Post your favorite religious arts here!

[regnauld]

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[rodsky]

My personal favorite religious/spiritual work of art... Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights triptych (painted ca. 1503).



-RODION

[xiao-xiao]

that's great architecture right there.
richard meyer. Jubilee church

wow...a christian church? what sect sir?

That's a Catholic church in Rome

[xiao-xiao]

Notre Dame in Montreal

[regnauld]

[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/client/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-7.jpg[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/client/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-8.jpg[/IMG]Hallgrímskirkja


Hallgrímskirkja (Image Credit: Andreas Tille [wiki])
Hallgrímskirkja [wiki] (Icelandic for the Church of Hallgrímur), the tallest building in Iceland, is named after Hallgrímur Pétursson, a 17th century poet and clergyman.
The church’s unusual design (some had likened it to a rude hand gesture) is supposed to represent volcanic columns rising between the steeple tower - a reference to Iceland’s many volcanoes.
The iconic building looks like it belongs in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Indeed, many aspects of Tolkien’s work was inspired by Norse mythologies and many of the fictional names in the book are Norse in origin, although there is no reference that Hallgrímskirkja served as a model any of the towers in the book.

[regnauld]

This is magnificent!

Las Lajas Cathedral (Image Credit: Jungle_Boy [Flickr])

Las Lajas Cathedral, side view from the bottom (Image Credit: julkastro [Flickr])

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Las Lajas, or the Las Lajas Cathedral [wiki] in Colombia, was built in 1916 on a site where, according to local legend, the Virgin Mary appeared. The story goes like this: an Indian woman named 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 a gothic church worthy of a fairy tale.

[regnauld]

Hagia Sophia


Sounds like the house of Theosophy!

Hagia Sophia (Image Credit: Sloppy Stephen [Flickr])

Simply a gorgeous night photo of Hagia Sophia (Image Credit: Qaoz [Flickr])

Technically, Hagia Sophia [wiki] (Greek for the Church of the Holy Wisdom of God) is no longer a church, it is now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. It 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 as we know it today was completed by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 537. When completed, the temple was so large and richly decorated that Justinian proclaimed "Solomon, I have surpassed thee!". It remained the largest church for one thousand years after it was completed.
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.
Today, the restoration of Hagia Sophia is a delicate balance of restoring Christian iconographic mosaics under historic Islamic art, which would have to be destroyed to reveal the work underneath.

[regnauld]

The Crystal Cathedral


The "Hour of Power" Church

Crystal Cathedral (Image Credit: richmanwisco [Flickr])

Interior of the Crystal Cathedral, notice the giant organ (Image Credit: Wikipedia)

Another view of the interior (Image Credit: Savannah Grandfather [Flickr])

The Crystal Cathedral [official site | wiki] is neither made of crystal nor is it a cathedral. Nevertheless, the Christian megachurch in the city of Orange Garden Grove, California, is one amazing church.
Built by "The Hour of Power" televangelist Rev. Dr. Robert H. Schuller (who started out with a "drive-in" church located in an actual, old drive-in movie theater!) and his wife Arvella, and designed by architect Philip Johnson, the church is made almost entirely out glass with a web-like framework of steel.
From the outside, the Crystal Cathedral is shaped like a giant four-pointed crystal star, with the main "cathedral" rising 12 stories above the ground, featuring a mirror-like exterior composed of some 12,000 panes of glass. The view is even more amazing from the interior, where the transparent glass lets in the surrounding view, sunlight and the sky.
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!

[regnauld]

Tiger’s Nest Monastery

Tiger’s Nest Monastery, perched precariously on the edge of a 3,000-feet-high cliff in Paro Valley, is one of the holiest places in Bhutan. Legend has it that Guru Rinpoche [wiki], the second Buddha, flew onto the cliff on the back of a tigress, and then meditated in a cave which now exists within the monastery walls.
The monastery, formally called Taktshang Goemba, was built in 1692 and reconstructed in 1998 after a fire. Now, the monastery is restricted to practicing Buddhists on religious retreats and is off-limits to ordinary tourists.

Image: Leo Palmer Photography

Image: Douglas J. McLaughlin [wikipedia]

[nirdle_phogi]

This is magnificent!

Las Lajas Cathedral (Image Credit: Jungle_Boy [Flickr])

Las Lajas Cathedral, side view from the bottom (Image Credit: julkastro [Flickr])

stunning.. .. reminds me of hogwarts..