The best church you've ever been in

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A tangent from the other church thread today. This isn't a religious question (the only thing I really believe in kicks off at 3pm on a Saturday).

The cathedral in Santiago de Compostella, Spain and the Mayan / Christian hotch potch of faiths at Chichicastenango in Guatemala are two great examples. Also the church at Okeford Fitzpayne in Dorset with views of Blackmore Vale.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Monday, 16 February 2004 16:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I went to loads of fabulous churches one holiday in Poitou charantes. I used the michelin green guide (always very good for mentioning small out of the way churches, and they have good regional architecture guides at the front) and took my parents to loads of small, out of the way, but magnificent churches - tiny, but the detail was magnificent in the carving, wall painting etc.

― Vicky (Vicky), Monday, 16 February 2004 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

The Church of Rucking.

An underground "Church" in Newcastle which holds dog fighting and illegal bare knuckle rumbles. Payment for life membership is a tooth (which you thump out your gob on the way in). If yer hard enough come by.

― Nutty Nigel (Nutty Nigel), Monday, 16 February 2004 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

My first thread with a Nutty Nigel post. Get in!

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Monday, 16 February 2004 16:52 (twenty-two years ago)

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:oArBi0AgK1wJ:www.shunya.net/Pictures/Spain/Barcelona/Sagrada-familia.jpg

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Monday, 16 February 2004 16:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I meant to say that in the title. Post Pictures! Especially cute ones of Barcelona.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Monday, 16 February 2004 16:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I must admit that I did go in the sagrada familia (with G in fact) and that was great, didn't much feel like a church though. The small church in Birchover in the Peak district is k-creepy.

― chris (chris), Monday, 16 February 2004 16:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Westminster Cathedral

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 16 February 2004 17:05 (twenty-two years ago)

http://members.pennyrile.net/mmonsour/Italy/venice/st_marks_church.jpg

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 16 February 2004 17:06 (twenty-two years ago)

cathedral of Saint John the Divine, I think, mainly cause of the Childrens' Fountain outside and V&T Pizza!!! (home of the Really Big Pizza; puts la porchetta to shame i.e. their SMALL is bigger than those tiddly tings)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 16 February 2004 17:19 (twenty-two years ago)

all the ones in central Rome. can't remember the names of them, but we saw about 8 churches in one day, and each one was more beautiful than the one before.

― jellybean (jellybean), Monday, 16 February 2004 17:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Probably upstairs Paris's Saint-Chapelle on a sunny day.

http://www.mike-reed.com/images/Travel%20Journal/France/005%20-%20Saint%20Chapelle%20-%20Paris,%20France%20-%20upper%20chapel.jpg

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 16 February 2004 18:00 (twenty-two years ago)

N. OTM. Fantastic. Saw a string ensemble play there - it was otherworldly.

― Chris Hill (Chris Hill), Monday, 16 February 2004 18:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Technically monasteries, not churches, but still amazing. Meteora, Greece.

http://www.meteora.50megs.com/Meteor3.jpg

― Chris Hill (Chris Hill), Monday, 16 February 2004 18:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I really like the chapel at Colgate. Cathedrals and the like are gorgeous but it'd be hard for me to concentrate on services in one.

― Maria (Maria), Monday, 16 February 2004 18:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Sacre Coeur, Paris for the sheer peace of the place. It doesn't win for stained glass, it wins for atmosphere.

― Orbit (Orbit), Monday, 16 February 2004 18:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I quite like Winchester and Canterbury cathedrals. I remember visiting the shell of a church in Yorkshire somewhere, I always like ruins, I must find out what it was called.

― jel -- lennium -- (jel), Monday, 16 February 2004 19:03 (twenty-two years ago)

La Sagradia Familia doesn't feel like a church to me at all, but it's one of my favourite buildings in the world.

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 16 February 2004 19:05 (twenty-two years ago)

fountains abbey Jel? or Whitby Cathedral?

― chris (chris), Monday, 16 February 2004 22:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I completely forgot about Vezelay, Burgundy. Gorgeous Romanesque church, on the pilgrims' path to compostella, where the second crusade was preached by St bernard, and where the french and english troups, including Richard the lionheart, congregated and set off on the 3rd crusade. It's a huge church, on the top of a hill http://www.ihpva.org/chapters/france/rando/auxerre-vezelay/images/vezelay.jpg

with fantastic carvings, and wonderful two-tone stone used to very good effect.

http://ancre.chez.tiscali.fr/st-j-de-c/vezelay.jpeg

http://www.mikebikes.org/97trip/vezelay.JPG

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/bernard.lecomte/lormes/environs/images/vezelay.gif

http://gaia.ecs.csus.edu/~reardonf/France03/canal/VezelayBasilicaInteriorw.jpg

― Vicky (Vicky), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 12:14 (twenty-two years ago)

oops, http://www.ihpva.org/chapters/france/rando/auxerre-vezelay/images/vezelay.jpg

― Vicky (Vicky), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 12:15 (twenty-two years ago)

The Sagrada Familia is a stunning cathedral, but for a more churchy feel it's got to be...
http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/~deb/personal/barcelona/cathedral01.jpg

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 12:19 (twenty-two years ago)

God is a goth

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 12:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Burgos cathedral is fantastically blackened and gothicky, unless they've cleaned it and made it look plasticky in the last few years. I simply adore the perpendicular style, so Bath Abbey rocks pretty hard.

