A Photographic Tour of 19th Century Colonial Hong Kong

Notre-Dame interior faces woke 'Disney' wreckovation

Paris' fire-ravaged Notre-Dame cathedral risks resembling a "politically correct Disneyland" under controversial plans for its renovation seen by the Daily Telegraph.

Critics have warned that the world-famous cathedral will be turned into an "experimental showroom" under plans to dramatically change the inside of the medieval building.

Under the proposed changes, confessional boxes, altars and classical sculptures will be replaced with modern art murals, and new sound and light effects to create “emotional spaces”.

There will be themed chapels on a "discovery trail", with an emphasis on Africa and Asia, while quotes from the Bible will be projected onto chapel walls in various languages, including Mandarin.

The final chapel on the trail will have a strong environmental emphasis.

“It’s as if Disney were entering Notre-Dame," said Maurice Culot, a prize-winning Paris-based architect, urbanist, theorist and critic who has seen the plans.

"What they are proposing to do to Notre-Dame would never be done to Westminster Abbey or Saint Peter’s in Rome. It’s a kind of theme park and very childish and trivial given the grandeur of the place,” he told The Telegraph.

A senior source close to the renovation said the plans risked turning the global beacon of Christianity into an “experimental showroom” that would “mutilate” the work of Viollet-le-Duc, the celebrated architect who restored the cathedral following the ravishes of the French Revolution in an effort to recapture the spirit of Medieval Christianity.

“Can you imagine the administration of the Holy See allowing something like this in the Sistine Chapel?,” said the senior source with access to the latest plans. “It would be unimaginable. We are not in an empty space here.”

“This is political correctness gone mad,” said the senior source. “They want to turn Notre-Dame into an experimental liturgical showroom that exists nowhere else whereas it should be a landmark where the slightest change must be handled with great care."

Read the rest here.

This is pretty neat

Pour yourself a drink

The New York Times has an article listing the 25 most significant works of post war architecture. 

"Taste is relative, is the excuse adopted by those eras that have bad taste." -Nicolás Gómez Dávila

FOR SALE

A beautiful church temple with an interesting history.

Details.

America's Lost Classical Architecture

Two pieces worth a read

The Special Bishop of Caesar:

While criticism of the close relationship between the Russian Church and state is (with good justification!) common, less attention is paid to the fact that the Patriarchate of Constantinople exists and claims primacy solely due to its relationship with now-extinct civil authorities. But it is only this history that can explain much of Constantinople’s modern-day behavior. There is, to put it bluntly, an emperor-shaped (or, more accurately, a sultan-shaped) hole in Constantinople’s heart that forces Ecumenical Patriarchs to court the support of the most unexpected worldly powers, from Harry Truman in Athenagoras’ day to Petro Poroshenko today. Writing in 1911, the English Roman Catholic scholar Adrian Fortescue sketched the pathos of Constantinople’s role as ‘the special bishop of Caesar’ with equal erudition and acerbity:

Read the rest here.

Roger Scruton: The Fury of the Modernists

It's not what you think it's about. But it's good, as is almost everything I have read by Sir Roger.

Read it here.

St. Nicholas at Ground Zero

A short video showing the plans for the reconstructed St.Nicholas that was flattened on 9-11. They seem to have taken their inspiration from the new Roman Catholic cathedral in LA. Too big. Too modern. Way too sterile. This was a place where simplicity with traditional Orthodox iconography and interior design would have been far better. Color me unimpressed.

HT: Fr.Z

A Tour of China's Ghost Cities

Very eerie. The photographs look like scenes from a post apocalyptic world.

HT: Pointedstick

Urban Exploration: America's Crumbling Buildings in Photos

A fascinating look at some of our older buildings as they decay and crumble.

HT: Bill TGF

For Sale

Sometimes I think the internet is one giant garage sale. But the prices can be a little steep. A random look at things for sale found two of possible interest to reactionaries like me...

One 1929 Cadillac Fleetwood Transformable Limousine, possibly the last of its design. Asking price $250,000. Oh yeah it was also the official limo and parade car for President Herbert Hoover.
See here for the listing and more photos. Home Jeeves!

One 12th century Bavarian castle complete with moat. It's been renovated to make it quite liveable while retaining much of its medieval and military ambiance. Asking price $7.4 million. See here for details and more photos.

Priest with an A-level in woodwork builds his own jewel of a church... out of a garden SHED

Perhaps Father Stephen Weston took inspiration from the fact that Jesus was the son of a carpenter when he built Britain's smallest church in his back garden.

Father Weston, 63, constructed St Fursey's Orthodox Church in Norfolk with just an A-level in woodwork, earned 14 years ago, to his name.

The byzantine arches of the wooden shed, which is 18ft by 13ft wide, has become a local landmark in the middle of Father Weston's housing estate.

St Fursey's is so small the holy processions carried out during each service only take worshippers ten steps along and two steps across.

There is no room to sit and after services the congregation step through a door into the priest's living room for a cup of coffee.

But the Antiochian Orthodox church - very similar to the Greek Orthodox but English speaking - is an official place of worship after it was blessed by a bishop.

Read the rest here.

Catholic Church interested in Crystal Cathedral

GARDEN GROVE – The Roman Catholic Diocese is exploring the idea of buying the Crystal Cathedral, which has been struggling financially for the last four years and is in bankruptcy.

The Diocese of Orange released a statement Wednesday morning saying that Bishop Tod D. Brown has authorized The Busch Law Firm and other diocese advisers to "explore the possibilities" regarding Garden Grove's glass cathedral.

Read the rest here.

Doctrinal differences aside the Romans used to know how to build churches.  I mean really beautiful ones.  What happened?  The last time I was in an RC parish it had all the aesthetic charm of a Greyhound bus station.