Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Top 10 Amazing Churches Of the World!

How these top 10 amazing churches been built? Well, mankind was always fascinated and inspired to build religious places/churches like never before just to fascinate others and show the divinity. These amazing churches are carved magnificently to show how glorious home of God can be. Although, there are thousand of churches built and there must be few churches which are still undiscovered but here is my pick of top 10 amazing churches of world.

1. Hallgrímskirkja: Built in 17th century, Hallgrímskirkja is the tallest building in Iceland. The church’s unusual design is supposed to represent volcanic columns rising between the steeple tower.

2. St. Peter’s Basilica: St. Peter’s Basilica is the largest religious building in the world and is the center of the Christianity. This massive church covers an area of 5.7 acres (2.3 ha) and has a capacity of over 60,000 people. It is said that Michelangelo designed the dome, Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed the main square, and Donato Bramante was the first architect of the church. No wonder th architecture of St. Peter’s Basilica is to amaze every eye.

3. St. Basil’s Cathedral: St. Basil’s Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox church which sports a series of colorful bulbous domes that taper to a point, aptly named onion domes, that are part of Moscow’s Kremlin skyline. It is said the Ivan blinded the architect who built the church so he would not be able to design something as beautiful afterward.

4. Las Lajas Cathedral: Las Lajas Cathedral was built in 1916 on the same site where teh virgin Mary appeared. Sorrounded by mountains Las Lajas Cathedral holds a natural beauty and worthy of a fairy tale.

5. Hagia Sophia: Hagia Sophia began its life as an early Christian church, then rebuilt as the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Constantinople, then a mosque when the city fell to the Turks in 1453 before it finally became a museum. Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest surviving examples of Byzantine architecture, with a large central dome and interior intricately decorated with mosaics, marbles, and stone inlays. The dome, often referred to as the vault of heaven, was a new architectural feature at the time, necessitating the invention of a new pillar support system.

6. Sagrada Familia: La Sagrada Familia, or Catalan for “The Holy Family”, is a yet-to-be-finished Roman Catholic basilica in Barcelona, Spain. The church’s design is rich with Christian symbolism, with facades featuring intricate details describing the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Perhaps the most awe inspiring is the eighteen towers representing the 12 Apostles, 4 Evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and a central tower – the tallest of them all – representing Christ.

7. Notre Dame: Notre Dame de Paris or simply Notre Dame is one of the first European cathedrals to be built on a truly monumental scale. It took more than 200 years to complete. Notre Dame main features are its Rose Windows (largest windows in the world) circular stained glass windows that depict scenes from the bible. At the end of the 18th century, during the French Revolution, the church was ransacked, its treasures plundered and many of the statues of saints were beheaded.

8. Jubilee Church: Built in 1996 Jubilee Church in Tor Tre Teste, Rome is a modern curved architecture. The curved walls not only serve the engineering purpose of minimizing thermal peak loads in the interior space, they are also a religious metaphor.

9. The Crystal Cathedral: The Crystal Cathedral is entirely made up by glass with a web-like framework of steel, its not made up of crystal. Nevertheless, the Christian mega church in the city of Orange Garden Grove, California, is one amazing church. The Crystal Cathedral also has one of the largest pipe organs in the world, called the Hazel Wright Pipe Organ, with 5 consoles controlling 270 ranks, 31 digital ranks, and more than 16,000 pipes!

Notre Dame du Haut: If there was a church modeled after Elvis’ hair, Le Corbusier’s Notre Dame du Haut is it. The pilgrimate chapel is located in Ronchamp, France. Indeed, it is more famous than the little town that most people simply call the structure itself Ronchamp. The cleverness of unusual design of the billowing concrete roof is apparent when it rains: water pours off the slanted roof onto a fountain, creating a dramatic waterfall.


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