I wonder if this building was built before Vatican II. I don’t know the name of the church or where. But the old high altar (which now has an odd free-standing altar in front of it but not centered) makes the place look oddly attractive, don’t you think? There’s an odd complementarity, no?
23 comments:
I think it’s in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado.
Church of St. Ludwig, Saarlouis, Ger,amy. Gottfried Bohm, architect.
It speaks to me of strength and power, beauty, and the ineffable nature of God and His relationship with us.
"The Church of St. Ludwig is a partial reconstruction due to the destruction caused by the bombings during the second world war. In this case, a large part of the central nave, as well as the altar and the transept had been destroyed, while the main facade and the bell tower had been saved.
Böhm's intervention follows the line of projects such as the churches of Neviges or Cologne, where he uses concrete as the only material, and develops a formal expressiveness in the roofs that, together with the gloom of the interior spaces, helps to establish a connection with the atmosphere of gothic churches.
The interior is full of small details that add to the reasons to be worth a visit; from the entrance, compressed passing under the organ, to expand the space in the central nave; even the perforated weave of the concrete, to improve acoustics; or lighting, solved with “outdoor” street lamps that provide an atmosphere of public space inside the church."
Many more pics here: http://hicarquitectura.com/2014/10/aeb-33-gottfried-bo%CC%88hm-st-ludwig-church-saarlouis/
Bishop Sheen meets George Orwell.
Cubist take on gothic.
Lipstick on a pig as for traditional elements.
Years back, a girl had a great blog and she did a hugely successful competition/quiz for folk to guess from various photos.
IS IT A CHURCH OR IS IT A PRISON.
Anonymous at 10:06 AM,
LOL
This may be an entirely wrong take, but I notice a lot of these ugly designs in Europe, post World War II, and I wonder to what extent it comes about because of the horrible things that happened in Europe during the 20th century? I'm not defending the architecture; but I don't know what that is like, being born and growing up in the shadow of such darkness. Maybe European -- or specifically German -- Catholics wouldn't like me psychoanalyzing them, sorry! But my gut reaction is that there's a kind of self-punishment going on: "we foisted on the world unspeakable ugliness, so we now deserve only ugly churches."
Anon 824...
"It speaks to me of strength and power, beauty, and the ineffable nature of God and His relationship with us."
And what a beatific vision THAT will be.
I agree with Fr Fox. The Germans and many Europeans are carrying too much forward. I think that is the genesis of Vatican II.
Pierre, what was so great about the IS IT A CHURCH OR IS IT A PRISON competition was that not even the winner was able to guess them all correctly.
It was/is THAT bad in the modern Catholic world.
“brutalist architecture style was developed from 1951 to 1975. This brutalism architecture style it came from the modernist architecture movement of the early 20th century. This architecture style is influenced by popular French architect Le Corbusier, and his building design project Unite d’Habitation in 1952.”
That gives a timeframe for that style. I agree that I do like the look of the ornate traditional within the stark minimalist building. It suggests that the Church can survive, even in a bomb shelter. It hints at durability, but I find that statement a sharp contrast to the state of the Church today.
Anonymous at 12:17 pm,
Chill. If you are a liberal, I can understand your pique
The architecture can be said to make many statements. Love of God and wiahing to share that love seems not to be one of them, and more speaks as to the cleverness of the architect and his appreciators.
Does Pierre's 1256 reply to the Anon 1217 post make sense to anyone else? Am I missing something?
Anonymous K at 4:37 PM,
You are a liberal, a member of the perpetually offended, humorless class, so naturally you would not understand
Had to be German I knew it!!!
St. Ludwig? Looks more like Our Lady of the Gulag.
Pierre/rcg/anon 1-25/whatever....
The post at 1217 was a friendly post giving more detail on the Church/Prison photo competition.
Which you somehow read as a liberal attack, and how, I have not a clue, nor do you seem inclined to fill me in.
Which you then saw as, "Liberal!? MUST be Father K and his commie pals!!!"
Have you talked to God about this, seriously?
Anon 8:20. Fr. Kavanaugh is TJM's/Paris Pete's/Anonymous' bete noire. it is irrational, of course, but that is of no concern to TJM. He came into this blog as an irrational being, so... TJM doesn't talk to God or, more importantly, listen to God. This will not change.
rcg is not TJM.
Righto...apologies to rcg...which, by the way, I found his NORAD ID of the church in this post header to be spot on and hilarious, whether serious or jesting, it was great...the church BEGS a giant vault door. Guns Of Navarrone also came to mind.
I think an irrational being is a Catholic who votes for a party that claims abortion is "healthcare."
Anon at 9:03. No problem! Thick skin, thick head. My comment about European guilt is that it can be overdone and lead t more error. Europeans are people that make mistakes, as do we all.
The modernist movement was well under way before WWII, circa 1920-1930 from Bauhaus to Our House as Tom Wolff wrote in his critique of the modern absorbed with egghead theory and politics divorced from true art, to our houses of worship. But, self-inflicted punishment, for sure.
I think that WW I did far more damage to Europe in terms of the human spirit than we can appreciate today. England, France, Germany, etc., lost a significant portion of their young men which truly devastated the continent in more ways than one, spiritually, politically, and economically.
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