral's life today, as they did in the Saxon, Norman and Medieval periods. The Benedictine monks of Chester were committed to the so-called opus Dei, "the work of God". This involved attendance at seven offices, each day, beginning with Matins just after midnight, running through to Compline in the evening.
Today the discipline of prayer continues, with regular daily services of Holy Communion, and Matins and Evensong.
In addition, many people find peace and solace by coming into the Cathedral, and by using one of the Chapels for private prayer and contemplation. Others find support by talking over their problems with resident clergy or one of the duty Chaplains.

Valencia's Cathedral
Valencia's old part of town is limited by the rails of the tramway, which run where have been the old town-walls until 1865. Most monuments date to the time after the reconquest of Valencia from the Moors, in 1238 by Jaime I.. That was the town's most blooming epoch.
The Cathedral is mainly of early gothic style, though some parts of it were added in later eras. Its three portals are Romanesque, gothic and baroque , respectively. The main chapel, Capilla Mayor, is in baroque style, the two lateral chapels are neoclassic.
The octagonal bell-tower, called Micalet or also Miguelete , is the landmark of the city. From there you have a great view over all Valencia, and Victor Hugo has counted 300 more bell-towers in all the city (to control if this number is right could be a challenge to patient and unstressed visitors ...??)
In the Capitulary you can see the Holy Chalice, of which Jesus Christ and the Apostles are said to have drunk during the Last Supper.
In the Cathedral's Museum are exposed works of Goya, Jacomart, Cellini, Paggibonsi as well as paintings of valencian school of 15th to 17th century.
Close to the catherdral there is the Basílica de la Virgen de los Desamparados, ("Mare de Deu dels Desemparats") , a church consecrated to the patroness of the city, and the Almudín, a medieval granary that is nowadays used as a museum. In the closeby church Iglesia de San Esteban are said to have been married the daughters of legendary Cid.
Some more interesting buildings in this area of town are the Palace of Almirantes de Aragón, the church San Juan del Hospital and the Convento de Santo Domingo.

Strasbourg's Cathedral
The Cathédrale Notre-Dame (English Our Lady's Cathedral) in Strasbourg, France belongs to the grand history of European cathedral architectural design.
Werner de Habsbourg proposed the construction of the cathedral in 1015 AD., and it took six centuries to complete. Like the city Strasbourg, the cathedral connects Muenster German and French cultural influences, while the eastern structures, e.g. the choir and south portal, still have very Romanesque features.
Above all the famous west front, decorated with thousands of figures, is a masterpiece of the Gothic era. The tower is one of the first to rely substantially on craftsmanship, with the final appearance being one of a high degree of linearity captured in stone. While previous façades were certainly drawn prior to construction, Strasbourg has one of the earliest façades whose construction is inconceivable without prior drawing. Strasbourg and Cologne Cathedral together represent some of the earliest uses of architectural drawing. The work of Professor Robert O. Bork of the University of Iowa suggests that the design of the Strasbourg facade, while seeming almost random in its complexity, can be constructed using a series of rotated octagons.
The north tower, completed in 1439, was, until 1874, the highest building of the world. The Strasbourg cathedral is, with its characteristic asymmetrical form (the south tower was never built), today the premier landmark of Alsace. One can see three kilometers from its tower, which provides a view of the Rhine banks from the Vosges all the way to the Black Forest.

Segovia's Cathedral
The Cathedral of Segovia is located in one corner of the Plaza Mayor, at the center of the city. Formerly, it was built close to the "Alcazar". This made difficult the war operations, being destroied during the war of the Communities, and rebuilt at its present location. Emperor Charles I of Spain and V of Germany wanted it to be built again. Architect Juan Gil de Ontañon (the same who built Salamanca's Cathedral) begun it at 1525. When he died, Garcia de Cubillas continued the works untill 1558, when the main nave was concluded. A second stege of the works was conducted by Juan's son: Rodrigo Gil de Ontañon. When he died, at 1577, Martin Ruiiz de Chertudi continued. Juan de Mugaguren finished the coverture of the transept at 1615.
It's one the most emblematic Gothic churches at Sapin, together with Salamanca's Cathedral. The first stone was placed at June 8th, 1525, during the empire of Charles I, and being bishop Don Diego de Ribera.
The works ended at the XVII century, but respecting the gothic patterns

Washington National Cathedral
The idea for a national cathedral is as old as Washington itself. In 1791, when Congress selected the site to be the capital of the United States, President George Washington commissioned Major Pierre l’Enfant to design an overall plan for the future seat of government.
Included in l’Enfant’s plan was a church, “intended for national purposes, such as public prayer, thanksgiving, funeral orations, etc., and assigned to the special use of no particular Sect or denomination, but equally open to all.”
Largely through the efforts of Washington community leaders such as Riggs Bank President Charles C. Glover, plans for building Washington National Cathedral gained momentum. On January 6, 1893, Congress granted a charter to the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation of the District of Columbia, allowing it to establish a cathedral and institutions of higher learning. Signed by President Benjamin Harrison, this charter was the birth certificate of Washington National Cathedral.
After his consecration in 1896, the Rev. Dr. Henry Yates Satterlee, the first bishop of Washington, managed to secure land on Mount Saint Alban — the most commanding spot in the entire Washington area.
On September 29, 1907, the foundation stone was laid. President Theodore Roosevelt and the Bishop of London spoke to the crowd of ten thousand. The stone itself came from a field near Bethlehem and was inset into a larger piece of American granite. On it was the inscription: “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). With the laying of the cathedral foundation stone, the grassy, tree — shaded Close became home to the longest — running construction site in the nation’s capital.
In 1912, Bethlehem Chapel opened for services which have continued daily ever since. In October 1928, President Calvin Coolidge came to open the General Convention of the Episcopal Church at the Cathedral.
The Cathedral quickly became a place for services of national focus. When the United States entered World War II in 1941, monthly services “On behalf of a united people in a time of emergency” began. Holy Spirit Chapel served as a War Shrine and community memorial services were held.
As construction continued, Washington National Cathedral continued to take its place in history. President Woodrow Wilson’s tomb was dedicated in 1956 (Wilson is the only US president buried within the boundaries of the District of Columbia.) The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., preached his last Sunday sermon from the Canterbury Pulpit in 1968. Thousands gathered for President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s funeral in 1969.
In 1976, the Cathedral’s nave and west rose window were completed and dedicated in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II and president Gerald Ford. It was also the place the nation gave thanks when the American hostages in Iran were freed.
The Pilgrim Observation Gallery was completed and opened to the public in 1982. In 1983 the final phase of construction began with the setting of the first stone for the west towers.
The completion of the west towers in September 1990 marked the end of eighty-three years of construction.
The Cathedral continues to be a place of national focus. It was the site of President George W. Bush’s Inaugural Prayer Service and later the National Prayer and Remembrance service on September 14, 2001. On December 25, 2002, the Cathedral broadcast its fiftieth national Christmas service.
Since the first services were held in Bethlehem Chapel, Washington National Cathedral has opened its doors to people of all faiths as they have gathered to worship and pray, to mourn the passing of world leaders, and to confront the pressing moral and social issues of the day.

Hagia Sophia
The church of Hagia Sophia (literally "Holy Wisdom") in Constantinople, now Istanbul, was first dedicated in 360 by Emperor Constantius, son of the city's founder, Emperor Constantine. Hagia Sophia served as the cathedra, or bishop's seat, of the city. Originally called Megale Ekklesia (Great Church), the name Hagia Sophia came into use around 430. The first church structure was destroyed during riots in 404; the second church, built and dedicated in 415 by Emperor Theodosius II, burned down during the Nika revolt of 532, which caused vast destruction and death throughout the city.
Immediately after the riots, Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–65) ordered the church rebuilt. The new building was inaugurated on December 27, 537. Architects Anthemios of Tralles and Isidoros of Miletos most likely were influenced by the mathematical theories of Archimedes (ca. 287–212 B.C.) and Heron of Alexandria's writings on vaults and arch support (first century A.D.).
The vast, airy naos, or central basilica, with its technically complex system of vaults and semi-domes, culminates in a high central dome with a diameter of over 101 feet (31 meters) and a height of 160 feet (48.5 meters). This central dome was often interpreted by contemporary commentators as the dome of heaven itself. Its weight is carried by four great arches, which rest on a series of tympana and semi-domes, which in turn rest on smaller semi-domes and arcades. This complicated structural system was prone to problems: the first dome collapsed in 558, to be rebuilt in 562 to a greater height. Earthquakes and earth subsidence have also taken their toll on the building over the centuries, although the surviving main structure is essentially that which was first built between 532 and 537.
The interior of Hagia Sophia was paneled with costly colored marbles and ornamental stone inlays. Decorative marble columns were taken from ancient buildings and reused to support the interior arcades. Initially, the upper part of the building was minimally decorated in gold with a huge cross in a medallion at the summit of the dome. After the period of Iconoclasm (726–843), new figural mosaics were added, some of which have survived to the present day.
After Mehmed II's conquest of the city in 1453, Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque (Ayasofya Camii), which it remained until the fall of the Ottoman empire in the early twentieth century. A view of Hagia Sophia during the conquest is conveyed in a woodcut by Pieter Coecke van Aelst depicting the procession of Süleyman the Magnificent through the Hippodrome (28.85.7a). During this period, minarets were built around the perimeter of the building complex, Christian mosaic icons were covered with whitewash, and exterior buttresses were added for structural support. In 1934, the Turkish government secularized the building, converting it into a museum, and the original mosaics were restored.

St. John the Divine
The last four decades of the nineteenth century constituted a period of mass immigration into the United States, most of it into the port of New York. Much was made of the slogan that America was the "melting pot" of the world. On the basis of this ideology, all of the progenitors of the new Cathedral insisted that it be built as a "house of prayer for all nations." It was a magnificent concept at the time, and is even more significant today. The location in New York of the United Nations, in 1946, underscored the importance of the idea.
In 1888, the Board of Trustees initiated a contest for the Cathedral's design. The firm of Heins & Lafarge won the contract with a Romanesque, Byzantine design. Their plan called for a cathedral 520 feet in length crowned at the crossing by a towering conical spire. It would be built in the customary cathedral shape -- that of a cross.
The next challenge was finding a site for this extraordinary house of worship. One spring day in 1887, a devoted layman, George Macculoch Miller, glanced west on 111th Street while walking up Fifth Avenue. Within a few days, Mr. Miller had shown the site to Bishop Henry Codman Potter. Both of them perceived the heights rising above Morningside Avenue as a potential acropolis. The thirteen heavily wooded acres were the site of the Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum. The property was purchased for $850,000.
On December 27, 1892, St. John's Day, Bishop Potter laid the corner stone of the Cathedral. Bishop Potter struck the massive stone three times with a large wooden mallet, "Other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid which is Jesus Christ."
Construction immediately ran into foundation problems, but Bishop Potter refused to change locations. J.P. Morgan, the financier, who was a trustee of the Cathedral, gave $500,000 "to get us out of the hole."
By 1911, the choir and the crossing with its four immense arches were completed . The renowned mason Rafael Guastavino built a dome of tile, 162 feet high at the apex, to cover the crossing. The original plans called for the dome to be replaced by a spire, but the Guastavino dome is still there today.

