Church Architecture

[princessgianna]

[quote name='Apotheoun' post='1860849' date='May 7 2009, 01:32 PM']I have been there once (i.e., in the new Oakland cathedral), and I must say that it is very plain on the inside, and from the outside -- as you approach the building -- it looks like a nuclear power plant.

I went with some friends who were visiting from Arizona a couple of weeks ago to a hierarchical liturgy at the Russian Orthodox cathedral of the Holy Virgin in San Francisco, and it was a wonderful experience.

[img]http://www.orthodoxhawaii.org/images/IveronIcon/DSC02151.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.geocities.com/apotheoun/russian_orthodox.jpg[/img]

[img]http://russianorthodox.org/graphix/church.jpg[/img][/quote]
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh pretty! Now there is a church!
~~~
[quote name='eagle_eye222001' post='1860321' date='May 6 2009, 10:54 PM']PUT SOMETHING IN THE CHURCH.

My local parish is bare bone boring.

The ceiling is plain tiles. The walls are bare of everything except the stations of the cross but they aren't enough. The doors are just plain clear boring glass. There's like 2 statues......better than nothing but come on.

I hate boring plain churches.

----------------
Now playing: [url="http://www.foxytunes.com/artist/creed/track/never+die"]Creed - Never Die[/url]
via [url="http://www.foxytunes.com/signatunes/"]FoxyTunes[/url][/quote]
AGREED!
And when we can't take anymore-we go to the Shrine of St. Joseph!
very beautiful church!
[img]http://www.edytaszyszlo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/collage021.jpg[/img]

[Archaeology cat]

Here's the Benedictine parish where I attend daily Mass: [img]http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa143/archaeology_cat/2741985090_6ea41475b2.jpg[/img]

And here's our normal parish (sorry about the quality of the pics): [img]http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa143/archaeology_cat/IMG_0025-1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa143/archaeology_cat/IMG_0027.jpg[/img]

I'd post pics of [url="http://www.liverpoolmetrocathedral.org.uk/"]our cathedral,[/url] but I know what comments Paddy's Wigwam generates.

[AdAltareDei]

1. ArchaeologyCat. Both those church's are great, especially your parish.

2. That Oakland Cathedral looks horrible.

3. I'm so tempted to become Orthodox. -_-

My parish is horrible. There's one statue. It's of Our Lady, but it's sculped entirely from plain wood. Had no facial features or clothes. It's really just a hunched over figure of a woman with a vase at her feet.The tabernalce is moved to the side and the altar is surrounded by pews. Worst of all they have a projector hanging to the side of the altar which they use to flash the words of the Mass or hymns onto.

It's very distracting.

Luckily I'm only a 25 minute train ride away from the Cathedral !

[url="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2268/2418569034_b24a8e4b4a.jpg?v=0"]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2268/241856...a8e4b4a.jpg?v=0[/url]

Beautiful.

Edited May 9, 2009 by AdAltareDei

[AdAltareDei]

There are so many spelling errors in my last post.
But I'm to tired to be bothered correcting them, so late.

goodnight all!

[Norseman82]

What I'm partial to:

[img]http://www.windows.org/Gallery/qp1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.windows.org/Gallery/qp2.jpg[/img]

When I first saw the tapesty at the left, I immediately dubbed it "Our Lady of the Klingon Homeworld", because when you look at it in person it appears that there is the Klingon symbol on it:

[img]http://www.windows.org/Gallery/qp3.jpg[/img]

Close up of one of the windows:

[img]http://www.windows.org/Gallery/qp4.jpg[/img]

[Archaeology cat]

[quote name='AdAltareDei' post='1862608' date='May 9 2009, 03:54 PM']1. ArchaeologyCat. Both those church's are great, especially your parish.

2. That Oakland Cathedral looks horrible.

3. I'm so tempted to become Orthodox. -_-

My parish is horrible. There's one statue. It's of Our Lady, but it's sculped entirely from plain wood. Had no facial features or clothes. It's really just a hunched over figure of a woman with a vase at her feet.The tabernalce is moved to the side and the altar is surrounded by pews. Worst of all they have a projector hanging to the side of the altar which they use to flash the words of the Mass or hymns onto.

It's very distracting.

Luckily I'm only a 25 minute train ride away from the Cathedral !

[url="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2268/2418569034_b24a8e4b4a.jpg?v=0"]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2268/241856...a8e4b4a.jpg?v=0[/url]

Beautiful.[/quote]
The cathedral is gorgeous!

[princessgianna]

[img]http://www.institute-christ-king.org/uploads/main/news/sfds_interior.jpg[/img]

Here is a pic of another we live by! St. Francis de Sales. They do the Tridentine Mass! I haven't been to Mass but took a tour! From what I hear from my mother -it's beyond amazing!

Edited May 9, 2009 by princessgianna

[Resurrexi]

I've been to St. Francis de Sales before when I was in St. Louis! It's so amazing!

Your Cathedral-Basilica is amazing as well!

[AdAltareDei]

[quote name='Archaeology cat' post='1862860' date='May 9 2009, 02:51 PM']The cathedral is gorgeous![/quote]

Yep! Liturgically and doctrinally, most of the Archdiocese (that I've seen atleast) is pretty horrible.
But the Cathedral has good priests who are always in clerical attire, great preachers and celebrate Mass reverently.

Behind the sanctuary theres also 12 chapels going around in a semi-circle. It's beautiful. The last one has adoration of the blessed sacrament. So I often like to go on a little circuit stopping at each chapel, saying a prayer and then ending with a Holy Hour.

[TotusTuusMaria]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1860775' date='May 7 2009, 12:42 PM']I think its terrifying.[/quote]

[TotusTuusMaria]

The Rococo style is very beautiful.

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Ottobeuren-basilika.jpg[/img]

[mamalove]

