Church Architecture

The Cathedral of Saint Mary Major
1147 Architecture

The Cathedral of Saint Mary Major ( Santa Maria Maior de Lisboa or Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Mary Major), often called Lisbon Cathedral or simply the Sé (Sé de Lisboa), is a Roman Catholic cathedral located in Lisbon, Portugal. The oldest church in the city, initially built as a mosque, it is the seat of the Patriarchate of Lisbon. Built in 1147, the cathedral has survived many earthquakes and has been modified, renovated and restored several times.

The cathedral is in the shape of a Latin cross with three aisles, a transept and a main chapel surrounded by an ambulatory. The church is connected with a cloister on the eastern side. The main façade of the cathedral looks like a fortress, with two towers flanking the entrance and crenellations over the walls. This menacing appearance, also seen in other Portuguese cathedrals of the time, is a relic from the Reconquista period, when the cathedral may have been used as a base to attack the enemy during a siege.

The Cathedral of Saint Sava
Architect: Bogdan Nestorović, Aleksandar Deroko
1935 - 2004 Architecture

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A Serbian Orthodox church, the Temple of Saint Sava is located on the Vracar plateau in Belgrade. One of the largest Orthodox churches in the world, it stands in the middle of the city, with its large dome and four apses.

The church is dedicated to Saint Sava, the founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church and an important figure in medieval Serbia. It is built on the presumed location of St. Sava's grave. His coffin had been moved from Mileševa Monastery to Belgrade. The coffin was placed on a pyre and burnt in 1595 by Ottoman Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha.

The church can accommodate 7,000 people

The Cathedral of St John the Divine
Architect: Christopher Grant LaFarge, George Lewis Heins
1892 -still incomplete Architecture

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The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is sometimes referred to as St. John's and also nicknamed St. John the Unfinished. It is believed to be the world’s largest Anglican cathedral-church. It is at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. St. John the Divine was built by the Episcopalians, in part to compete with the Catholics’ St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The cathedral is an unfinished building of stone, granite, and limestone, with only two-thirds of the proposed building completed, due to several major stylistic changes, work interruptions, and unstable ground on the site.

Despite being incomplete, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the world's sixth-largest church by area and either the largest or second-largest Anglican cathedral. The floor area of St. John's is 121,000 sq ft, spanning a length of 601 feet, while the roof height of the nave is 177 feet. Since the cathedral's interior is so large, it has been used for hundreds of events and art exhibitions.

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When we think of Christian architecture, we may picture towering cathedrals with intricate stained-glass windows, but the roots of this style are much more humble. The earliest Christian structures were not grand, but rather simple house churches. As Christianity grew, its places of worship grew in size and intricacy.

The transition from early Christian to medieval architecture paralelled societal and religious changes. The Romanesque style, characterized by its rounded arches and massive walls, was followed by the Gothic style with its pointed archs, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses.

Christian architecture has created some of the world’s most iconic structures. These buildings all share a common thread: they are physical manifestations of the Christian faith.

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