Cathedral of St. Jean
Before the construction of Lyon's cathedral, the churches of Ste Croix, St Etienne and a baptistery stood on the site. Remains of these structures can still be seen in an archaeological garden by the music school building.
The Cathédrale St-Jean Cathedral was built over several centuries, from 1180 to 1480, in the Romanesque and Gothic styles. The apse is Romanesque, but construction on the whole continued over three centuries.
The wing of the cathedral that houses the treasury is noted for the beauty and severe dignity of its 12th-century Romanesque facade. Its origins date to the 11th century, when it was established as a choir school (the Manécanterie).
In 1600 King Henri IV came to Lyon to meet his Italian fiancée, Marie de' Medici, en route from Marseille. He took one look at her, approved of what he saw, and they were married immediately in this cathedral.
From the outside, the Cathédrale St-Jean appears solid and determined, having withstood the sieges of time, revolution, and war. Its apse is a masterpiece of Lyonnais Romanesque architecture.
Inside the cathedral, architectural highlights include the fabulous 13th-century stained-glass windows in the choir and the varied window tracery and vaulting in the side chapels.
Especially not to be missed is the Flamboyant Gothic chapel of the Bourbons. On the front portals are medallions depicting the signs of the zodiac, the Creation, and the life of St. John.
The most unique and interesting feature of Lyon's cathedral is the 14th-century astronomical clock, in the north transept. A marvel of technology and intricate beauty, it chimes a hymn to St. John on the hour at noon, 2, 3, and 4 as a rooster crows and angels herald the Annunciation.
To the right of the Cathédrale St-Jean stands the 12th-century Manécanterie (choir school), housing the treasury and an archaeological garden.
Address:
70 rue St-Jean, Vieux Lyon, Lyon, France
Location:
Place St-Jean
Phone:
Hours:
Mon-Sat 8am-noon and 2-7:30pm; Sun 8am-7pm
Cost:
Free

Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba
The site of the Mezquita has long been considered sacred – it was first host to a Roman temple, then the Visigoth cathedral church of St Vincent of Saragossa, then a mosque (the Mezquita), and finally a Baroque cathedral, built by the Christian conquerors in the early 13th century.
The construction of the Mezquita lasted for over two centuries, starting in 784 AD under the supervision of the emir of Cordoba, Abd ar-Rahman I.
Under Abd ar-Rahman II (822-52), the Mezquita held an original copy of the Koran and an arm bone of the prophet Mohammed. It became a Muslim pilgrimage site second only to Mecca in importance.
The Mosque underwent numerous subsequent changes: Abd ar-Rahman III ordered a new minaret, while Al-Hakam II, in 961, enlarged the plan of the building and enriched the mihrab. The last of the reforms, including the completion of the outer naves and orange tree courtyard, were completed by Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir in 987.
When finished, the Mezquita was the most magnificent of the more than 1,000 mosques in Cordoba. But Cordoba was subject to frequent invasion and each conquering wave added their own mark to the architecture.
In 1236, Cordoba was recaptured from the Moors by King Ferdinand III of Castile and rejoined Christendom. The Christians initially left the Mezquita largely undisturbed, dedicating it to the Virgin Mary and using it as a place of Christian worship.
Alfonso X oversaw the construction of the Villaviciosa Chapel and the Royal Chapel within the structure of the mosque.
The kings who followed added further Christian features: Enrique II rebuilt the chapel in the 14th century; a nave was constructed with the patronage of Carlos V, king of a united Spain.
The heavy, incongruous Baroque cathedral was sanctioned in the very heart of the mosque by Charles V in the 1520s.
Artisans and architects continued to add to the existing structure until the late 18th century, making the Mezquita an intriguing architectural oddity.
The Mezquita de Cordoba is most notable for its giant arches and its forest of over 1,000 columns of jasper, onyx, marble, and granite. These were made from pieces of the Roman temple which had occupied the site previously, as well as other destroyed Roman buildings. Besides the horseshoe-topped arches, the Mezquita also features richly gilded prayer niches.
Although it does not fit in with the rest of the mosque, the 16th-century Baroque cathedral is impressive in its own right, with an intricately carved ceiling and choir stalls.
Its most interesting feature is the mihrab, a domed shrine of Byzantine mosaics built by Al Hakam II (961-76). It once housed the Koran and relics of Muhammad.
In front of the Mihrab is the Maksoureh, a kind of anteroom for the caliph and his court; its mosaics and plasterwork make it a masterpiece of Islamic art.
Outside the Mezquita is the Courtyard of the Orange Trees (Patio de los Naranjos), which in springtime is perfumed with orange blossoms and has a beautiful fountain.
The Torre del Alminar, the minaret once used to summon the faithful to prayer, has a Baroque belfry. Hardy travelers can climb to the top to catch a panoramic view of Córdoba and its surroundings.
"Córdoba's mosque is one of the earliest and most transportingly beautiful examples of Spanish Muslim architecture."
– Fodors.com
"From the 8th century, the Mezquita was the crowning Muslim architectural achievement in the West. It's a fantastic labyrinth of red-and-white-striped arches."
– Frommers.com
"Well worth diverting from anywhere in Southern Spain to see it."
– TripAdvisor user review
Location:
Torrijos and Calle Cardenal Herrero s/n (south of the train station, just north of the Roman bridge)
Phone:
Hours:
Mon.-Sat. 10-5 (10-7 in summer), Sun. for morning mass and 2-5 (2-7 in summer).
Cost:
6.50€ adults, 3.25€ children under 14

Berliner Dom
A church has stood on the site of the Berliner Dom since 1465. The first church was built as the court chapel for the Hohenzollern royal family. This was replaced by a Baroque cathedral by Johann Boumann, which was completed in 1747. This cathedral was later remodeled in the classicist style in 1822 by the Berlin architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel.
On the order of German Emperor Wilhelm II, this domed building was demolished in 1894 and replaced by the current cathedral. Designed by Julius Raschdorff and completed in 1905, the 114 m long and 73 m wide cathedral is much larger than any of the previous buildings. The baroque Dom with Italian Renaissance influences was considered a Protestant counterweight to the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
During World War II, the building was bombed by the Allies and severely damaged. A temporary roof was installed to protect what remained of the interior and in 1975 reconstruction started. The restoration of the interior was begun in 1984 and in 1993 the church reopened. During reconstruction, the original design was modified into a more simple form.
The dome is intricately decorated with mosaics. Visitors can climb to the dome's outer balcony, which is made easier by a wide stairwell, plenty of landings with historic photos and models, and even a couple of chairs.
The most significant feature of the Berliner Dom is the crypt, with more than 80 sarcophagi of Prussian royals. However, to the untrained eye the tombs can seem rather dull.
Other sights of interest include Sauer's Organ, the Neo-Baroque pulpit and the stained glass designed by Anton von Werner. The main altar, which was saved from the previous cathedral, dates from 1850.
Address:
Am Lustgarten 1, Berlin, Germany
Phone:
Metro:
Alexanderplatz (S-bahn and U-bahn), Hackescher Markt (S-bahn).
Bus:
100, 157, 348
Tram:
Cost:
4 euros
Tours:
Guided tours of the dome are provided on site.

San Marco di Venezia
St Mark's Basilica (Italian: Basilica di San Marco in Venezia) is the most famous of the churches of Venice and one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture. It lies on St Mark's Square, adjacent and connected to the Doge's Palace and has been the seat of the Patriarch of Venice, archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice since 1807.
The first St Mark's was a temporary building in the Doge’s Palace, constructed in 828, when Venetian merchants acquired the supposed relics of Saint Mark the Evangelist from Alexandria. This was replaced by a new church on its present site in 832. The new church was burned in a rebellion in 976, rebuilt in 978 and again to form the basis of the present basilica in 1063.
[edit]
The present building
The church is based on a Greek cross floorplan, based in part on the Hagia Sophia and the Basilica of the Apostles, both in Constantinople. It has a raised choir with a crypt beneath. The plan of the interior consists of three longitudinal and three transverse naves. Over the high altar is a baldacchino on columns decorated with eleventh-century reliefs; the altarpiece is the famous Pala d'Oro (Golden Pall) [1], Byzantine metal-work of the year 1105, originally designed for an antependium. Behind the high altar is another altar with alabaster columns. The choir stalls are embellished with inlaying by Fra Sebastiano Schiavone, and above them on both sides are three reliefs by Sansovino. On the two marble pulpits of the ambo are statuettes by the Massegne brothers (1394). Also in the choir are Sansovino's bronze statues of the Evangelists and Caliari's of the Four Doctors.
San Marco di Venezia, as seen from the Piazza San MarcoThe basilica was consecrated in 1094, the same year as in which the body of Saint Mark was supposedly rediscovered in a pillar by Vitale Falier, doge at the time. The crypt then housed the relics until 1811. The building also incorporates a low tower, believed by some to have been part of the original Doge's Palace.
Decoration
While the basic structure of the building has been little altered, its decoration changed greatly over time. The succeeding centuries, especially the fourteenth, all contributed to its adornment, and seldom did a Venetian vessel return from the Orient without bringing a column, capitals, or friezes, taken from some ancient building, to add to the fabric of the basilica. Gradually, the exterior brickwork became covered with various marbles and carvings, some much older than the building itself. A new frontage was constructed and the domes were covered with higher wooden domes in order to blend in with the Gothic architecture of the redesigned Doge's Palace.
Inside, the walls were covered with mosaics, in a mixture of Byzantine and Gothic styles, while the floor is a twelfth century mixture of mosaic and marble in geometric patterns and animal designs. The mosaic contains gold, bronze, and the greatest variety of stones.
The Horses of Saint Mark were installed on the basilica in about 1254. They date to Classical Antiquity; by some accounts they once adorned the Arch of Trajan. The horses were long displayed at the Hippodrome of Constantinople, and in 1204 Doge Enrico Dandolo sent them back to Venice as part of the loot sacked from Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade. They were taken by Napoleon in 1797 but restored in 1815 and remained in place until the 1990s and now sit in an exhibition room, the horses now on the facade of the cathedral being no more than fibreglass replicas.

Duomo di Pisa
The Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) is the heart of the city of Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. It is a wide, walled area, partly paved and partly grassed, dominated by four great religious edifices: the Duomo, the Leaning Tower (which is the cathedral's campanile), the Baptistery and the Camposanto.
[edit]
The Duomo
The heart of the complex is the Duomo, the medieval cathedral. It was begun in 1064 and is a masterpiece, the originator of the Pisan Romanesque style. It is faced with grey marble and white stone, set with discs of coloured marble. The massive bronze main doors were made in the workshops of Giambologna, but visitors actually enter through the Portale di San Ranieri opposite the Leaning Tower. Made in around 1180 by Bonanno Pisano, this doorway was actually moved from its original place opposite the Baptistery when Giambologna's doors were erected.
The interior is faced with black and white marble and has a gilded ceiling and a frescoed dome. It was largely redecorated after a fire in 1595, which destroyed most of the medieval art works. The great mosaic of Christ in Majesty in the apse, which was completed by Cimabue in 1302, survived the fire however. The elaborately carved pulpit, which also survived the fire, was the masterpiece of Giovanni Pisano. It was packed away during the redecoration and was not rediscovered and re-erected until 1926. The church also contains the mummified body of St Ranieri, Pisa's patron saint, and the tomb of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII, carved by Tino da Camaino in 1315. Galileo is believed to have formulated his theory about the movement of a pendulum by watching the swinging of the huge incense lamp (not the present one) hanging from the ceiling of the nave.
The Baptistery
The BaptistryThe Baptistery stands opposite the west end of the Duomo. The round Romanesque building was begun in the mid 12th century by an architect known as Deotisalvi ("God Save You"). It was not, however, finished until a century later, when the top storeys and dome were added in Gothic style by Nicola and Giovanni Pisano. It is the largest baptistery in Italy.
The interior is surprisingly plain, with incredible acoustics. The font at the centre dates from 1246 and was made by Guido da Como. The pulpit was sculpted in 1260 by Nicola Pisano, father of the artist who produced the pulpit in the Duomo.
The Camposanto
The Camposanto lies at the northern edge of the Campo. It is a walled cemetery, which many claim is the most beautiful cemetery in the world. It is said to have been built around a shipload of sacred soil from Golgotha, brought back to Pisa from the Crusades by the archbishop in the 12th century. The building itself dates from a century later. It is a huge Gothic cloister. Most of the tombs are under the arcades, although a few are on the central lawn. The walls were once covered in frescoes, but on 27 July 1944 incendiary bombs dropped by Allied aircraft set the roof on fire and covered them in molten lead, all but destroying them.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campo_dei_Miracoli"

St. Mary's Cathedral
St Mary's Cathedral is the largest Roman Catholic church in Australia (and reputedly the Southern Hemisphere). It is the seat of Australia's only resident Cardinal, George Pell (Cardinal Cassidy being nonresident), and holds the title and dignity of a Minor Basilica, which were bestowed upon it by Pope Pius XI in 1930.
The present St Mary's is the second church of that name to occupy the site abutting College Street, Sydney. The foundation stone for the first building was laid by New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie and blessed by the colony's Catholic chaplain, Father Therry, on 3 May, 1821. The building was built of stone in a naive Gothic style, modified in 1851 in line with designs by A W N Pugin, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June, 1865.
The foundation stone for a new building, designed in Gothic-revival style by William Wilkinson Wardell was laid by Archbishop Polding in 1868. St Mary's was declared complete in 1928, and Archbishop Michael Kelly opened the building on 2 September of that year. However, due to a lack of funds the spires designed by Wardell for the cathedral's two main towers were not constructed until 2000 - 132 years after work first began on the building. With the completion of the spires, which are 74.6 metres in height St Mary's became the second-tallest church in Australia, after St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne.
In 1999 a new pipe organ was built in the west trancept to augment the liturgy's music. There are two main choral groups that perform music at the catherdral. The St. Mary's Cathedral Choir (Directed by David Russell) an the St. Mary's Singers (Directed by Elizabeth Swain). The Choir operates every sunday of the year except January at solemn high mass.