Oh, and Durham cathedral is a good un.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 12:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Burgos Cathedral is getingothictastic. Isn't El Cid buried there in a fabulously orante tomb?

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 12:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Canterbury Cathedral but that's because I graduated in there and the place has a load of good memories for me.

Favourite from an architectual point of view - probably the Basilica di San Marco in Venice.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 12:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Chartres as well.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 12:48 (twenty-two years ago)

The two Milan cathedrals (the Catholic One and the San Siro).

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 12:51 (twenty-two years ago)

St Benet's - it's a Wren just by St Pauls', further toward the river. I went there for a concert and fell in love, but it never seems to be open at any other time.

The Cathedral in Cologne is incredible, all filigree and industrial-smoke-blackened and looming.

― cis (cis), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 13:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Haghia Sophia in Istanbul. Visiting it was an art history class daydream come true.

St. Peter's was pretty great too. A little on the gaudy side.

― Lee G (Lee G), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I really want to go to hagia sophia, as well as going to Sicily to see all the norman/byzantine/moorish architecture.

― Vicky (Vicky), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

This one's going to be a little on the "gaudi side" when it's finished.

http://www.semyan.com/Post08/Images/Dscn4251.jpg

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I actually walked up all the steps to get (near) to the top. When I got back down to the bottom again I noticed that the huge columns in front rest on two enormous sea turtles!

My other favorite detail is that in amongst the sculptures/friezes down one side that narrate Jesus's life, there's an oboe-playing angel.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

God's own architect, although God obviously sub-contracts control of Barcelona's trams

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I climbed to the top too. (well as far as you can get) It was pretty scary!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

tiny little wooden church in rural VT. in the middle of the woods. a giant stained glass window behynd the altar. we snuck in late late one night, opened the tabernacle and then the sun rose and we almost freaked out at the rays of golden sunshine that had 'appeared' shining on the chalice and bible.

― kephm, Tuesday, 17 February 2004 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh yeah, and the Duomo in Florence. The inside is no great shakes--in fact, it's probably the most boring interior in any "great" church I've ever been in--but the climb up through the interior of the dome to the top and the view once you arrive combined for a peak experience. Also, once you get up inside the cupola, you get a really good close look at the crazy garish painting in the dome. Yowsah.

― Lee G (Lee G), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

dude kephm that sounds spooky!!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 15:17 (twenty-two years ago)

There are so many great churches in Rome, I don't know where to start. St. Peter's of course, but many of the smaller churches are wonderful too, like Santa Maria in Trastevere (mr teeny proposed by the fountain in front) and San Clemente, which is a church on top of an old church on top of an ancient shrine to Mithra.

Nobody has mentioned any North American churches yet! I humbly submit San Xavier Del Bac, the "White Dove Of The Desert," which is on the reservation my dad used to work on:

http://www.arizonahandbook.com/images/xavier.jpg

maybe it looks a little humble next to all these huge swooping gothicky cathedrals in Europe, but it is quite beautiful. And remember in the middle of the desert it is hard enough to find building materials for a one-story house, let alone for a large structure (and then there's the matter of making a foundation in the rock-hard caliche) so it rises above its surroundings far more than an urban church:

http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/online.bks/mission/title.jpg

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

oh sorry I guess kephm mentioned an american church, right.

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Santa Maria in Trastevere: that's the one across the river isn't it? that one is beautiful just in contrast to all the other churches with lots and lots of gold everywhere. I really need to dig my guidebook out for the names of all those churches

― jellybean (jellybean), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 15:55 (twenty-two years ago)

this is Santa Maria in Trastevere:

http://members.chello.at/baerenhoehle/308%20Santa%20Maria%20in%20Trastevere.jpg

I think it's the oldest Marian church in Rome. There are some great mosaics on the outside but mostly on the inside.

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

mosaic from santa maria:
http://www.pohlig.de/rom/bilder/mosaik.jpg

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 16:05 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.tinascorp.de/pic/rom/stamariaintrastevere3_gr.jpg

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 16:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Santo Spirito, Florence. I'm glad they didn't cover this one in marble in the 19th century - you'd hardly notice the shape if they did, and it's the shape I love. Looks fantastic against a burning blue sky.
http://home.uchicago.edu/~hejacobs/spirito.jpg

― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow, that's amazing.

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

*cries with jealousy at seeing the art Teeny saw, wah*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

aww, there there!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 16:17 (twenty-two years ago)

here is a picture I took my very own self of st peter's at sunset:

http://rome.starstarstar.net/days/14/ADSC01503.JPG

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 16:19 (twenty-two years ago)

See, that's actually handy because that is part of the setting and time of the novel I'm revising.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 16:29 (twenty-two years ago)

That is a gorgeous picture, teeny.

― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Saint Bertrand de Comminges
http://architecture.relig.free.fr/images/comminges/ext_ensemble.jpg

― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 16:41 (twenty-two years ago)

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