reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches
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While being beside the seaside this year, Praxiteles had time to read J. B. Bullen’s Byzantium Rediscovered, a most ingrossing account of the history of the neo-Byzantine movement in 19th/20th century Eurpope and America. Published by Phaidon in 2006, it is an absolute must for anyone interested in discovering the range of ideas and influences behind the construction of churches such as Bentley’s Westminster Cathedral, the Sacré Coeur in Paris, Ste Marie Majeure and Notre Dame de la Garde in Marseilles, and even our own University Chapel in Dublin and St. Francis’ in Cork.
And this is where Bullen ubicates the origin of the neo-Byzantine tradition:
In Ludwig I’s Allerheiligen Hofkirche (1823-1837) in the Munich Residenz built to designs by Leon von Klenze.
Ste Marie Majeure, Marseilles, built by the famous Archbishop de Mazenod to plans by Henry (Henri-Jacques) Espérandieu and Léon Vaudoyer.
Here it is, and we have not seen it before. The recessed arch facade as in Hagios Lukas, is most interesting:
Some historical pictures here:
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/inventai/itiinv/cathedrale/docimage/marseille/cat_marseille2.html
Marseilles, Notre Dame de la Garde,
Something on the great neo-Byzantine Bishop of Marseille:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Charles_Eugene_de_Mazenod
The Sacré Coeur, Montmartre, Paris built by a resurgent ultramontaine Church to designs by Paul Abadie. It was begun in 1875 and completed in 1914 in face of vicious opposition.
The Natuional Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Koekelberg, Brusselles, Belgium, built to a design by Albert Van Huffel between 1905 and 1971.
Leopoldskirche by Otto Wagner at Steinhof bei Wien.
This is the central chapel of a hospital. Can you just imagine Matta Harney or the HSE building something like this?
It is noticeable here that the free standing modern altar has been taken away and the celebrant has reverted to the High Altar.
It is rather daft, however, to have the choir crammed into the sanctuary and the celrgy outside of it during Mass.
The final shot shows a section of the ceiling.
Wile not exactly a church, the throne room of Ludwig II of Bavaria’s Schloss Neuschwanstein in the Hohenschwangau bei Fuessen is nonelesstheless a sacral space and emphasises the sacral exercise of temporal power – someting taken over directly from the Byzantine Emperors.
The picture shows the throne room as seen from the throne. The back wall is dominated by St. Michael the Archangel, declared Guardian of Bavaria by Duke Wilhelm V in 1579 (the same Whilhelm the Pious who built the Michaelerkirche in Munich, who took his birth on the 29 September, feast of St. Michael, the Archangel, as portent of his reign.
The floor mosaic illustrates the whole of creation over which Ludwig II was called to rule in the name, indeed as prosopon, of Christ. These mosaics are not dissimilar in subject to those in the Honan Chapel in Cork
Yesterday’s Sunday Independent, p.7 (News) ran an article on the proposed development in the Honan Chapel in Cork. Did anyone happen to see it and would anyone have a scan? Thanks.
THe Honan Chapel, UCC, Cork
I notice this morning that An Taisce has lodged an objection to Richard Hurley’s proposal to bung a glass door into the facade of the Honan Chapel. Things are beginning to hot up…..!!
The Chapel of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Trinity at Aquinas College, California
Here is a rather interesting exercise in church building by Duncan Stroik:
http://www.stroik.com/portfolio/holytrinity.php
Praxiteles understands that Duncan Stroik will be in Ireland to deliver a lecture on ecclesiastical architecture in the coming months. That should avail anyone interested in more than cow-sheds an opportunity to talk to someone who has the experience of building this type of church.
@Praxiteles wrote:
The Chapel of Our Lady of the Most Blessed Trinity at Aquinas College, California
Here is a rather interesting exercise in church building by Duncan Stroik:
http://www.stroik.com/portfolio/holytrinity.php
Praxiteles understands that Duncan Stroik will be in Ireland to deliver a lecture on ecclesiastical architecture in the coming months. That should avail anyone interested in more than cow-sheds an opportunity to talk to someone who has the experience of building this type of church.
Duncan Stroik recently built a magnificent shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Diocese of LaCrosse, Wisconsin. The shrine was commissioned by Archbishop Raymond Burke when he was the bishop of LaCrosse. Since then, Archbishop Burke has served as the ordinary of the archdiocese of St Louis, Missouri, USA. Pope Benedict XVI has just appointed him head of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome.
Duncan Stroik is a key member of the School of Architecture at Notre Dame, Indiana. His churches are built to render glory to God and to elevate the minds and hearts of the faithful to ‘things above.’ Striking beauty, impeccable taste, graciousness, and joy are hallmarks of the Stroik studio. Time for the tired crowd of dowdy hippies, yippies, and yahoos to take a leaf from the Stroik tome! Give some relief to the exhausted faithful who have to pay for the IBM-computer-waiting-room chapels and the sterile dogboxes that pass for churches as the architects snicker all the way to the bank.
To return to neo-Byzantine church architecture, and to England, the chief example is of course Westminster Cathedral by Francis Bentley.
Westminster Cathedral
On the mosaics:
http://www.thejoyofshards.co.uk/london/wmcath/index.shtml#anchor121858
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