Toledo's Cathedral
Toledo's Cathedral is the greatest in Spain and one of the richest Gothic places of worship in the world. Although it is mainly Gothic in style, it has touches of Mudéjar, Baroque and Neoclassical. King Fernando III, el Santo, who laid the first stone in 1227, founded it. This outstanding building is 113 meters long, 57 meters wide, and it reaches 45 meters at its highest peak. It has 88 pillars, 70 cupolas, and 750 stained-glass windows depicting scenes from the New Testament and bringing sun light to all five naves of the building. Its museum contains works by famous artists such as Goya, Velázquez, liturgical garments, and various items of precious metalwork. The Cathedral steeple, rising harmoniously above the spires and turrets, is a landmark on the Toledo skyline.

Duomo di Milano
The Duomo di Milano is one of the most famous buildings in Europe. It is a particularly large and elaborate Gothic Cathedral (Duomo ) on the main square in the center of the city of Milan, Italy. Milan's Duomo is the second largest Roman Catholic cathedral: only the cathedral of Seville is larger (as is Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, which is not a cathedral). It is 157 meters long— 40,000 people can fit comfortably within. The main spire is 109 meters high. The great windows of the choir were reputed to be the largest in the world.
Duomo di MilanoThe street plan of Milan, with streets either radiating from the Duomo or circling it, reveals that the Duomo occupies the most important site in Roman Mediolanum. Saint Ambrose's 'New Basilica' was built on this site at the beginning of the 5th century, with an adjoining basilica added in 836. When fire damaged both buildings in 1075, they were rebuilt as the Duomo.
The roof of the Duomo di MilanoIn 1386 the archbishop, Antonio da Saluzzo, began the new project, in a rayonnant Late Gothic style that is more characteristic of France than Italy. Work proceeded for generations, the main spire being topped off in 1762 (1744?) with a polychrome statue of the Madonna, to whom the Duomo and its predecessor have always been consecrated. Even now some uncarved blocks remain to be completed as statuary. The Duomo of Milan blurs the normal distinctions between Gothic and neo-Gothic, for the Gothic west front was begun in 1616 and completed two hundred years later. Only in its details does it reveal its Baroque and Neo-Classical date. From 1900 some of the least Gothic details of the facade were replaced in a more Gothic style to designs of Giuseppe Brentano. Gothic construction on the rest of the Duomo was largely complete in the 1880s.
inside the DuomoThe cathedral's five wide naves are reflected in the hierarchic openings of the facade. Even the transepts have aisles. The roofline dissolves into openwork pinnacles that are punctuated by a grove of spires. The huge building is of brick construction, faced with marble from the quarries which Gian Galeazzo Visconti donated in perpetuity to the cathedral chapter. Its maintenance and repairs are very complicated.
"What a wonder it is! So grand, so solemn, so vast! And yet so delicate, so airy, so graceful! A very world of solid weight, and yet it seems ...a delusion of frostwork that might vanish with a breath!...The central one of its five great doors is bordered with a bas-relief of birds and fruits and beasts and insects, which have been so ingeniously carved out of the marble that they seem like living creatures-- and the figures are so numerous and the design so complex, that one might study it a week without exhausting its interest...everywhere that a niche or a perch can be found about the enormous building, from summit to base, there is a marble statue, and every statue is a study in itself...Away above, on the lofty roof, rank on rank of carved and fretted spires spring high in the air, and through their rich tracery one sees the sky beyond. ...(Up on) the roof...springing from its broad marble flagstones, were the long files of spires, looking very tall close at hand, but diminishing in the distance...We could see, now, that the statue on the top of each was the size of a large man, though they all looked like dolls from the street... They say that the Cathedral of Milan is second only to St. Peter's at Rome. I cannot understand how it can be second to anything made by human hands. " --Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad.

St. Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, is the metropolitical and cathedral church of the Anglican diocese of Melbourne, Victoria, and the seat of the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne and Metropolitan of the See of Victoria, Most Reverend Peter Watson.
The cathedral is located in the centre of the Melbourne, on the corner of Swanston Street and Flinders Street. It is diagonally opposite Flinders Street Station, which was the transport hub of 19th century Melbourne and is still an important centre. Immediately to the south of the cathedral is Prince's Bridge over the Yarra River, leading to St Kilda Road, so that the cathedral commands the southern approaches to the city.
Although there was no established church in colonial Victoria, most of the colony's establishment were Anglicans, and the Church of England (as it was then called) was given the best site in Melbourne for its cathedral. At the time of its construction St Paul's was the tallest building in central Melbourne and dominated the city's skyline. Unfortunately the growth of multi-storey buildings in central Melbourne during the 20th century robbed St Paul's of its commanding position and restricted views from many angles. The recent construction of Federation Square, which involved the demolition of a pair of adjacent highrise buildings, however, has improved the Cathedral's visibility from the south.
St Paul's is built on the site of Melbourne's first Christian service, conducted on the banks of the Yarra a few months after Melbourne was founded in 1835. The area was a market until 1848, when St Paul's Parish Church, a bluestone church, was built on the site. In 1885, as Melbourne grew rapidly, this church was demolished to make way for the new cathedral. It replaced St James's Old Cathedral, which then stood on the corner of William Street and Little Collins Street, but was later removed to a site near the Flagstaff Gardens.
St Paul's Cathedral: the western entrance on Swanston StreetSt Paul's is built in a style known as Gothic transitional, being partly Early English and partly Decorated. It was designed by the distinguished English architect William Butterfield, who was noted for his ecclesiastical work. The foundation stone was laid in 1880. Butterfield never saw the site and the building was frequently delayed by disputes between Butterfield, in England, and the Church authorities on the spot. Butterfield resigned in 1884 and the building was finished by a local architect, Joseph Reed.
St Paul's Cathedral: the south faceThe Cathedral was consecrated on 22 January 1891, but the building of the spires did not begin until 1926. The spires were designed by John Barr of Sydney. An organ was imported from England and is acknowledged as the finest surviving work of T. C. Lewis, one of the greatest organ-builders of the 19th century. St Paul's has one of the few peals of thirteen bells outside the British Isles, and their chimes are a regular feature of Wednesday evening in Melbourne. The cathedral also has a tradition of a daily choral evensong, one of the few Anglican cathedrals outside the British Isles to do so.
In 1986 Pope John Paul II made a pastoral visit to this cathedral in recognition of the sincere dialogue between the Anglican and Roman Catholic clergy in Melbourne, fostered by the former archbishops Wood and Little.
St Paul's in unusual among Melbourne's great 19th century public buildings in that it is not made from bluestone, the city's dominant building material. Instead it is made from sandstone imported from Sydney, giving the cathedral a warm yellow-brown colouring rather than Melbourne's characteristic cold blue-grey. This gives it a strikingly different appearance to the bluestone Gothic of St Patrick's Catholic cathedral on the eastern edge of the city. Because the spires are made from different stone and are thirty years newer, they are of a darker tone than the older parts of the building.
By the 1990s the constant traffic vibration of central Melbourne had led to concerns about the structural soundness of the cathedral, particularly the spires. A public appeal raised A$2.5 million to restore the spires, work which is continuing.

Leon Cathedral
Santa María de León Cathedral, also called The House of Light is situated in the city of León in north-west Spain. It was built on the site of a previous Roman hot baths of the 2nd century which, 800 years later, the emblematic king Ordoño II converted into a palace. Its doors, its impressive rose window, the choir (one of the oldest in the country) and the delicacy of some figures, like the venerated Virgen Blanca presiding over the constant traffic of visitors, are some of the not-to-be-missed features of this cathedral.
The León Cathedral, dedicated to Santa María de la Regla, was declared of Cultural Interest in 1844. It is known as the Pulchra Leonina and it is a masterpiece of the Gothic style dominating the mid 13th century, by master architect Enrique. In the late 16th century it was virtually finished. It was erected on the site of Roman hot baths dating from the 2nd century, which were converted into a royal castle by king Ordoño II in the 10th century.
One of the most attractive features is the main front and the three towers (two belfries and one clock tower). The interior represents a beautiful combination of architecture, painting, sculpture and other arts. It must not be forgotten that the Renaissance retrochoir contains alabaster sculptures and that the choir was built by three great artists: Jusquin, Copin of Holland and Juan de Malinas. Particularly noteworthy is the Plateresque screen in the wall behind the sepulchre of king Ordoño.
It has three portals decorated with sculptures situated in the pointed arches between the two towers. The central section has a large rose window. Particularly outstanding is the image of the Virgen Blanca and the Locus Apellatiore, where justice was imparted.
Its almost 1,800 square metres of stained glass windows are regarded as one of the best attained glass window work in the world (13th - 15th centuries).
In the Mai Chapel there is an altarpiece by Nicolás Francés (15th century) and a silver urn containing the relics of San Froilán, the town's patron saint, made by Enrique de Arfe. The 13th-15th century cloister contains singular sculpted details in the capitals, friezes and ledges.
The Cathedral Museum houses a large collection of sacred art. There are almost 1,500 pieces including 50 Romanesque sculptures of the Virgin, dating from pre-historic times to the 18th century (Neoclassicism) with works by Juan de Juni, Gregorio Fernández, Mateo Cerezo, a triptych of the School of Antwerp, a Mozarabic bible and numerous codices.