Could you imagine how massively expensive it would be to build a church like that these days? How much of that needs to be hand-crafted. Last time I checked, there aren't to many folks out there skilled in craftmanship like that anymore, which is a shame. What parish could afford to build something like that? It's not like new parishes have a ton of start-up money to do build something similar to some of these amazing churches that have been posted on this thread. I'm on the finance council at our almost 11 year old parish and even with our land being donated along with several large gifts, there is no way we could have built something even close to some of these.

Edited May 10, 2009 by mamalove

[TotusTuusMaria]

The Catholic Encyclopedia doesn't have much favor for the Rococo style.

[quote][u]For the church Rococo may be, generally speaking, compared with worldly church music. It lacks of simplicity, earnestness, and repose is evident, while its obtrusive artificiality, unnaturalness, and triviality have a distracting effect.[/u] [b][u]Its softness and prettiness likewise do not become the house of God.[/u][/b] However, shorn of its most grievous outgrowths, it may have been less distracting during its proper epoch, since it then harmonized with the spirit of the age. A development of Baroque, it will be found a congruous decoration for baroque churches. In general it makes a vast difference whether the style is used with moderation in the finer and more ingenious form of the French masters, or is carried to extremes with the consistency of the German. The French artists seem ever to have regarded the beauty of the whole composition as the chief object, while the German laid most stress on the bold vigour of the lines; thus, the lack of symmetry was never so exaggerated in the works of the former. In thechurch Rococo may at times have the charm of prettiness and may please by its ingenious technic, provided the objects be small and subordinate acredence table with cruets and plate, a vase, a choir desk, lamps, key and lock, railings or balustrade, do not too boldly challenge the eye, and fulfil (sic) all the requirements of mere beauty of form. [b][u]Rococo is indeed really empty, solely a pleasing play of the fancy.[/u][/b][/quote]

*sigh*

I find it beautiful though...

It would be expensive, but it would be worth it.

[url="http://www.kingrichards.com/"]http://www.kingrichards.com/[/url]
[url="http://www.usagranda.com/"]http://www.usagranda.com/[/url]
[url="http://www.beyerstudio.com/index.html"]http://www.beyerstudio.com/index.html[/url]
[url="http://www.stjudeliturgicalarts.com/index.cfm"]http://www.stjudeliturgicalarts.com/index.cfm[/url]
[url="http://mazzoliniartcraft.com/churches/"]http://mazzoliniartcraft.com/churches/[/url]

It is possible. The [url="http://www.desertnuns.com/Dreams%20to%20Reality%20/medieval_dreams.htm"]desert nuns[/url] are building a beautiful monastery. It is certainly not Rococo, but it is absolutely beautiful and God provides the funds for it. Mother Angelica did it as well. To build a beautiful church that takes your breath away, for the glory of God, is possible. For some reason all the people in charge though seem to want to build these million dollar stadium churches which lack beauty... They spend just as much money on these churches (if not more) then these sisters are spending on their monastery.

Years and years ago people would sacrifice themselves to build these houses for God that would "lift people up to heaven." Artists knew starting it that they would probably never see the completed work. I remember at the Vatican the tour guide told us that there are three artists now that work for the Vatican that specialize in the type of tile/painting artwork that covers the walls of St. Peter's. That is because it usually takes the entire life span of an artist to finish one work of that type. *sigh*

If peasants in the 1300s can build Notre Dame I just don't understand why we, of the 21st century, cannot seem to build a beautiful church.

Edited May 10, 2009 by TotusTuusMaria

[Brother Adam]

[quote name='mamalove' post='1863295' date='May 10 2009, 12:45 AM']Could you imagine how massively expensive it would be to build a church like that these days? How much of that needs to be hand-crafted. Last time I checked, there aren't to many folks out there skilled in craftmanship like that anymore, which is a shame. What parish could afford to build something like that? It's not like new parishes have a ton of start-up money to do build something similar to some of these amazing churches that have been posted on this thread. I'm on the finance council at our almost 11 year old parish and even with our land being donated along with several large gifts, there is no way we could have built something even close to some of these.[/quote]

I know many parishes like that were built by a majority of parishioners taking out second mortgages to pay for it. My grandparents did. That was back when they were building parishes that people could be proud of, typical parishes had more families than most do today, fewer people to pay as the staff was religious, and people knew how to handle money and had less personal debt. And yes, there are far fewer artisans who can do that kind of work. It is possible though to have parishes that are very beautiful and becoming of what a Catholic parish should be on a budget. I think Holy Family in Steubenville is an example of this.

[Archaeology cat]

[quote name='AdAltareDei' post='1863092' date='May 10 2009, 01:09 AM']Yep! Liturgically and doctrinally, most of the Archdiocese (that I've seen atleast) is pretty horrible.
But the Cathedral has good priests who are always in clerical attire, great preachers and celebrate Mass reverently.

Behind the sanctuary theres also 12 chapels going around in a semi-circle. It's beautiful. The last one has adoration of the blessed sacrament. So I often like to go on a little circuit stopping at each chapel, saying a prayer and then ending with a Holy Hour.[/quote]
Our Cathedral has a lot of chapels around the perimeter, too (our Cathedral is circular). But it's also the one place I can attend a Latin Novus Ordo (no TLM in our diocese), so I go there on occasion. But if all the parishes did a Latin NO, I think that would be quite nice. I would definitely like it if the TLM were available, since I've never been to it.