The World's Greatest Churches

Old Sep 14th, 2017, 04:10 AM
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The World's Greatest Churches

When I discovered Malcolm Miller would not be available to give a tour when we visit Chartres, I sought alternatives. I provide the following in case it will be of help for those looking for a pre-trip guide to various churches that figure on many people's bucket list of sights to see.

https://www.thegreatcourses.com/cour...-churches.html

I found this set of 4 DVDs, by Professor William R Cook of SUNY Genesco. His bio: he is distinguished teaching professor of History Emeritus, having tought for 42 years. MA and PhD from Cornell. If this sounds intimidating don't be, he has an easy style of talking, laced with some humour. In short, he's not dry.

The great courses series has received favourable reviews from Harvard magazine, the LA times, and the WSJ.

Okay, so I'll give an overview. I picked up the set at our local library intending only to watch the episode on Chartres. I found it so good, that we have been watching, in order of our own personal interest, various selections of the other discs.

The greatest churches series is a set of 4 DVDs, each comprising 6 lectures. So that's 24 in all.

Disc one's first six lectures consist of the earliest churches, including Cook's opinion as to why, if he had to choose only one church, he'd pick Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (notwithstanding it is now a museum, not an active church.) Disc one also features the rock hewn churches of Cappadocia.
If I never get to Turkey, I will be glad to have seen these episodes.

Disc two's lectures include those on churches in Armenia, Georgia, Norway, etc - the idea is to help one understand what similarities there are, versus what differences, in church architecture.

Disc three is where one finds episode/lecture 14, on Chartres. Cook explains why Chartres is held by most scholars to be THE best example of Gothic style architecture. The subsequent lecture 15 has him explain why, of all the churches in England he could have chosen, he settled on Winchester. Disc 3 is also where you'll find lectures on the cathedral of Siena, St Peter's basilica, the Cathedrale of Monreale (Sicily) and the Wieskirche in Bavaria.

I doubt we'll have time to see much of disc four, which is where he explores the American churches (St. Patrick's, etc.) and la Sagrada Familia.

Finally: there is a small 'study guide' that accompanies the discs, with some questions to think about.
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Old Sep 14th, 2017, 04:25 AM
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One other thing: Although these are lectures, most of the time is spent looking at the actual churches. (There's over 2000 'slides', not that anyone actually projects slides anymore.)

I'd also be interested to hear from anyone who saw this or anything else in the 'Great Courses' series.
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Old Sep 14th, 2017, 05:38 PM
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Sounds interesting -- thanks for the info!
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Old Sep 14th, 2017, 06:50 PM
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We have streamed many of the Great Courses. The ones we have seen were excellent quality with fabulous lecturers. We have used Great Courses to prepare for a number of our trips.
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Old Sep 14th, 2017, 08:21 PM
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I am unable to watch this kind of things. Read maybe but watch : impossible for me. Like watching an émission of Rick steves. Jus can't.
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Old Sep 15th, 2017, 12:20 AM
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Hi kathie. I'd love to hear about which ones you saw, and for which trips.
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Old Sep 15th, 2017, 02:18 AM
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Interesting selection, although somehow superficial. The entire architecture of the Reformation and the protestant denominations in Central Europe is missing, for example.
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Old Sep 15th, 2017, 05:56 AM
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Why would a PhD from Cornell intimidate anyone? That is a bizarre statement.

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Old Sep 15th, 2017, 06:33 AM
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>

I'm not familiar enough with German or Central European ecclesiastical architecture to think of an example of a Protestant church of the Reformation or later that was not a conversion of an existing church or built in a derivative style (I'm thinking here of the Frauenkirche in Dresden and the Berliner Dom, although they came well after the Reformation.) I'd be interested in some examples.

For a distinctive Protestant architectural style I would certainly include many of the works of Sir Christopher Wren in England, although his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, is not as distinctive in its style as his smaller churches.

I think that the list is short on modern architecture (Ronchamps was hugely influential), but I suppose there's only so much that can be covered in 24 lectures.
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Old Sep 15th, 2017, 06:59 AM
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That should be "Ronchamp" of course.
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Old Sep 15th, 2017, 07:12 AM
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Sue, I am so glad you posted this. My husband and I met Dr. Cook years ago when my husband won an NEH grant to study for the summer in Italy. He is a wonderful person as well as a great teacher. I want to watch this! Thank you for posting.
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Old Sep 15th, 2017, 08:01 AM
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"Derivate style"? Certainly not. There is a distinctly protestant version of the late renaissance and baroque style.

But if I get started on protestant church architecture, my post will be longer than any of Professor Cook's lectures, so I'm restraining myself.

The palace chapels of the 16th century with Torgau as starting point - Frederiksborg palace chapel - Frauenkirche Dresden, of course - the reformed churches of Amsterdam and other Dutch cities - Peace churches on Swidnica and Jawor - St Michaelis in Hamburg - Ludwigskirche Saarbrücken - Katarina Kyrka Stockholm - the churches of the French Huguenots before and after the refuge - just to name a few potential topics.
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Old Sep 15th, 2017, 08:40 AM
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quokka, thanks for your informative reply. As I mentioned, I'm not very familiar with Protestant German ecclesiastical architecture and my travels in Germany have taken me mostly to the Rhineland, Baden-Würtemburg and Bavaria, where Catholic churches are more prevalent. So I didn't know of most of the churches you mentioned, let alone have visited them (I've only visited the Frauenkirche among them.) I do hope to broaden my travels in Germany to include more of Sachsen as well as Thüringen and elsewhere in the north and east of Germany.