St.Peter's in the Vatican Basilica
The Vatican. Colonnade of St. Peter's Square. The elliptical shape, symbolising the Church's embrace of all of mankind, is defined by a series of 284 columns arranged in four rows. lf, however, you stand on one of the two focuses of the ellipse, marked by a granite disk, it seems that the colonnade is made up of only a single row of columns! At the end of the right-hand arm of the colonnade, two Swiss Guards stand watch before the Scala Regia.
Skilfully exploiting the little space at his disposal, the artist managed to give the illusion of a much bigger staircase through the use of optical devices.
Inside the basilica, also, Bernini's ingenious inventions never cease to amaze. The huge space under the dome was occupied by the gigantic Baldacchino, 29 metres high like Palazzo Farnese and the Louvre, whose twisted columns were cast of bronze taken from the Pantheon, a fact that immediately became the subject of the famous pasquinade "Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini" (What the Barbarians did not do, the Barberini did).
The Baldacchino was erected over the altar, which in turn was placed exactly over the spot where, according to tradition, St. Peter is buried.
On the bases of the bronze columns supporting the Baldacchino, it is possibie to see the shields with the Barberini bees.
A closer examination reveals, however, that in reality they show the sequence of expressions of pain on the face of a woman giving birth. Going around the monument clockwise, seven different moments of pregnancy can be seen, up to the smiling face of a baby. Bernini intended, evidently through the figure of Pope Urban VIII Barberini, to celebrate mankind who suffers while awaiting salvation.
At the back of the apse is the Cathedra, the large bronze chair, supported by four gigantic statues portraying the Doctors of the Church, which was created to hold the episcopal chair where Peter sat.
In reality, the cathedra, kept inside the Baroque monument, dates from the 9th century and is a gift from King Charles I (the Bald) to Pope John VII.
To give an idea of the dimensions of the cathedra, just imagine that 121 tons of bronze were used and that the wingspan of the dove of the Holy Spirit in the stained-glass window is 1.75 metres long. The tiaras of the Doctors of the Church, situated below, are also about two metres high.
The square is dominated by the largest church in the world: St. Peter's Basilica. The dome was designed by Michelangelo, who also designed the plan of the Renaissance church, rebuilt over the early Christian one as ordered by papal architect Donato Bramante, who had the ancient basilica torn down. For this reason Bramante was nicknamed "Mastro ruinante" ("ruining master").
By Michelangelo there is also the beautiful Pietà, kept in the first chapel of the right aisle. lt is the only work actually signed by the great artist. lt is said that the sculptor, angry because no one knew who had done the masterpiece, decided to engrave his name on the band encircling the Virgin's breast. Michelangelo also engraved his monogram "M" in the folds of the Virgin's right hand, the one turned towards the viewer.
Also from the Vatican Museums, where it is also possibie to see Raphael's Stanze, painted between 1509 and 1512, and the Borgia Apartment, frescoed in the late 15th century by Pinturicchio, we can arrive in St. Peter's Square.

Catedral de LA Almudena
The Almudena Cathedral, situated next to the Royal Palace, took well over a 100 years to complete. It was finally consecrated by Pope John Paul on the 15th June, 1993. Five days before the consecration of the cathedral the statue of Our Lady of La Almudena, patron saint of Madrid, was moved from San Isidro church to here. The Almudena will be the place where the King's son, Felipe, will get married this summer.
Carlos V was the first king to express an interest to construct a cathedral in Madrid, but it wasn't until 4th of April 1883, when Alfonso XII laid the first stone, that work actually begun. Of the original plans drawn up by Francisco de Cubas, only the crypt was actually completed (1911). In 1920 the architect Juan Moya was put in charge of the project and he worked on the cathedral until the start of the civil war. In 1944 a competition was held and Fernando Chueca Goitia and Carlos Sidro won it - they chose a classical style which was more in keeping with the Royal Palace.
The Cathedral is very light in comparison to many Spanish cathedrals and much of the interior is very modern, including the modernist leaded light windows. You will find a nice mixture of old-style chapels which contain, among other things, bronze statues, bronze reliefs, the coffin of San Isidro and various statues. The Cathedral is 99 metres long and 75 metres wide and contains, 13 chapels, 3 altars and a huge dome of 20 metres diameter.
Metro: Opera
Address: c/ Bailén
Mass: Every day at 6pm and 10am, 12pm, 1.30pm, 6pm and 7pm on Sundays and holidays.

Santa Maria Maior
Santa Maria Maior de Lisboa is the Sé or cathedral of Lisbon and the oldest church in the City; it dates back to the year 306. It served as a mosque for the Moors during their occupation of the city, and the façade with its towers and massive portico was rebuilt during the fourteenth century.
A large part of the monument was severely affected by the Earthquake of 1755 and by the following fire: part of cloister, the main chapel and also part of the tower over the crossing fell down. King José Emanuel had the main chapel and the tower rebuilt. Later on, the whole interior was renewed with a neoclassical decoration.

San Giovanni in Laterano
Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano — known in English as Saint John Lateran Basilica — is one of the five great ancient basilicas of Rome. The Roman Catholic Church counts among them St. Lawrence outside the Walls, St. Mary Major, St. Peter and St. Paul outside the Walls. Originally called Basilica Salvatoris and Archbasilica of the Holy Savior, it is the oldest and ranks first among the great basilicas. It holds the title of ecumenical motherchurch among Roman Catholics as it is the cathedral church of the popes.
Lateran Palace
The site on which the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano sits was occupied during the Early Empire by the palace of the Lateranus family. The Laterani served as administrators for several emperors; Sextius Lateranus was the first plebeian to attain the rank of consul. One of the Laterani, Consul-designate Plautius Lateranus, became famous for being accused by Nero of conspiracy against the emperor. The accusation resulted in the confiscation of his properties.
The square in front of the Lateran Palace has an obelisk built by Tuthmosis III in Karnak, and placed in Circus Maximus before being transferred in its current place.The Lateran Palace fell into the hands of the emperor when Constantine married his second wife Fausta, sister of Maxentius. Known by that time as the "Domus Faustae" or "House of Fausta," the Lateran Palace was eventually given to the Roman Christians as a gift from the first Christian emperor. The actual date of the gift is unknown but scholars believe it had to have been during the pontificate of Pope Miltiades, in time to host a synod of bishops in 313. The synod convened to challenge the Donatist schism, declaring Donatism as heresy. By that time the Lateran Palace was beginning to be known as the Palace of the Popes. The palace basilica was converted and extended, eventually becoming the cathedral of Rome.
The official dedication of the Lateran Palace and basilica was presided by Pope Sylvester I in 324, declaring both as Domus Dei or "House of God." In reflection of the basilica's primacy in the world as mother church, the words Sacrosancta Lateranensis ecclesia omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput were incised across the façade, meaning "Most Holy Lateran Church, of all the churches in the city and the world, the mother and head."
Twice the Lateran Palace and basilica have been rededicated. Pope Sergius III dedicated them to Saint John the Baptist in the 10th century in honor of the newly consecrated basilica baptistry. Pope Lucius II dedicated the Lateran Palace and basilica to Saint John the Evangelist in the 12th century. The church became the most important shrine in honor of the two saints, not often jointly venerated. In later years, a Benedictine monastery was established at the Lateran Palace, devoted to serving the basilica as a devotional to the two saints.
Every pope since Miltiades occupied the Lateran Palace until the reign of the French Pope Clement V, who in 1309 decided to transfer the official seat of the Church to Avignon, a papal fief that was an enclave within France. During the Avignon papacy, the Lateran Palace and the basilica began to decline. Two destructive fires rampaged through the Lateran Palace and the basilica, in 1307 and again in 1361. In both cases, the Avignon papacy sent money to their bishops in Rome to cover costs in reconstruction and maintenance. Despite the action, the Lateran Palace and the basilica lost its former splendor.
When the Avignon papacy formally ended and the Bishop of Rome again resided in Rome, the Lateran Palace and the basilica were deemed inadequate considering the accumulated damage. The popes claimed residency at the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere and later at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. Eventually, the Palace of the Vatican was constructed and the papacy moved in; the papacy remains there today.
Pope Sixtus V tore down the original Lateran Palace and basilica and commissioned replacements. The rebuilt Lateran Palace and the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano became separate entities. Today the Lateran Palace is home to the Pontifical Museum of Christian Antiquities.
The square in front of the Lateran Palace has an obelisk built by Tuthmosis III in Karnak, and placed in Circus Maximus before being transferred in its current place.
The Lateran Palace has also been the site of five Ecumenical councils. See Lateran councils.
Reconstruction
There were several attempts at reconstruction of the basilica before Pope Sixtus V's definitive project. Sixtus hired his favorite architect Domenico Fontana to oversee much of the project. Further renovation of the interior ensued under the direction of Francesco Borromini, commissioned by Pope Innocent X. The vision of Pope Clement XII for reconstruction was an ambitious one: he launched a competition to design a new façade. The winner of the competition was Alessandro Galilei. The façade as it appears today was completed in 1735. Galilei's façade however removed all vestiges of traditional ancient basilica architecture.
Architectural history
An apse lined with mosaics and open to the air still preserves the memory of one of the most famous halls of the ancient palace, the "Triclinium" of Pope Leo III, which was the state banqueting hall. The existing structure is not ancient, but it is possible that some portions of the original mosaics have been preserved in a three-part mosaic: in the centre Christ gives their mission to the Apostles, on the left he gives the keys to St. Sylvester and the Labarum to Constantine, while on the right St. Peter gives the stole to Leo III and the standard to Charlemagne.
Some few remains of the original buildings may still be traced in the city walls outside the Gate of St. John, and a large wall decorated with paintings was uncovered in the 18th century within the basilica itself, behind the Lancellotti Chapel. A few traces of older buildings also came to light during the excavations made in 1880, when the work of extending the apse was in progress, but nothing was then discovered of real value or importance.
A great many donations from the popes and other benefactors to the basilica are recorded in the Liber Pontificalis, and its splendour at an early period was such that it became known as the "Basilica Aurea", or Golden Basilica. This splendour drew upon it the attack of the Vandals, who stripped it of all its treasures. St. Leo the Great restored it about 460, and it was again restored by Pope Hadrian, but in 896 it was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake— ab altari usque ad portas cecidit "it collapsed from the altar to the doors"— damage so extensive that it was difficult to trace the lines of the old building, but these were in the main respected and the new building was of the same dimensions as the old. This second church lasted for four hundred years and then burnt in 1308. It was rebuilt by Pope Clement V and Pope John XXII, only to be burnt down once more in 1360, but again rebuilt by Pope Urban V.
Through these various vicissitudes the basilica retained its ancient form, being divided by rows of columns into aisles, and having in front a peristyle surrounded by colonnades with a fountain in the middle, the conventional Late Antique format that was also followed by the old St Peter's. The façade had three windows, and was embellished with a mosaic representing Christ, the Saviour of the World. The porticoes were frescoed, probably not dating further back than the twelfth century, commemorating the Roman fleet under Vespasian, the taking of Jerusalem, the Baptism of the Emperor Constantine and his "Donation" of the Papal States to the Church. Inside the basilica the columns no doubt ran, as in all other basilicas of the same date, the whole length of the church from east to west, but at one of the rebuildings, probably that which was carried out by Clement V, the feature of a transverse nave was introduced, imitated no doubt from the one which had been, long before this, added at Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. It was probably at this time also that the church was enlarged.
Some portions of the older buildings still survive. Among them the pavement of medieval Cosmatesque work, and the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, now in the cloisters. The graceful baldacchino over the high altar, which looks so utterly out of place in its present surroundings, dates from 1369. The stercoraria, or throne of red marble on which the popes sat, is now in the Vatican Museums. It owes its unsavoury name to the anthem sung at the papal enthronement, "De stercore erigens pauperem" ("lifting up the poor out of the dunghill", from Psalm 112). From the fifth century there were seven oratories surrounding the basilica. These before long were incorporated in the church. The devotion of visiting these oratories, which held its ground all through the medieval period, gave rise to the similar devotion of the seven altars, still common in many churches of Rome and elsewhere.
Lateran cloister
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The cloister of the monastry, with a cosmatesque decoration.Between the basilica and the city wall there was in former times the great monastery, in which dwelt the community of monks whose duty it was to provide the services in the basilica. The only part of it which still survives is the cloister, surrounded by graceful columns of inlaid marble. They are of a style intermediate between the Romanesque proper and the Gothic, and are the work of Vassellectus and the Cosmati. This beautiful cloister dates to the early 13th century.
Lateran bapistry
Main article: Lateran Baptistery.
The octagonal Lateran Bapistry stands somewhat apart from the basilica. It was founded by Pope Sixtus III, perhaps on an earlier structure, for a legend grew up that Constantine the Great had been baptized there and enriched the structure. (He was actually baptised in the East, by an Arian bishop.) This baptistry was for many generations the only baptistery in Rome, and its octagonal structure, centered upon the large basin for full immersions provided a model for others throughout Italy, and even an iconic motif of illuminated manuscripts, "The fountain of Life".
See also
Early Christian art and architecture
External links
Catholic Encyclopedia Article on the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09014b.htm)
Illustrated Guide of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano
Lateran entry from "Guide to the Churches of Rome" (http://roma.katolsk.no/giovannilaterano.htm)
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

