Favorite cathedrals and abbeys
 

On another thread about favorite castles, Green Dragon mentioned cathedrals and abbeys. I really like visiting cathedrals and abbeys so -

any favorites you'd like to recommend?

Hi Shanti; On our second trip to Europe we visited Tintern Abbey in Wales and thought it was spectacular. On the same trip we visited the York Minster and that was equally spectacular. ENJOY Iris

Way too many to name:

St Pat's and St John the Divine in NYC
National Cathedral in DC
Westminster Abbey
St Peter's in Rome
San Marco
St Stephan's Viena
York minster (before the damage)
Notre Dame
Chartes
Fontrevaud in Saumur
Melk
St Isaac's in St Pet

I can't even begin to think of all of them.

I concur about York Minster (but what damage?), Westminster Abbey, St. Peter's and Chartres, and I will add Barcelona Cathedral.

Cluny, Vézelay, Ronchamp (Le Corbusier), Ravenna (San Apollinare Nuovo, Mausoleum of Galla Placida, San Vitale), Penang (Snake Temple at Sungai Kluang), Bern (Münster), Ulm (Münster), St. Petersburg (Naval St. Nicholas Cathedral of the Epiphany, Cathedral of the Resurrection/The Saviour-on-the-Blood), Meissen (Dom), Zürich (Fraumünster with Chagall windows), Köln (Dom), Firenze (Duomo), Milan (Duomo, not for interior but for rooftop), various in Venezia, Paris (Sacré Coeur, Notre Dame), Metz (cathédrale, Chagall windows), Reims (Notre-Dame cathedral, Chagall windows), Rouen (cathedral as per the many paintings by Monet), Wassen (the charming little church you keep seeing from different sides from the train going up to the Gotthard), Locarno (Madonna del Sasso for its location), Sils Baselgia, Amsterdam (Oude Kerk), Barcelona (Sagrada familia by Gaudi) - many more but I'm out of breath..

Ste. Chappelle-Paris
Chartres
Monreale-Sicily
Milan and Florence's duomos' exteriors

Need to check notes for one in Rome one in Venice. Guess they are churches rather than cathedrals-but I don't know the diff.

~Basilique Saint-Denis in Paris ~Duomo in Siena

Thank you for all the responses. It will help me with trip planning.

Churches and chapels are fine, too, but I thought including them would make for very long lists of recommendations.

A cathedral is a church that has a bishop's seat.

BTW, I thought that most of Cluny had been destroyed.

Hagia Sophia, once a church, now a museum, in Istanbul

Salisbury Cathedral

Sevilla Cathedral

Milan Cathedral

Duomo, Florence

Le Puy en Velay

Kladruby, Czech Republic

Germany:
Maulbronn, Romanesque Cistercian abbey
Freiberg, Dom
Vierzehnheiligen (okay, not a cathedral)
Regensburg, Dom
Bamberg, Dom
St Blasien, abbey
Speyer, Dom
Gernrode, abbey
Quedlinburg (for the treasure chamber)
Erfurt, Dom
Königslutter, Dom

Here's an old thread on the same topic.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...&tid=57555

Thanks, Adrienne, for the link. I started lurking here a couple years ago & wasn't aware of it.

Shanti

Just returned from third visit to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine...I can't even begin to choose from the dozens we visited...all were outstanding to view...the onion domes, especially those that were starred and colored red, blue, green, gold...The Church of the Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg stood out in all its magnificence, even though I had seen it a few times during USSR days...although it could be classified as the Gaudi-est of them all.(Pardon the pun). The "blood" is in reference to the spot where Tsar Alexander II was killed by a "Will of the People" (narodnya volya) cell in 1881. The event is the basis for the Prologue in one of my historical novels.

The new (1996) little sinagoga in Belmonte, Portugal stands out mainly because of it's amazing historic significance. We visited it last May. Read article...:

http://tiny.cc/rCPvF

Stu T.

Lots of nice ones here. Among the others like Sevilla, Milan, St Peter's, Florence, St. John Divine, I'll add:

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Benedictine Abbey at Monte Casino

Barcelona Gaudi's La Sagrada Família

I agree with others listed, but I recently visited and particularly liked St. Vitus's in Prague. The midday light coming through the stained glass windows projected spectacular images of the windows onto the walls.

The Duomo in Orvieto is also beautiful, especially the exterior.

I've just added a new one to my favorites list. De Kathedraal in Antwerp. It dates from around 1350 to 1520. It filled with light and wonerful artwork, including 4 works by Rubens that were espcially made for the church. The tabernacle is exceptional.

Florence's Duomo is probably the prettiest in my eyes, but I like Ulm's Cathedral best. Such a huge towering presence in the middle of relatively poor peasent farmlands. What I find the most interesting are the lists of all the local boys lost during the wars. It's staggering.

Ettal Abbey is also impressive to me, but more so for the beer brewed nearby. The Wieskirche is also nearby and it too is an amazingly ornate gem smack dab in the middle of nowhere.

The big three I reckon. I also like Firenze though.

Ulm's is not a cathedral but, despite its size, a mere city parish church (in one of the wealthiest imperial cities of the old Reich, in fact) so doesn't meet the requirements of this thread. (Couldn't resist smartassing, apologies!)