I do agree that the palace chapel in Torgau is not only distinctive but significant in being the first Protestant church to be built as such, and should be included in a listing of the world's greatest Christian churches. I take your point on the Frauenkirche being a distinctly Protestant version of the late baroque style, but I suppose the overall German baroque is well-represented in this list by the Wieskirche.

Finally, in Amsterdam, which I know well, I had my mind on the Oude Kerk and the Nieuwe Kerk and completely forgot about the new 16th C Reformed Dutch churches, which certainly do represent a distinctive Protestant architecture.
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Old Nov 15th, 2017, 06:37 AM
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Old Nov 15th, 2017, 06:38 AM
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Oops, let's try that again.

KTravel - you are welcome. His enthusiasm certainly comes across in his lectures, I don't doubt he is the same 'in real life.'

************

Update: For those who can't find the WGC set, there is lecture on Chartres available on the free 'Khan academy' website. It is short, but covers the basics.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humaniti...tres-cathedral

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Old Nov 15th, 2017, 06:39 AM
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I enjoyed the exchange on Protestant architecture, which I confess I hardly knew existed - all the churches I've seen seem to borrow heavily from Catholic ones, with the exception that they are much simpler in terms of interior decoration.

I am well out of my depth here, so grateful for the points made by Quokka. However, I did manage to find these sites:

http://www.archimon.nl/history/first...tchurches.html

and this one which, bearing in mind that Chartres is in France after all, mentions the importance of the Edict of Nantes and subsequent edicts (e.g. Edict of Tolerance) on Protestant church architecture:

http://temples.free.fr/english/architecture.htm

As of the death of Henri IV (1610), the Édict of Nantes is called into question, and the demolitions of Protestant churches built after 1598 will proceed all along the century, until knowing their apogee with the Revocation in 1685. It causes the destruction of the quasi totality of the remaining Protestant churches on the whole of France.
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Old Nov 16th, 2017, 03:38 AM
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Interesting links, Sue. In particular the one about the French churches.

Indeed, very little to nothing is left of Huguenot architecture in France. A rare example that remained is the temple in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines in the Vosges, a mining town that was under the rule of a local noble family and not yet part of France in those times. I have never been there (yet), though.
But we have quite a load of Huguenot churches in the refuge, i.e. those territories in mostly Germany that took in Huguenot refugees from 1685 onwards. Most of these are not specifically "Huguenot" but rather related to local architecture, though. A characteristic "Huguenot" style imho does not exist (although some colleagues disagree).

By the way, I have recently visited Jelenia Góra (Hirschberg) in Silesia, formerly Germany and now Poland. One of the most spectacular Lutheran churches I've ever seen. This one must certainly be added to my list above: https://wroclaw-kathrin-e.travellerspoint.com/136/ (blog written by yours truly)

Currently everyone in our field is waiting for the big Europe-wide research project about protestant church architecture based at the University of Wroclaw: http://protestantchurches.uni.wroc.pl/ and the publication of their results. This will bring lots of news.
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Old Nov 16th, 2017, 03:38 AM
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P.S. Woohooo, I am finally able to post again!
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Old Nov 16th, 2017, 07:59 AM
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I have watched many of the Great Courses lectures and listened to many more in an audio version as I drive. There are many good ones on all sorts of subjects. I have enjoyed courses in music, art, linguistics, Greek literature and mythology, cultural geography, psychology, history, modern literature, photography, and other diverse topics.

If you keep watching the sales and comparing the prices from one sale to another, you can buy the sets when the price drops to its lowest. The price of a single course fluctuates wildly. I buy the DVDs and CDs instead of the less expensive downloads because I have been circulating them among my friends to get more bang for the buck.
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Old Nov 21st, 2017, 12:15 AM
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> Most of these are not specifically "Huguenot" but rather related to local architecture, though. A characteristic "Huguenot" style imho does not exist (although some colleagues disagree).

Well, did you ever come across the Huguenotte church in Erlangen? I can't think of a more typical specimen (square plan with inscribed octagon around the mensa).

Just to add to your list a few other examples of "genuine" protestant church buildings in Germany: First generation / 18th century (when, after the establishment of Lutheran orthodoxy, protestants begun to look upon themselfs as a church in its own right and not only as a reformed catholic church): St. Petri in Ratzeburg and St. Gumbertus in Ansbach (despite it's Italian architect, Leopoldo Retti), both typical examples of the Epoche with pulpit altar (»Kanzelaltar«), expressing the supremacy of the word over the liturgy, and galleries. The succesor to Leopolo Retti in Ansbach, Johann David Steingruber, remodelled over 150 village churches according to that model throughout the Franconian Brandenburg area.-- 19th century: churches build in accordance with the so-called Regulativ of Eisenach: the Paulskirche in Schwerin (neo-gothic; many other churches modelled after that one); churches originating in the so-called Wiesbaden program (opposed to the Eisenach one): Ringkirche Wiesbaden. A very interesting an entertaining field!
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