St. Patricks Cathedral
St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, formally known as The National Cathedral and Collegiate Church of Saint Patrick, Dublin or in the Irish language as Árd Eaglais Naomh Pádraig, is the larger of Dublin's two Church of Ireland Cathedrals. Unusually it is not a sole seat of a bishop, as Dublin's Church of Ireland Archbishop has his seat in Christ Church Cathedral, with St. Patrick's being seen as the National Cathedral for the whole island, drawing chapter members from each of the twelve dioceses of the Church of Ireland. (The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has his seat in St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral.)
Circa 1191, during the episcopate of John Comyn, Archbishop of Dublin, the original, wooden, Celtic St. Patrick's church on the site, which was outside the walls of Dublin, was raised to the status of cathedral. The present building, the largest church in Ireland, was built between 1191 and 1270, though a major rebuilding in the 1870s, necessitated by the belief that the cathedral was in imminent danger of collapse, means that much of the current building and decoration dates from the Victorian era. Though the rebuild ensured the survival of the Cathedral, a failure to preserve records of the scale of the rebuild means that little is known as to how much of the current building is genuinely mediæval and how much is victorian pastiche.
During the stay of Oliver Cromwell in Dublin, the Commonwealth's Lord Protector stabled his horses in the nave of the cathedral.
Throughout its long history the cathedral had contributed much to Irish life. The writer and satirist Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, was Dean of the cathedral from 1713 to 1745. His grave and epitaph can be seen in the cathedral.
The Choir School was founded in 1432 and many of its members took part in the very first performance of Handel's Messiah in 1742.
From 1783 until 1871 the cathedral served as the Chapel of the Most Illustrious Order Saint Patrick, members of which were the Knights of St. Patrick. With the dis-establishment of the Church of Ireland in 1871 the installation ceremony moved to St. Patrick's Hall, Dublin Castle. The heraldic banners of the knights of those knights at the time of the move still hang over the choir stalls to this day.
Today the cathedral is the location for a number of public national ceremonials. Ireland's Remembrance Day ceremonies, hosted by the Royal British Legion and attended by the President of Ireland, take place there every November.
The funerals of two Irish presidents, Dr. Douglas Hyde and Erskine Hamilton Childers took place there, in 1949 and 1974 respectively. Because President Childers died in office, his state funeral was a major state occasion. The attendance included the King Baudouin of the Belgians, the Vice-President of the United States, Spiro T. Agnew (representing President Nixon), Earl Mountbatten of Burma (representing Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom), British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and former prime minister Edward Heath.

Mainz Cathedral
Mainz Cathedral, formally known as St. Martin Cathedral or Mainzer Dom in German, is located near the historical center of Mainz, Germany.
The massive structure looms over the largely pedestrianized center market square. Its enormous red-sandstone, six-towered body shelters the half-timbered houses of the old city and commands a prominent place in the skyline of Mainz.
The cathedral's spacious interior, achieved by massive vaulted arches, houses the tombs and funerary monuments of former powerful prince-archbishops of the diocese. There are statues ofSt. Boniface and the Madonna on the cathedral grounds.
Mainz Cathedral, along with the cathedrals of Worms and Speyer, represents the highpoint of Romanesque cathedral architecture in the Rhine Region of Germany. These particular cathedrals are often called Kaiser Domes, a reference to their consecration during the height of the Holy Roman Empire (the German word Kaiser, a variant of Caesar, means emperor). Though predominantly Romanesque, later exterior additions to the cathedral, coupled with the influence of different artisans over the centuries on the cathedral's interior, have resulted in the appearance of various styles seen today.
History
Mainz had its first christian community as early as 200 and is one of the oldest episcopal sees in Germany. The first cathedral of the time of the emperor Constantine was under the walls of St. John, a present-day protestant church, dating 10. century. The construction of the medieval cathedral dates back to Archbishop Willigis (975-1010), who fostered the commerce of Mainz, an important medieval trade center. Building commenced in 975. Tragically, the cathedral burned down on the day of its inauguration in 1009. Archbishop Bardo von Oppertshafen (1031-1051) presided over the completion of the cathedral begun under Willigis. By 1037 the main portions of the body of Mainz Cathedral were complete. Most of the present day cathedral was built before the 14th century.
It was at Mainz Cathedral on March 27, 1188, that Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, known as Frederick Barbarossa, symbolically took up the Cross and enlisted the military of the Holy Roman Empire in the Third Crusade called by Pope Gregory VIII.
Mainz Cathedral has fallen victim to war damage over its long history. Prussian troops attempting to dislodge French Revolutionary forces from Mainz destroyed the east portion of the cathedral as they besieged the city in 1793. The Allied bombing of Mainz destroyed 80% of the inner city, but fortunatly the cathedral emerged with relatively little damage from World War II. The reconstruction of the cloister and the Chapel of St. Godhard, thad had been damaged was completed in 1960.
Mainz Cathedral is the site of the episcopal see of the Bishop of Mainz. In its prime the cathedral saw the coronation of German kings, who were subsequently crowned emperors by the Pope through the traditional political process of the Holy Roman Empire. The coronation of German kings was a rite afforded to the Bishop of Mainz during Mainz's status as an archdiocese from 747 to 1802, although most kings had been crowned in Aachen. The Bishop of Mainz held considerable secular power as a Prince-Elector within the Holy Roman Empire.

Cathedral of Notre Dame de la Treille
The ancient capital of Flanders, now the chief town of the Département du Nord in France. A very important religious centre ever since the eleventh century, Lille became in the nineteenth a great centre of industry. With a population of 12,818 in 1789, of 24,300 in 1821, of 140,000 in 1860, and of 211,000 in 1905, it is to-day the fourth city of France in population. (For the early history of Christianity at Lille, see CAMBRAI, ARCHDIOCESE OF.) The Legend according to which the giant Finard was killed in the seventh century, by Lideric, whose mother, Ermengarde, he held prisoner, and according to which Lideric founded the dynasty of the counts of Flanders, was invented in the thirteenth century. The first Count of Flanders, as a matter of fact, was Baldwin of the Iron Arm, in the ninth century (see FLANDERS), and nothing certain is known of Lille before the middle of the eleventh century. The city seems to have been founded about that time by Count Baldwin V, and in 1054 it was already so well fortified that Henry III, Emperor of Germany, did not dare to besiege it. In 1055 Baldwin V laid the foundation stone of the collegiate church of St. Peter, which was dedicated in 1066.
One of the oldest chronicles of Flanders says that the foundation of this collegiate church was the beginning of the prosperity of the town. St. Peters was served by forty canons and had very prosperous schools as early as the end of the eleventh century. About the same time Raimbert, a Nominalist, who taught philosophy in St. Peter's school, was in conflict with Odo, a Realist, afterwards Bishop of Carnbrai but at that time professor at the convent of Notre-Dame de Tournai. Raimbert's Nominalism, however, was never carried to the extremes which caused Boseclin's condemnation in 1092 Another teacher in St. Peter's school was the celebrated Gautier de Châtillon (twelfth century), the author of the Alexandreis a Latin epic on Alexander the Great which was used as a substitute for Virgil's work in some of the medieval schools. Connected with the same school about the same time were Alain de Lille surnamed the Universal Doctor (see ALAIN DE L'ISLE); Adam de la Bassée, a canon of the collegiate church who composed beautiful liturgical chants; Lietbert, Abbot of Saint-Ruf, author of a great commentary on the Psalms, "Flores Psalmorum". St Thomas of Canterbury and St. Bernard of Clairvaux visited the collegiate church of Lille, and in it Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, held, in 1481, the first chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece, founded by him in 1430 for the defence of Christendom against the Turks. In a neighbouring palace was held the famous "Feast of the Pheasant" (1453). in the midst of which Religion, mounted on an elephant which was led by a giant Saracen, entered the banquet hall to beg aid from the Knights of the Golden Fleece. Jean Miélot, a canon of St. Peter's at Lille, wrote for Philip the Good twenty-two works, including translations, ascetical works, and biographies. The most important of these works, "La Vie de sainte Catherine d'Aléxandrie", was printed later. Miniatures of that period often represent this canon offering Philip a book. It was he who, after the "Væu du Faisan", translated a work of the Dominican Father Brochart, "Advis directif pour faire le passage doultre-mer", and a description of the Holy Land.
About this time the preacher Jean d'Eeckhout. another canon of Lille, author of two celebrated ascetical treatises, on the espousals of God the Father and the Virgin, and on the espousals of God the Son and the sinful soul, yielded to the prevalent impulse towards pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and died while on his pilgrimage, in 1472. Influenced by the same movement, Anseim and John Adorno, members of a distinguished Genoese family settled at Bruges, made a visit to the Holy Land of which the narrative is preserved in a manuscript at Lille. John Adorno, on his return, became a canon of Lille and devoted himself to spreading, throughout Flanders, the devotion to St. Catherine of Alexandria, whose relics he had seen on Mount Sinai — hence the large number of Flemish works of art having St. Catherine for their subject.
In the thirteenth century the statue of Note-Dame de la Trill, which stood in the collegiate church of St. Peter, drew thither many pilgrims. The reputed miracles of 14 June, 1254, are famous. It is not certain from what year of that same century the Confraternity of Note-Dame de la Trill dates; but it is historically certain that. in 1470 Margaret, Countess of Flanders, decreed that every year, on the first Sunday after Trinity Sunday and for the nine days following, processions commemorating these miracles should be held in the city. The fragment of the True Cross which is still preserved at St-Etienne, Lille, was given to the chapter of St. Peter's by the Flemish priest, Walter of Courtrai, who was chancellor of the Emperor Baldwin I at Constantinople. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, the collegiate church of St. Peter was annually the scene of the curious election of the "Bishop of Fools", on the Eve of the Epiphany, and, on the feast of the Holy Innocents, of the election by the choristers of a "Bishop of the Innocents", who was solemnly carried in procession. Another much frequented religious festival at Lille was that of the "Epinette" (little thorn), the solemnities of which began on Quinquagesima Sunday and lasted until Mid-Lent. The feast was instituted in the first half of the thirteenth century shortly after the convent of the Dominicans at Lille had received from the Countess Jeanne a fragment of the Crown of Thorns; it ceased in 1487, when the burghers began to find the expense too heavy. The veneration of the Mater Dolorosa originated in Flanders in the fifteenth century. The first treatise on this devotion, which dates from 1494, was the work of the Dominican Mieliel François, Bishop of Selimbria, and confessor of Philip the Fair, a native of Templemars, near Lille. The chapter of St. Peter's immediately combined this devotion with that of Notre Dame de la Treille, and erected in the church of St. Peter the stations of the Seven Dolours, to be made in the same manner as the Way of the Cross.
The collegiate church also originated some important charitable works. Among these were the Cour Gilson, a row of houses established by Canon Robert Gillesson in the sixteenth century, the rents of which were to be used for works of piety and charity, the orphanage of the Grange, founded in the sixteenth century by Canon Jean de Lacu; the "marriage burses", or dowries for poor girls, instituted by Canon Etienne Ruélin in the sixteenth century; the "prebends of the poor", a fund instituted by Hangouard, dean of the chapter, to enable the aged poor to live with their children or kin without being a burden to them; and an apprenticeship fund for the benefit of young workmen, established by Provost Manare. Very modern ideas of assisting the poor were devised and carried out as early as the sixteenth century by the canons of St. Peter's and through the liberality of Jean de Lannoy, the collegiate scholasticus, a mont-de-piété was established to lend money free of interest to the needy. The collegiate church, again, hospitably received the English refugees, when the persecution of Catholics was raging in England. Among its English canons were John Marshall (1534-68), Allen's auxiliary in the foundation of Douai. and Gilford (1554-1629), who, in 1603, at the peril of his life performed a mission in England for the Holy See, and who died Archbishop of Reims: David Kearney, who in 1603 became Archbishop of Cashel in Ireland, and suffered bitter persecution in that diocese. Until the sixteenth century the school of St. Peter's was the only one where Latin and the humanities were taught; the City then opened a school which was entrusted to Jesuits in 1592, and where the humanist John Silvius taught. The collegiate church of St. Peter disappeared with the Revolution.
After having in medieval and modern times followed the destinies of Flanders, which passed from the House of Burgundy to the House of Austria, the city of Lille became French when it was conquered by Louis XIV in 1667 and fortified by Vauban. In 1792 it heroically resisted the Austrians. During the nineteenth century two manufacturers of Lille, Philibert Vrau (1829---1905) and Camille Fron-Vrau (1831-1908) laboured to form among the numerous working men of the city a centre of Catholic activity. With the aid of the Abbé Bernard, Philibert Vrau founded, in 1863, the Lille Union of Prayer, the "Bulletin" of which gradually increased its circulation to 22,000; a 1866 he established the "Cercle de Lille", which for many years held the district Catholic Congress for the Département du Nord and the Pas de Calais, and in 1871 the lay association for building new churches in the suburbs. Philibert Vrau and Camille Féron Vrau undertook to build a basilica for the statue of Notre Dame de la Treille, hoping that. the city of Lille would some day be detached from the Diocese of Cambrai and become the seat of a new diocese with Notre Dame de la Treille as its cathedral. In 1885 they established the Corporation of St. Nicholas for spinners and weavers, with an employers' and a working. men's council, and a co-operative fund supported by monthly assessments on both employers and employees.
The Catholic University of Lille, lastly, was the result of their continued and generous efforts. This scheme was presented by Philbert Vrau in 1873 at the Catholic Congress of the North; the Abbé Mortier, later Bishop of Gap, and the Abbé Dehaisnes, known for his writings on the history of Flanders, were pointed to report. on the question. In 1874, in the ancient ball of the Prefecture which had been rented for the purpose by Philibert Vrau, law courses were opened to the public. The passing of the law on the freedom of higher education (12 July, 1875) hastened the success of the foundation. On 18 Nov., 1875, a complete law course was organized; on 18 Jan., 1877, the four faculties of law sciences, letters, and medicine were inaugurated; on 22 Nov., 1879, the cornerstone of the university was laid. As early as 1878 it was ascertained that the hospital of St. Eugenia, attached to the faculty of medicine, had cared for as many as 2448 patients, and that the contributions received for the university already amounted to 6,473,263 francs (about $1,294,000). Philibert Vrau also took the initiative in establishing, in 1880, the only professedly Catholic commercial school in France. The school for higher industrial studies was established in 1885. As early as 1876 Philibert Vrau contemplated the foundation of a Catholic school of arts and crafts at Lille, but it was not until 1898 that the institute was inaugurated under Father Lacoutre, S.J. In 1894 there was added to the faculty of law a department of social and political science, and lectures are now given every year by the most distinguished Catholic savants of France. The system of political economy opposed to the intervention of the State in labour affairs — a system long favoured by the Catholic industriels of Lille — was gradually overthrown by the teaching given in this department, and Professor Duthoit's "Vers l‘organisation professionelle", published in the spring of 1910, finally confirmed the victory of Catholic social ideas at Lille.
In 1897, following the initiative taken by Cambridge and Oxford, the Catholic University of Lille established a "University Extension" for the organization of lectures by the university professors throughout the manufacturing centres in the vicinity of Lille. In 1898 the university organized higher education for the Catholic girls of Lille. In April, 1907, the Conseil Général du Nord suggested the suppression by the state of the freedom of higher education and insisted upon ordinances preventing physicians coming from the Catholic faculty of Lille from attending paupers in the Département du Nord at the expense of the State. Before the creation of universities by the French Government, the Catholic University of Lille presented the first example of these institutions. As early as 1886, M. Lavisse, a professor at the Sorbonne, spoke in high terms of this impressive group of faculties, saying that in centralized France it was a distinguished honour to the University of Lille to have been incorporated in Flanders. The faculties of higher education which the State controlled at Douai were transferred to Lille in 1888 and raised, six years later, to the rank of a state university. Mgr Baunard resigned the rectorship of the Catholic University in Oct., 1908, and was succeeded by Mgr Margerin, who had distinguished himself in 1888 at Fournies by placing himself between the workmen and the fire of the soldiers. Among the noteworthy works of art possessed by the city of Lille is a wax head, preserved in the museum, purchased in Italy by Wicar during the Revolution; it is ascribed by this connoisseur to Raphael; Alexandre Dumas the younger attributed it to Leonardo da Vinci; Henry Thode claims that it was an antique modelled after the head of a young Roman girl whose remains were found in 1485; M. Franz Wickhoff, on the other hand, is inclined to regard it as the work of one of the pupils of Victor of Cortona (end of the seventeenth century or the beginning of the eighteenth), and is of opinion that it is the head of a virgin and martyr.

