Church Architecture

St. Stephen’s Cathedral
1137 - 1538 Architecture

One of the city’s most recognizable symbols, St. Stephen’s Cathedral lies in Stephansplatz in the heart of Vienna. is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the archbishop of Vienna.

The church was dedicated to St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and so was oriented toward the sunrise on his feast day of 26 December, as the position stood in the year that construction began. Built of limestone, the cathedral is 351 ft long, 130 ft wide, and 446 ft tall at its highest point.

St. Vitus Cathedral
Architect: Matthias of Arras
c. 930 Architecture

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St. Vitus is a Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, and the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Until 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral but was renamed The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert.

The current cathedral is the third of a series of religious buildings at the site, all dedicated to St. Vitus. The first church was an early Romanesque rotunda founded by Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia in 930. This patron saint was chosen because Wenceslaus had acquired a holy relic – the arm of St. Vitus – from Emperor Henry I. It is also possible that Wenceslaus, wanting to convert his subjects to Christianity more easily, chose a saint whose name (Svatý Vít in Czech) sounds very much like the name of Slavic solar deity Svantevit.

Wars and politics prevented the completion of the cathedral for centuries. n 1844, Václav Pešina, an energetic St. Vitus canon, together with Neo-Gothic architect Josef Kranner presented a program for renovation and completion of the great cathedral.

Strasbourg Cathedral
Architect: Erwin von Steinbach, Ulrich Ensingen
1015 - 1439 Architecture

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Strasbourg Cathedral is a Catholic Cathedral located in the east of France near the German border and was constructed between 1015 and 1439. It was the tallest building in the world for about 227 years between 1647 and 1874 and has a height of 466 feet. It’s the highest structure in the world still standing that was completely constructed in the Middle Ages.

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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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