Tag Archives: Cathedrals

InSPIREd Sunday

I’m re-posting these photos from my visit to Grace Cathedral in San Francisco in December of 2008. I’m anticipating another visit to San Francisco at the end of January for a cancer symposium. Dear is the one who will be at the cancer symposium and I will be a tourist in San Francisco again.

 

Grace Cathedral is descended from the historic Grace Church, built in the Gold Rush year of 1849, and the imposing structure on the corner of California and Stockton streets that was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. San Francisco’s Crocker family gave their Nob Hill porperty, destroyed by the fire, for the building of a new cathedral.

 

Work began on this structure in 1928. Designed in the French Gothic style by Lewis Hobart, it was completed in 1964.

 

 

Famed for its Ghiberti doors, labyrinths, stained glass, the cathedral has become an internationally-known place of pilgrimage.

 

The Doors of Paradise are considered by many to be the first and greatest masterpiece of Italian Renaissance. The magnum opus of Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), the doors were made for the Baptistery of Florence Cathedral (the Duomo) and told the story of the Old and New Testaments. Grace Cathedral’s doors were made from the same molds – which were later destroyed – used for the originals.

 

 

 

I was also impressed with several of the other doors into the cathedral and wanted to show you them, too.

 

 

 

One of my special treats the day I visited the Cathedral was a small orchestra practicing for a Christmas concert. It was just so beautiful to walk around the inside of the cathedral being serenaded with beautiful music that inspired me to praise God for all the wonder available to us…

 

So much wonder this time of year. I’m taking time to adore my savior.

Friday night we are going to have a small Raclette party at our house. Maybe I’ll take photos to share later. A dear friend of ours was the Realtor we used to buy this old house. She has not been back since 1998 to see the improvements we’ve made. I don’t know how that happened but finally she and her hubby are coming for dinner and we’ll give her a tour of the improved version of this old house. Since we will be busy with preparations for our time together I’m posting this early because I won’t be on the computer until who knows when. Hope you all are enjoying the wonders of the Christmas season!

I’ll be linking up with Beth and Sally for InSPIREd Sunday! I’ll probably be missing in action next week.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

InSPIREd Sunday ~ Washington National Cathedral

This cathedral, officially the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, had its beginning in 1893. The foundation stone was laid in 1907 in the presence of President Theodore Roosevelt, and the Cathedral was completed in 1990 – 83 years later – when the “final finial” was placed in the presence of President George H.W. Bush.

Built of Indiana limestone, the Cathedral is the sixth largest in the world. Its design is unique and not copied from any earlier building. The building is shaped like a cross, with a long nave – a tenth of a mile- and two shorter transepts.

The Cathedral’s architectural style is Gothic, characterized by great height and the use of pointed arches, boss stones, ribbed vaulting,  large windows, and flying buttresses.

When visiting these wonderful historical sites there’s always something you miss or at least I miss. I tend to learn more about the site when I finally get ready to post about it on my blog. Although I did notice these Gargoyles, I totally missed the fact that Darth Vader was one of the Gargoyles on the Cathedral! Here’s an explanation.

In the 1980s, while the west towers were under construction, Washington National Cathedral held a decorative sculpture competition for children. Word of the competition was spread nationwide through National Geographic World Magazine. The third-place winner was Christopher Rader, with his drawing of that fearful villain, Darth Vader. The fierce head was sculpted by Jay Hall Carpenter, carved by Patrick J. Plunkett, and placed high upon the northwest tower of the Cathedral.

You would need binoculars to see it so I don’t feel too bad about totally missing it!

I guess I’ll have to visit this marvelous cathedral again. I have posts on the interior of the cathedral and the Bishop’s Garden here, here, and here.

Thank you to Beth and Sally for hosting InSPIREd Sunday.

Gates ~ Hereford Cathedral

For Good Fences which also includes Gates here are some beauties from the inside and outside of Hereford Cathedral in Hereford, England. In the next few posts I’ll show more architectural wonder from this amazing structure.

hereford 014Dear and I visited the town of Hereford on a Sunday in July and we really enjoyed our visit to the Cathedral.

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hereford 077These gates were the entrance to the beautiful cloisters courtyard.

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hereford 082hereford 081We made the mistake of visiting this cathedral on Sunday instead of a weekday or Saturday when the Chained Library is open and the Mappa Mundi exhibition is open for viewing. Arrgh! I was very disappointed. The other thing that we missed was a good meal at the Cathedral Cloister Cafe. We did enjoy the amazing history and architecture and beauty throughout the cathedral!

 Thank you to TexWisGirl from Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting this weekly meme.

Within the Duomo

With a cathedral as old and magnificent as this one the history connected is too much to share in a blog post. One of the interesting side notes we heard is that the sanctuary was designed to be able to hold 40,000 parishioners at one time. It is the largest Gothic cathedral and the second largest Catholic cathedral in the world.

The inside of Milan’s Cathedral is expansive but rather dark. There are five large naves divided by 52 pillars – one for each week of the year – that support the cross vaulted ceiling.

We arrived too late to the Duomo to investigate the Crypt and Treasury.

How are your plans for Easter shaping up? Although I’m feeling better I’m still not at a productive state.  I’ll be taking it easy for a few more days.