Cathedral of St. Etienne
In about 1050, William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders were married. Because they were distant cousins, the pope excommunicated them. In 1059 they managed to ‘atone’ for their sin by each founding an abbey. The late 11th century austere Norman Romanesque Church of Saint-Étienne, at the Abbaye-aux-Hommes [on the east side of Caen], was founded by William. His tomb is located there. The abbey is a beautiful structure done in the Norman Romanesque style, and both were constructed of ‘Caen stone’, a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone. This stone was also a popular building material with the Normans in England.

St. Vitus Cathedral
Saint Vitus Cathedral is a cathedral in Prague, Czech Republic, and the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. The full name of the cathedral is St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert Cathedral.
Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings, this cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture.
Construction began in 1344 according to the designs of Matthias of Arras; after his death in 1352 it was taken over by Peter Parler. He completed only the choir and part of a southern transept. The cathedral was not finished until the 19th century, when the nave and western twin-tower façade were built.

St. Stephen's Cathedral
Visit St. Stephen's Cathedral - Stephansdom, one of Vienna’s most famous sights. St. Stephen's Cathedral defines the city centre and has been the heart of Vienna for centuries. It is one of the most famous Viennese sights and was built in 1147 AD. For a long time it was uncontested as highest building in Europe measuring almost 137 m.
Duke Rudolf IV of Habsburg ordered the complete restructuring of the church in Gothic style. In 1359, he laid the cornerstone of the nave with its two aisles. The South Tower, was completed in 1433 (the Viennese have given it the nickname "Steffl," representative of the whole cathedral).
The cathedral has got two very impressive features: The gigantic roof, and the tall, lean tower (136,7 metres of hight). One can find only few gothic towers of such height that were finished in the Middle Ages. Inside the Cathedral there are many art treasures like the tomb of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1754), the Altarpiece of Wiener Neustadt, the pulpit by Anton Pilgram (1514-15), the sepulcher of Emperor Frederik III by Niclas Gerhaert (1467-1513), the watchman`s lookout, a self portrait of the sculptor, and the Gothic winged altar.
The sound of the 'Pummerin', the cathedrals big bell, is used to celebrate New Year in Austria.
Many myths are being told about Vienna's famous landmark: Find out about this weird indentation of the wall at the left side of the main entrance, which was used to measure the size of a loaf of bread by dissatisfied customers.
Then there's the story of the Servants' Madonna, which once saved an innocent girl from being arrested for stealing.
At the cathedral's apse you can admire the so-called "Zahnwehherrgott" (Lord of tooth ache), an 'ecce homo' statue once situated at the graveyard outside the cathedral.
And what about the incomplete northern steeple? Financial troubles because of the permanent threat of a Turkish siege? The Gothic style had gone out of fashion? Yes, all this is true. But the legend of the young architect who was mortally in love with the daughter of the architect building the southern steeple is much more intriguing...

Lutheran Cathedral at Helsinki
The Lutheran Cathedral was built in 1830-1852 to replace an earlier church from 1727. The church is Greek cruciform in shape, and was designed in the neoclassical style originally by Carl Engel, and altered by his successor Ernst Lohrmann. Lohrmann added four small towers and two side buildings of which one is a belfry, and the other is a chapel. There are statues of the Apostles made of zinc on the roof, and they are the biggest unique set of zinc sculptures in the world. The altarpiece was painted in the 1880s, and the statues of angels on both sides of the altarpiece and the pulpit were designed by Engel. The seating capacity is 1300. The church was called St. Nicholas church until the independence of Finland in 1917. Since 1959, it became a Cathedral, and is called Helsinki Cathedral or the Lutheran Cathedral.

