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Harajuku: Japanese
Futuristic Church |
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This
futuristic
protestant
church is
located in Tokyo
and
it was first unveiled
by the design firm
of
Ciel Rouge Creation
in
2005.
The ceiling is specially
made to reverberate
natural sound for
two
seconds to provide
a
unique listening
experience for
worshipers and tourists. |
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Saint Basil's Cathedral:
The Red Square's
Colorful Church
The St.
Basil's Cathedral is located on the Red Square in Moscow, Russia. A
Russian Orthodox church, the Cathedral sports a series of colorful bulbous
domes that taper to a point, aptly named onion domes, that are part of
Moscow’s Kremlin skyline.
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The cathedral was commissioned
by Ivan the Terrible to commemorate the capture of the Khanate of Kazan.
In 1588 Tsar Fedor Ivanovich had a chapel added on the eastern side above
the grave of Basil Fool for Christ, a Russian Orthodox saint after whom
the cathedral was popularly named.
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Hallgrímskirkja:
Iceland's Most
Amazing Church
The Hallgrímskirkja
(literally, the church of Hallgrímur) is a Lutheran parish church
located in Reykjavík, Iceland. At 74.5 metres (244 ft), it is the
fourth tallest architectural structure in Iceland. The church is named
after the |
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Icelandic poet and clergyman
Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614 to 1674), author of the Passion
Hymns. State Architect Guðjón Samúelsson's design of
the church was commissioned in 1937; it took 38 years to build it.
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Temppeliaukio Kirkko:
The Rock Church |
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| The Temppeliaukio
Kirkko (Rock Church) is a thrilling work of modern architecture in
Helsinki. Completed in 1952, it is built entirely underground and has a
ceiling made of copper wire. It was designed by architect brothers Timo
and Tuomo Suomalainen and completed in 1969. They chose a rocky outcrop
rising about 40 feet above street level, and blasted out the walls from |
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the inside. It is one
of the most popular tourist attractions in Helsinki and frequently full
of visitors.
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Cathedral of Brasília:
The Modern Church
of architect Oscar Niemeyer |
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| The Catedral
Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida in the capital of Brazil is an
expression of the architect Oscar Niemeyer. This concrete-framed hyperboloid
structure, seems with its glass roof to be reaching up, open, to heaven.
On 31 May 1970, the Cathedral’s structure was finished, and only the 70
m diameter of the circular area were |
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visible. Niemeyer's project
of Cathedral of Brasília is based in the hyperboloid of revolution
which sections are asymmetric. The hyperboloid structure itself is a result
of 16 identical assembled concrete columns. These columns, having hyperbolic
section and weighing 90 t, represent two hands moving upwards to heaven.
The Cathedral was dedicated on May 31, 1970.
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Borgund Church:
Best Preserved Stave Church
The Borgund
Stave Church in Lærdal is the best preserved of Norway’s 28 extant
stave churches. This wooden church, probably built in the end of the 12th
century, has not changed structure or had a major reconstruction since
the date it was built. The church is also featured |
as a Wonder for the Viking
civilization in the video game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.
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Las Lajas Cathedral:
A Gothic Church Worthy
of a Fairy Tale
The Las
Lajas Cathedral is located in southern Colombia and built in 1916 inside
the canyon of the Guaitara River. According to the legend, this was the
place where an indian woman named |
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María Mueses de
Quiñones was carrying her deaf-mute daughter Rosa on her back near
Las Lajas ("The Rocks"). Weary of the climb, the María sat down
on a rock when Rosa spoke (for the first time) about an apparition in a
cave.
Later on, a mysterious
painting of the Virgin Mary carrying a baby was discovered on the wall
of the cave. Supposedly, studies of the painting showed no proof of paint
or pigments on the rock - instead, when a core sample was taken, it was
found that the colors were impregnated in the rock itself to a depth of
several feet. Whether true or not, the legend spurred the building of this
amazing church.
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St. Joseph Church:
Known for its Thirteen Gold Domed Roof
The St.
Joseph The Betrothed is an Ukrainian Greek-
Catholic Church in
Chicago. Built in 1956, it is most known for its ultra-modern thirteen
gold domed roof symbolizing the twelve apostles and Jesus Christ as the
largest center dome. The interior of the church is completely adorned with
byzantine style icons (frescoes). Unfortunately the iconographer was deported
back to his |
homeland before he was
able to write the names of all the saints as prescribed by iconographic
traditions.
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Ružica Church:
Where Chandeliers are made of Bullet Shells
Located over the Kalemegdan
Fortress in Belgrade, Serbia, the Ružica
Church is a small chapel decorated |
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with... with trench art!
Its chandeliers are entirely made of spent bullet casing, swords, and cannon
parts.
The space the church
now occupies was used by the Turks as gunpowder storage for over 100 years
and it had to be largely rebuilt in 1920 after WWI. Though damaged by bombings
there was an upshot to the terrible carnage of The Great War. While fighting
alongside England and the US, Serbian soldiers on the Thessaloniki front
took the time to put together these amazing chandeliers. It is one of the
world's finest examples of trench art.
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Chapel of St-Gildas:
Built into the base of a bare rocky cliff
The Chapel
of St-Gildas sits upon the bank of the Canal du Blavet in Brittany,
France. Built like a stone barn into the base of a bare rocky cliff, this
was once a holy place of the Druids. Gildas appears to have travelled widely
throughout the Celtic world of Corwall, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. He
arrived in Brittany in |
about AD 540 and is said
to have preached Christianity to the people from a rough pulpit, now contained
within the chapel. |
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