I visited London right after I read Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, and we ended up in a cathedral off Fleet Street (I was quite disappointed that my mental image from the books was a 20m wide open sewer and in fact the buildings today might only be 5m apart close to the Thames) which was designed by Christopher Wren after the London Fire.
I don't recall the name, I'm sure someone here who knows London can work it out from my description, but you could go up into the dome and I remarked to myself that the fall to the marble floor from the highest opening in the dome could easily kill a man.
I've probably repeated this story here half a dozen times now, but in the background information posted at the church it said that he had so many people wanting to commission him for building their church yesterday that he built them without bell towers with an agreement that once everyone was back in business, he'd come back around and build the towers on. Seeing how complex those domes were, I'm not quite clear why adding a tower later was a substantial savings in time and effort but that's the story.
Yeah St Paul's is how I discovered I still have a bit of acrophobia, and also that I need more exercise. I didn't have quite as much fun up there as was advertised.
> The Baroque Cycle is a series of novels by American writer Neal Stephenson. It was published in three volumes containing eight books in 2003 and 2004.
The cathedral was lovely, but also with my ex wife, so some of the details of that trip are fuzzy by choice (others the ravages of age).
Heh, "a" cathedral, St. Paul's! He didn't do many with a dome, St. Stephen's Walbrook the only one I can think of apart from St. Paul's. Most of his City churches are less grand, but no less interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christopher_Wren_churc...
Such sound architecture. Even when unfinished and without a roof, it's still beautiful and people want to be around it somehow, with plastic chairs and bonfires.
Isn't the "Crusade of the Infants of Aragon" commonly known as the "Catalan Crusade" though? The Aragonese Crusade would refer to the events related to the War of the Sicilian Vespers.
I'm no history experts though, so would be happy to be corrected, this is just my understanding of things.
I don't think Sagrada Familia has been "left unfinished". It is still unfinished, yes, but construction continues, it hasn't stopped as far as I could tell last time I was in Barcelona.
Are many buildings ever really finished? I don't think people go to the Sagrada Familia because it is under construction. In fact I think more visitors would prefer more access with less equipment around. 150 years isn't really that long for a cathedral, this good article starts with the fact that the Bristol Cathedral took nearly 700 years to finish!
It was born as a neo-gothic church but when Gaudì took over as the construction supervisor, he changed its style to liberty, giving birth to what is now known as Catalan modernism.
My fiancée, acting as my native guide, informed me that Manresa was once in competition to be the seat of a bishopric, and this grand church had been constructed as part of that bid, perhaps in the 9th century or so. It is sort of like how nations build Olympic stadiums in hopes of attracting that sort of honor.
Nevertheless, Santa Maria is a gorgeous sight, with flying buttresses and marvelous stonework. My impression from the visit is more of a tourist attraction and museum. We did not attend Mass at this location, if indeed it is held there.
We did, however, attend Mass at the Sagrada Família. In fact, I attended Mass at two distinct Sagrada Família churches: there is one (slightly less grand scale) in Manresa too. Unfinished and unconsecrated as it had been in 2008, Mass was not yet celebrated at the main altar, so our liturgy was a rather intimate experience in the Catalan vernacular in a side-chapel. (Unfortunately, we did not have time to tour the whole thing. I should've liked to see the crypt, the breathtaking main interior, and ascend one of the towers.)
We were also on a budget. When we arrived at the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia (there are a lot of cathedrals, basilicas and churches in my stories of Catalonia) we were confronted with an admission charge. The Catholic faithful and guests are not charged to attend the sacred liturgy, but tourists are charged to be lookie-loos in the off-hours, and since we ignored the schedule of Masses, we were lookie-loo tourists, and the very thought of needing to spend money offended my fiancée, who considers herself a faithful Catholic woman. I consoled her with a gift shop visit.
While the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia is definitely a "finished work", you can see nearby an ancient Roman wall, which is of the type that were probably always under construction or subject to improvement by the occupying forces in Hispania.