Westminster Abbey
This most famous of all English abbeys is situated within the precincts of the Royal Palace of Westminster, like Holyrood in Scotland and the Escurial in Spain. Its site, on the northern side of the River Thames, a mile or two above the ancient City of London, was formerly known as Thorney or the Isle of Thorns. The date of the foundation of the abbey is quite uncertain. The Venerable Bede (d. 736) does not mention it, but an early and long-received tradition ascribes it to Sebert, King of the East Saxons, who likewise founded St. Paul's, London. The given is 616 and the church is said to have been miraculously consecrated by St. Peter himself. But though this is mere legend, invented probably in the thirteenth century, it is tolerably certain that the monastery existed as early as the eighth century, for it is in a charter of King Ofa, dated 785, that it is first called Westminster, to distinguish it apparently from the minster of St. Paul's to the east. There is also extant a tenth century charter of King Edgar in which the boundaries of the abbey property are defined, and according to William of Malmesbury, St. Dunsan brought twelve Benedictine monks from Glastonbury to Westminster about 960, though the authenticity of this statement has been doubted.
At any rate, whatever the beginnings may have been, it is quite certain that there was an important church standing, and a community of Benedictines in existence at Westminster, when Edward the Confessor began to build in 1055. Of this first Saxon church and monastery no traces remain, and even its plan and site are for the most part conjectural. During his exile in Normandy Edward had vowed to make a pilgrimage to Rome if he should regain his throne. The pope absolved him from this vow on condition that he built or restored an abbey in honour of St. Peter, and this condition Edward fulfilled at Westminster, his friend Edwin being abbot at the time. The earlier buildings were demolished to make way for the new choir and transepts, which were finished and consecrated in 1065, a few days before the king's death. The monastery was planned for seventy monks, but the actual number seems never to have been more than about fifty. The nave of the church was begun in 1110 and completed about 1163 when the Confessor's relics were translated, on his canonization, to a stately shrine in the middle of the choir. Early in the thirteenth century a large eastern lady-chapel was substituted for the small semi-circular one behind Edward's high altar, and this was consecrated in 1220. The growing needs of the community and the constant stream of pilgrims to the tomb of the miracle-working Confessor soon necessitated further changes, and, aided by the munificence of Henry III, a period of great building activity set in. The demolition of the Norman church began in 1245, and during the next thirty years the whole of the eastern part of the church, together with about half the nave, were rebuilt, and the shrine of St. Edward was moved to its present position in the apse behind the high altar. The abbots during this period were Richard Crokesley and Richard Ware. The death, however, of Henry in 1272, a disastrous fire in 1298 which consumed the whole of the monastic buildings, and the "Black Death" in 1349, which carried off Abbot Byrcheston and twenty-six of his monks, so drained the resources of the abbey that all building operations ceased for nearly a century. Under Abbot Litlyngton (1362-86) the conventual parts were rebuilt, after which the western bays of the nave were taken in hand. Progress was slow, however, and the nave was not finally completed until 1517, whilst the western towers were not added until the eighteenth century. In 1502 Henry VII commenced the beautiful eastern lady-chapel which bears his name and was intended by him to enshrine the remains of his uncle Henry VI. Robert Vertue was the architect and his work is far in advance of any other contemporary building. Its wonderful fanvault has never been surpassed either in beauty of design or in the daring skill displayed in its actual construction. In this chapel stands the tomb of its pious founder who died in 1509.
As regards the internal history of Westminster, it must have been much like any other large and important monastery of the same period and apparently full of life and vigour. The "Customary", drawn up by Abbot Ware (1258-84), supplies us with the details of the daily life of the monks, but, apart from this, the close proximity of the abbey to the royal palace, the fact of its being under direct royal patronage, as well as its possessing a noted shrine much visited by pilgrims, combined to bring it prominently into the religious and civil life of the nation. The abbots were important personages with seats in the House of Lords. Their position enabled them to foster learning and the arts. The first printing-press in England was set up within the monastic precincts by Caxton in 1477 under the patronage of Abbot Esteney. Simon Langham (1349-62) deserves mention because of his being the only Abbot of Westminster to become a cardinal. He was successively Bishop of Ely, Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord High Treasurer, and Lord Chancellor, and finally Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina. For many years he devoted large annual sums of money towards the building expenses of his old abbey, and, at his death in 1376, he bequeathed the greater part of his fortune for the same purpose. He was buried at Westminster, in St. Benedict's Chapel, where his tomb may still be seen.
In 1539 the monastery was suppressed and the monks, then less than thirty in number, were dispersed, being replaced by a dean and twelve prebendaries, who acknowledged the royal supremacy. William, Boston, or Benson, the last abbot, became the first dean. In 1540 the abbey was made the cathedral church of a new see, Thomas Thirlby being the first and only Protestant Bishop of Westminster. Ten years later this bishopric was suppressed. In 1556 Queen Mary restored Westminster to the Benedictines and Dr. John Feckenham, who had been professed at Evesham before the dissolution, was made abbot. He was the last mitred abbot to sit in the House of Lords. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth in 1559, the monks were again ejected from Westminster and superseded by a Protestant dean and chapter, which arrangement has continued down to the present day. Westminster Abbey is designated a "Royal peculiar", its officials are appointed by the Crown, and the abbey itself is extra-diocesan, that is, exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London in whose diocese it was situated. This exemption from episcopal jurisdiction was first obtained by Abbot Crokesley (1246-58) and has been perpetuated under the Protestant regime. The right of sanctuary was enjoyed by Westminster from Norman times, and even after the Reformation it lingered on in a modified form until finally abolished by King James I. The greater part of the old monastic buildings are now used as a public school. As was usual in all the larger monasteries, there had always been a school in the monastic cloister, the minute regulations for which may be found carefully detailed in Abbot Ware's "Customary". To replace this, at the Reformation, Henry VIII founded a new school, which was afterwards given collegiate rank by Elizabeth and it now ranks as one of the leading English public schools. The scholars of Westminster still have certain rights and privileges within the abbey itself, such as greeting the sovereign with acclamation, on behalf of the English people, at the moment of his coronation. From its earliest days Westminster has witnessed the coronations of almost all the English sovereigns and their consorts, commencing with Harold, the successor of Edward the Confessor, and William the Conqueror, in 1066. There are two coronation chairs. The first, which stands in St. Edward's Chapel against the back of the high altar screen, contains the stone on which the Scottish kings had formerly been crowned. This stone, according to legend, is supposed to have been the identical one on which Jacob rested his head at Bethel, and to have been taken thence to Egypt and then through Spain to Ireland, about 700 B.C., where it stood upon the sacred Hill of Tara, and it is said to have been removed thence to Scone in Scotland, in 330 B.C., by Fergus, the founder of the Scottish monarchy. But whatever its origin may have been, Edward I in 1297 brought it to Westminster and on it every sovereign of England since Edward II has been crowned, excepting only Edward V. The other chair, the queen's, which now stands in Henry VII's Chapel, was made for Mary, the wife of William III, who was crowned with him in 1689. Besides being the scene of their coronations, Westminster is also the burial-place of many English sovereigns and their consorts, e.g. Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, Richard II, Henry V, and six queens, whose tombs are in St. Edward's Chapel, and Henry VII, Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth, and Mary Tudor, and Margaret, the widow of Henry V, who lie buried in Henry VII's Chapel. Numerous other celebrities, poets, statesmen, warriors, etc., illustrious in English history, have likewise been buried within the abbey, so that it has become a national honour to be given a resting place there, though unfortunately it cannot be said that their tombs do anything but mar the beauty of the building. The pre-Reformation tombs accord with the medieval architecture of the abbey, but those of later date, though many of them good work in themselves, are completely out of harmony with their surroundings.
The extreme length of the abbey, including Henry VII's Chapel, is 511 ft.; the width of the nave and aisles 79 ft.; and the height to the vaulting 102 ft., which is unusually lofty for an English church. Exteriorly, the want of a central tower detracts somewhat from the general effect, and the eighteenth century western towers are poor compared with the rest of the building, but the grace and beauty of the interior, in spite of the incongruous tombs and monuments, are surpassed by few other Gothic churches in the world. Much judicious restoration of the fabric has been successfully carried out in recent years. Apart from the immediate monastic precincts, the abbey domains were very extensive, comprising numerous manors and other endowments, but most of these have now passed into other hands. The revenues of the abbey at the time of the dissolution amounted to £3471 (equivalent to about £35,000 or $154,000 at the present day), but though shorn of so many of its ancient possessions, the Chapter of Westminster is still a very wealthy collegiate body.

Seville Cathedral
Sevilla's Cathedral occupies the site of a great mosque in the late 12th century. Later, Christian architects added the extra dimension of height. Its central nave rises to an awesome 42 metres and even the side chapels seem tall enough to contain an ordinary church. The total area covers 11,520 square metres and new calculations, based on cubic measurements, have now pushed it in front of Saint Paul's in London and Saint Peter's in Rome, as the largest church in the world.
Sheer size and grandeur are, inevitably, the chief characteristics of the Cathedral, but as you grow used to the gloom, two other qualities stand out with equal force - the rhythmic balance and interplay between the parts, and an impressive overall simplicity and restraint in decoration. All successive ages have left monuments of their own wealth and style, but these have been restricted to the two rows of side chapels. In the main body of the cathedral only the great box like structure of the coro stands out, filling the central portion of the nave.
This opens onto the Capilla Mayor, dominated by a vast Gothic retablo comprised of 45 carved scenes from the life of Christ. The lifetime's work of a single craftsman, Pierre Dancart, this is the ultimate masterpiece of the cathedral - the largest and richest altarpiece in the world and one of the finest examples of Gothic woodcarving anywhere. The guides provide staggering statistics on the amount of gold involved.
At the end of the first aisle are a series of rooms designed in the rich Plateresque style in 1530 by Diego de Riano, one of the foremost exponents of this predominantly decorative architecture of the late Spanish Renaissance. Through the ante chamber, you reach the Capitular with its magnificent domed ceiling mirrored in the marble decoration of the floor. There are a number of paintings by Murillo here, the finest of which, a flowing Conception occupies the place of honour.
Alongside this room is the grandiose Sacrista Mayor which houses the treasury. Amid a confused collection of silver reliquaries and monastrances are the keys presented to Fernando by the Moorish and Jewish communities on the surrender of the city, sculpted into the latter in stylised Arabic script are the words 'May Allah render eternal the dominion of Islam in the city.'
The tomb of Christopher Columbus is always of great interest to scholars and tourists alike.
The climb to the top of Giralda is considered well worth the effort for the views alone.
Patio de los Naranjos
Located just outside the Cathedral, the Patio de los Naranjos dates back to Moorish times when worshippers would wash their hands and feet in the fountain here - under the orange trees - before their daily prayers.

Florence Cathedral
The Cathedral or Duomo of Florence as we see it today is the end result of years of work that covered over six centuries of history. Its basic architectural project was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio at the end of the 13th century; the cupola that has made it a symbol for the whole of Tuscany was created by that genius of the Renaissance, Filippo Brunelleschi, while the facade that completed it was carried out as late as the late 19th century. A whole series of structural and decorative interventions to both the exterior and the interior that were to enrich the history of the monument were carried out during this space of time: these range from the construction of the two sacristies to the 16th century marble flooring, and from the execution of the sculptures to the frescoes, signed by Paolo Uccello, Andrea del Castagno, Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccari (the Last Judgement in the cupola). The third and last Florentine cathedral (the cathedral is always the church that is the seat of the bishopric), it was given the name of Santa Maria del Fiore (Holy Mary of the Flower) in 1412 in clear allusion to the lily symbol of the city. It was built on top of the second cathedral, which early Christian Florence had dedicated to Santa Reparata and which remained in activity for nine centuries, until orders were given to demolish it in 1375: considerable remains of this construction, which was slightly more than half the size of the present basilica and completed by two belltowers, can be seen today in the archeological area underneath the Cathedral.
Statue by Arnolfo di Cambio
In 1293, the Florentine Republic, at the suggestion of the notary Ser Mino de Cantoribus, decided to replace Santa Reparata with a larger and more magnificent cathedral, and was also prepared to finance its construction: "so that the industry and power of man are unable to invent or ever attempt again anything that is larger or more beautiful". The population was expected to partecipate in the costs: all last wills and testaments bore a tax which was then put towards the "Building" of the Cathedral. The project was assigned to Arnolfo di Cambio in 1294, and he ceremoniously laid the first stone on September 8th 1296. The brilliant head architect of the City Council was already revolutionizing the Franciscan basilica of Santa Croce and in 1298 also started work on the construction of Palazzo Vecchio. Arnolfo worked on the Cathedral from 1296 to 1302, the year of his death, and although the dominating style of the period was Gothic, he conceived a basilica of classical grandeur, with three wide naves that meet in the vast chancel where the high altar stands, surrounded in its turn by the "trefoil" shaped tribune (a schematic representation of the petals of a flower?) on which the cupola rests. The planned diameter for this dome was 45,50 metres, just like that of the Baptistery. Thus Arnolfo spent the last few years of his life completing two bays and the new facade, which he only had time to decorate and complete by half: the sculptures (some by Arnolfo himself) were dismantled and transferred to the Museum of the Opera del Duomo when Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici decided to construct the new facade in 1586.
S. Reparata inside the Arnolfo's Cathedral
On the death of the architect, the work on the building ground to a halt. New impulse was however given to its construction when the body of St. Zanobius was discovered in 1330 in Santa Reparata. Giotto was nominated overseer for the building site in 1334 but, apart from the fact that he did not have much longer to live (he died in 1337), he concentrated most of his remaining energy on building his Belltower. Giotto was succeeded by Andrea Pisano (author of the South Doors of the Baptistery), until 1348, the year of the terrible plague that decimated the population, reducing it from 90.000 to 45.000.
Arnolfo's plan with Talenti's enlargements
In fact the fresco of 1342 in the Museum of the Bigallo shows us the building at this particular stage. Under Francesco Talenti, overseer from 1349-59, the Belltower was completed and a new project prepared for the Duomo, with the collaboration (1360-69) of Giovanni di Lapo Ghini: the centre nave was divided into four square bays (thus including fewer windows than in Arnolfo's design), with two rectangular lateral bays. The construction was already well advanced by about 1370 and so was the new project for the apse, surrounded by tribunes that amplified Arnolfo's "trefoil". Santa Reparata was pulled down in 1375: a sign that Santa Maria del Fiore was now ready to be the new cathedral of Florence.
The Door of the Mandorla
Work on the external marble revestment meanwhile continued as well as on the decorations around the side entrances, the Door of the Canonici (south side) and the Door of the Mandorla (north side), topped with a relief of the Assumption (1414-1421), the last work of Nanni di Banco (Donatello and Jacopo della Quercia also worked on this door). The problem of the cupola was still unresolved. Brunelleschi designed his first project in 1402 but kept it secret. In 1418 the Opera del Duomo announced the competition that Brunelleschi was to win though work did not start on it until two years later and was to continue until 1434. The cathedral of Florence was consacrated by Pope Eugene IV on March 25th (the Florentine New Year) 1436, 140 years after work on it first started.
The apse of the Cathedral
The final touches that still awaited completion were the lantern (mounted in 1461) and the external revestment in white Carrara, green Prato and red Siena marble, which, according to the directions of Arnolfo, was to repeat the facings of the Baptistery and the Belltower and give uniformity to the style of the square, and, last of all, the facade. However it was necessary to wait until 1886 before this was carried out. The Basilica has witnessed a great many important moments in the history of the city. Among them we should remember the opening of the Council of Florence (March 2nd 1439), which led to the temporary union of the Orthodox Church and Catholic Churches, and the tragic Easter morning of April 26th 1478, when Giuliano de' Medici was murdered in the "Pazzi Plot" and his brother Lorenzo the Magnifico only just managed to avoid the weapons of his assassins by taking refuge in the Sacristy of the Messe.

