Church Architecture

Basilica of Notre-Dame, Boulogne
1827-75 Architecture

The Basilica of Notre-Dame, Boulogne, otherwise the Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception ( Basilique Notre-Dame de Boulogne; Basilique Notre-Dame-de-l'Immaculée-Conception), is a minor basilica located in Boulogne-sur-Mer in the Pas-de-Calais département of northern France.

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
Artist: Rafael Moneo
1998-2002 Architecture

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The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, informally known as the COLA or the Los Angeles Cathedral, is the metropolitan cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles, California, United States. It opened in 2002 and serves as the mother church for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The structure replaced the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana, which was severely damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The cathedral is named in honor of the Virgin Mary under the patronal title of "Our Lady of the Angels", echoing the full name of the original settlement of Los Angeles (Spanish: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, or "The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels"). The cathedral is widely known for enshrining the relics of Saint Vibiana and tilma piece of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is the mother church to approximately five million professed Catholics in the archdiocese

Cathedral of the Madeleine
Artist: Carl M. Neuhausen and Bernard O. Mecklenburg
1900-09 Architecture

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The Cathedral of the Madeleine is a Roman Catholic church in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was completed in 1909 and is the cathedral, or mother church, of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. It is the only cathedral in the U.S. under the patronage of St. Mary Magdalene.

It is theorized that Bishop Scanlan, the first Bishop of Salt Lake City, chose Mary Magdalene as the patron saint of the Diocese of Salt Lake because her feast day is on July 22, two days before Pioneer Day, a celebration commemorating the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in Salt Lake Valley, so that Catholics would have something to celebrate alongside the region's dominant faith.

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When we think of Christian architecture, we may picture towering cathedrals with intricate stained-glass windows, but the roots of this style are much more humble. The earliest Christian structures were not grand, but rather simple house churches. As Christianity grew, its places of worship grew in size and intricacy.

The transition from early Christian to medieval architecture paralelled societal and religious changes. The Romanesque style, characterized by its rounded arches and massive walls, was followed by the Gothic style with its pointed archs, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses.

Christian architecture has created some of the world’s most iconic structures. These buildings all share a common thread: they are physical manifestations of the Christian faith.

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