Notre Dame de Paris by ThomasUttich

Posted on October 24, 2015 by birdmanps

Notre-Dame de Paris also known as Notre-Dame Cathedral or simply Notre-Dame, is a historic Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. The cathedral is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture, and it is among the largest and most well-known church buildings in the world. The naturalism of its sculptures and stained glass are in contrast with earlier Romanesque architecture.

As the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Paris, Notre-Dame is the parish that contains the cathedra, or official chair, of the archbishop of Paris, currently Cardinal André Vingt-Trois. The cathedral treasury is notable for its reliquary which houses some of Catholicism’s most important first-class relics including the purported Crown of Thorns, a fragment of the True Cross, and one of the Holy Nails.

In the 1790s, Notre-Dame suffered desecration during the radical phase of the French Revolution when much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. An extensive restoration supervised by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc began in 1845.

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St. Joseph’s Cathedral, Zanzibar by Isamtelhami

Posted on October 1, 2015 by birdmanps

The church was built by French missionaries between 1893 and 1898. The design of the church was based on that of the Marseille Cathedral,[3] and in fact the two churches bear some resemblance to each other, the Stone Town cathedral being much smaller. Its main architectural feature is twin spires (like those of Marseille’s church) that are one of the easiest elements of Stone Town’s skyline to spot from elevated places as well as from the ocean.[3] The interior is painted with scenes form the Old Testament, all of which have been destroyed due to the poorly done restoration in 2014. The tiles and stained glass windows were imported from France

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