Cathedral of Saint Basil
The famous St. Basil's Cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. Legend has it that on completion of the church the Tsar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again. (He did in fact go on to build another cathedral in Vladimir despite his ocular impediment!) The cathedral was built to commemorate Ivan the Terrible's successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in 1552 in the besieged city of Kazan. Victory came on the feast day of the Intercession of the Virgin, so the Tsar chose to name his new church the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat, after the moat that ran beside the Kremlin. The church was given the nickname "St. Basil's" after the "holy fool" Basil the Blessed (1468-1552), who was hugely popular at that time with the Muscovites masses and even with Ivan the Terrible himself. St. Basil's was built on the site of the earlier Trinity Cathedral, which at one point gave its name to the neighboring square.
St. Basil's is a delightful array of swirling colors and redbrick towers. Its design comprises nine individual chapels, each topped with a unique onion dome and each commemorating a victorious assault on the city of Kazan. In 1588 the ninth chapel was erected to house the tomb of the church's namesake, Basil the Blessed. The church's design is based on deep religious symbolism and was meant to be an architectural representation of the New Jerusalem - the Heavenly Kingdom described in the Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine. The eight onion dome-topped towers are positioned around a central, ninth spire, forming an eight-point star. The number eight carries great religious significance; it denotes the day of Christ's Resurrection (the eighth day by the ancient Jewish calendar) and the promised Heavenly Kingdom - the kingdom of the eighth century, which will begin after the second coming of Christ. The eight-point star itself symbolizes the Christian Church as a guiding light to mankind, showing us the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem and it represents the Virgin Mary, depicted in Orthodox iconography with a veil decorated with three eight-pointed stars. The cathedral's star-like plan carries yet more meaning - the star consisting of two superimposed squares, which represent the stability of faith, the four corners of the earth, the four Evangelists and the four equal-sided walls of the Heavenly City.
The extravagant and brightly colored domes of the cathedral's exterior mask a much more modestly decorated and somewhat less spectacular interior. Small dimly lit chapels and maze-like corridors fill the inside of the church and the walls are covered with delicate floral designs in subdued pastel colors dating from the 17th century. Visitors can climb up a narrow, wooden spiral staircase, set in one of the walls and discovered only in the 1970s during restoration work, and marvel at the Chapel of the Intercession's priceless iconostasis, dating back to the 16th century. There was so little room inside the church to accommodate worshippers, that on special feast days services were held outside on Red Square where the clergy communicated their sermons to the milling masses from Lobnoye Mesto, using St. Basil's as an outdoor altar.
The church has narrowly escaped destruction a number of times during the city's tumultuous history. Legend has it that Napoleon was so impressed with St. Basil's that he wanted to take it back to Paris with him, but lacking to the technology to do so, ordered instead that it be destroyed with the French retreat from the city. The French set up kegs of gunpowder and lit their fuses, but a sudden, miraculous shower helped to extinguish the fuses and prevent the explosion.
Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevik regime. In 1918 the communist authorities shot the church's senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down. In the 1930s Lazar Kaganovich, a close colleague of Stalin and director of the Red Square reconstruction plan, suggested that St. Basil's be knocked down to create space and ease the movement of public parades and vehicle movement on the square. Thankfully Stalin rejected his proposal as he did a second plan to destroy the cathedral. This time the courage of the architect and devotee of Russian culture, P. Baranovsky, saved the church. When ordered to prepare the cathedral for destruction he refused and threatened to cut his own throat on the steps of the church, then sent a bluntly worded telegram to the leader of the party himself relating the above. For some reason Stalin cancelled the decision to knock the church down and for his efforts Baranovsky was rewarded with five years in jail.
An extensive program of renovation is still being carries out on both the exterior and interior of the church, but will not spoil that essential visit to St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow's moat famous and arguably most beautiful ecclesiastical building.
In the small garden outside St. Basil's stands an impressive bronze Statue to Minin and Pozharsky, who rallied Russia's volunteer army during the Time of Troubles and drove out the invading Polish forces. They were an interesting duo - Dmitry Pozharsky was a prince, while Kuzma Minin was a butcher from Nizhny Novgorod. The statue was designed by the artist I. Martos and erected in 1818 as the city's first monumental sculpture. It originally stood in the center of Red Square in front of what is now the GUM Department Store, with Minin symbolically indicating to Pozharsky that the Poles were occupying the Kremlin and calling for its liberation. The Soviet authorities felt that the statue had become an obstacle during parades and after the construction of the Lenin Mausoleum Red Square, its position was considered rather ambiguous and was eventually moved to the garden in front of St. Basil's in 1936.
Address: 4 Krasnaya Ploshad, Kremlin, Moscow
Metro: Kitai Gorod
Open: Wednesday - Monday 11am - 5.30pm, closed Tuesday

Notre Dame at Paris
In thinking of Gothic architecture, our thoughts always ascend. For that which embodies Gothic style most is lofty; Rose windows of stained glass, ornately crafted spires, and the guardians of grand cathedrals, the Gargoyles. Each is distinctly Gothic, and all distinctly Notre Dame de Paris.
Many diversified characteristics will help identify a structure as Gothic: ogee archways, ribbed vaults, and the wondrous flying buttresses are a few. Yet, it is always the craft placed high above, which captures our eyes and imaginations most effectively. Since all works of religious art rise beyond mere artistic expression, bearing potent symbolic reference, we must accept that our attention was intended to be focused upwards. Within the span of the passing centuries, the cathedrals of the Middle Ages themselves rise up above other cultural achievements. At the center of these towering legacies resides Notre Dame de Paris, 'Our Lady.'
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Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris, from the south west.
Image created during the late nineteenth century.
It does not belittle other cathedrals to refer to Notre Dame de Paris as the 'World Ambassador of Gothic Cathedrals.' History's winding ways have already decreed as much. For many, their first concept of Gothic derives from some reference to this grand structure. It matters not whether we have physically visited Notre Dame, its persona dominates the Gothic landscape. Victor Hugo's famous novel featuring the moving characterization of the hunchback, Quasimodo, has served the notoriety of the cathedral well. Yet, factual history has claimed this aged lady as a prominent figure near the center stage of its own story.
Notre Dame de Paris, more than seven hundred years old, is only the most recent of holy houses to occupy this ancient sacred ground. The Celts held their services on this island in the seine, and atop their sacred groves the Romans built their own temple to Jupiter. In the early years of Christianity, a basilica dedicated to St. Etienne was constructed around 528 by Childebert. A church in the Romanesque manner replaced the basilica, and this stood until 1163 when work began on the structure which stands today.
Aerial view of Notre Dame from a south west direction.
The cruciform design is clear from this angle.
Constructed in three stages, the cathedral was completed in 1250. This period witnessed Paris coming into its own force as a center of political power and commerce. No expense was spared in creating a church that would reflect the capital's newly won prestige. These were the 'development' years of early Gothic architecture, it was essential that Paris should contain an impressive cathedral featuring innovations to surpass such smaller towns as Sens and Noyon. An advantage which Paris possessed over other sites, was that the construction efforts were supported and encouraged by the the king, Louis VII.
King Louis VII must be considered among the handful of influential figures during the rise of the Gothic style in France. It is certain that without the influence of the King's support, Abbot Suger would never have realized his vision of reconstructing Saint-Denis. At the Abby of Saint-Denis, the sparks of inspiration were kindled which would ignite the fires of the cathedral building age. Some twenty years later, the king lent this same support to the construction of the new cathedral of Paris. Louis supported the work with generous and gracious contributions. Clearly he had motivations for strengthening France's eminence as the stronghold of Christendom, but his piety must be considered authentic in the perspective of history.
The early twelfth century was a time of great activity and excitement within Europe. The Church was in a state of great transformation due to the reforms of Pope Gregory VII. The monasteries as the primary avenue of distribution for the new order, directed by Bernard of Clairvaux, were centers of learning and creativity. The First Crusade was underway and the holy city of Jerusalem had been taken from the very heart of Islam. Within the swirl of these influences arose the new abbey of Saint-Denis. Visiting bishops took home with them inspirations for new cathedrals of their own. In the following decades these visions arose as a wondrous reality across France.
Witnessing the early development of Saint-Denis was a subdeacon of Paris, Maurice de Sully. In 1159 he became archdeacon, with building ambitions of his own, and scantly one year later was elected Bishop. Almost immediately, Maurice went to work organizing resources for the commencement of the cathedral's construction. Funds were raised, crews were gathered and the site was cleared of surrounding buildings. In just three years from his consecration, the cornerstone was laid and full production began.
Throughout northern France, at this time, churches and cathedrals were rising up in several towns. It was not hard to secure skilled crews from professional guilds for the site in Paris. Organized teams of workers would migrate from town to town according to the stage of construction which required their expertise.
As for the raw material for the building itself, this too was readily available from local sources. The region surrounding Paris was rich in a variety of quality stone. The majority of material used in Notre Dame was taken from nearby quarries. Still, transporting stone was costly, even over a short distance. To economize weight, much of the cutting and rough preparation of the blocks was accomplished at the quarry sites. Final dressing of the stone elements was executed within the masons' lodge, adjourning the cathedral.
We do not know the name of the first master mason of Notre Dame de Paris. (The term: Architect, did not come into use until centuries later.) From the quality and consistency of the work during this early period, we can accept that the bishop had found someone quite capable of overseeing the realization of his intention. To his own credit, Maurice proved to be a competent overseer of the works. The books remained balanced through the production, maintaining a steady and methodical level of growth. The choir, apse and chancel were completed first so that there would be a place for services though the later stages of construction.
The subsequent phases of the works were to realize the grand scale of the bishop's original vision. The aims of Paris would push many of the limits of the new style beyond anything yet attempted. The breadth of the vaults and their height would surpass all previous achievements. An important innovation at Paris was the combination of triangular ribs with subtle transverse arches. The result of this technique was to open wide the interior of the cathedral without the visual interruption of supporting elements. This achievement is impressive to view even by contemporary perspectives.
By the time of Maurice's death in 1196, the nave had been completed and the cathedral was well on the way of rising to its full, intended glory. Within the following fifty years the remaining elements would be finished without major interruption. What extended the date of the completed cathedral was the intervention of Maurice's successor Bishop Eudes de Sully. (The similarity of the name indicates that the two bishops were born in the same town, there was no relation between them.)