Christian and Islamic architecture

Question

JanissaryI have been travelling Europe for a certain time and have seen many architectural monuments of Christianism. And I have noticed something. The biggest difference between Islamic and Christian architecture is the shape of monuments. The Christian buildings are generally angular with keen corners. The Islamic buildings are always in a shape with curves and with much more soft corners(actually there is not so many corners) And they are full of flowers,colours with a sour of liveliness. Because they are designed to depict the Paradise. However, when I visit a church, I am generally a little bit scared with the landscape because it is in most cases designed to remind death and tortures.(or the ones I have visited, so far).What do you think?Why is it so?

By the way this is not a discussion Ruslana. I just wanted to learn. We dont need to be polarized again

With best regards

Ha ha ha, Jan... How did you know what I was thinking of while reading the message?

The outside architecture of diffrent Christian and Islam buildings is rather similar, to my mind. Are you talking about inside appointments, Jan? Have no idea why you got such an impression of Christian monuments. The ones (churches) I was in were not like those you're describing, i.e. have never given me a scary feeling or something like that. On the contrary, different icons, frescos, stained-glass windows, gold decorations, colourful images of saints, angels, clouds, etc have been always pretty peaceful.

Nona the brit · Accepted Answer

I can see what you mean Janissary.

A lot of christian iconography can be very gory.

MrPedantic · Answer

Much depends on the date and style of the church. St Paul's in London is very different from Chartres Cathedral in France; and the Duomo in Florence is different from both.

Then too, with English village churches, a great deal depends on the preferences of the people who look after them!

MrP

Janissary · Answer

RuslanaHa ha ha, Jan... How did you know what I was thinking of while reading the message?

You see, I am getting to know you better day by day

Yes I was talking about inside. Actually I like Christian Architecture because it is different. As I said, it is not similar to Islamic buildings at all, to me. Again as i said they are much more angular with sharp corners which seems to me like boxes one on the top of the other.
What scares me is inside part. I have visited several cathedrals and churches but the athmosphere inside was a little bit suffocating. There was no window (or a few) and the inside was dark , in most cases. And you know, the sculptures of the depiction of the death of Jesus were hanged everywhere, which is supposedly to remind death to people. So I was a little bit scared. Even more, in the basement of the cathedral I have visited(the name must be Domsheide but I am not sure) there were corpses of dead clergy men. I couldnt understand why they were embalmed instead of interring.
Then I have attended to Sunday ceremony or Sunday pray(again I dont know how it is called) and the sounds was like "You will die, you will die

" I dont know why I felt so but maybe it was again because of the athmosphere. So were my impressions. I am not saying these things offensively. Just how I felt.

On the other hand, again I want to state that I really like Christian architecture. Because it is really different than the architectures which I was accustomed. My teacher used to say "Variety is the spice of life" Diversity of cultures pleases me very much, too. That`s why I really liked Europa.

Regards

Ruslana · Answer

Probably I have really never been inside such gloomy churches / cathedrals / monasteries you're describing, or they didn't give me that scary feeling. The only feeling I remember after visiting different Christian buildings is that there was a kind of medieval atmosphere inside some of them. Maybe that's exactly what you're talking about.

Here are some pictures from the Cathedral of Chri

Here are some pictures from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Moscow. It's really a beautiful place and I'd never say the athmosphere inside is suffocating. On the contrary, the high ceiling, arches, and plenty of beautiful images make one feel rather... hm, light, maybe?

Ruslana · Answer

RuslanaHave no idea why you got such an impression of Christian monuments. The ones (churches) I was in were not like those you're describing, i.e. have never given me a scary feeling or something like that. On the contrary, different icons, frescos, stained-glass windows, gold decorations, colourful images of saints, angels, clouds, etc have been always pretty peaceful.

Nona The BritI can see what you mean Janissary.

A lot of christian iconography can be very gory.

Maybe the point is that we are talking about the two different threads of Christianity: Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism?

Fre@kwenc! · Answer

Hi all,

Thanx for deleting my post. btw what are u all here for ? to delete each other's post. ahhh.. good. i know u 'll delete this too..... . Good this will improve ur knowledge as well as conscience too.anyway...hats off.

Edited by mod:

Dear Fre@kwenc, please read Guidelines, Terms, and Conditions to know what we are all here for and to know why your post was deleted. Thanks.

Anonymous · Answer

why do you care about architecture you are going to pray or to enjoy the architecture?

MrPedantic · Answer

<...you are going to pray or to enjoy the architecture? ...>

I'm not a praying kind of chap, Anon. So I go to look at the architecture.

MrP

PS: I was interested in Jan's comments about the gloomy iconography of church interiors; it reminded me of this poem, by Philip Larkin:

Church Going
Once I am sure there's nothing going on
I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty, unignorable silence,
Brewed *** knows how long. Hatless, I take off
My cycle-clips in awkward reverence,

Move forward, run my hand around the font.
From where I stand, the roof looks almost new -
Cleaned, or restored? Someone would know: I don't.
Mounting the lectern, I peruse a few
Hectoring large-scale verses, and pronounce
'Here endeth' much more loudly than I'd meant.
The echoes snigger briefly. Back at the door
I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,
Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.

Yet stop I did: in fact I often do,
And always end much at a loss like this,
Wondering what to look for; wondering, too,
When churches will fall completely out of use
What we shall turn them into, if we shall keep
A few cathedrals chronically on show,
Their parchment, plate and pyx in locked cases,
And let the rest rent-free to rain and sheep.
Shall we avoid them as unlucky places?

Or, after dark, will dubious women come
To make their children touch a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort will go on
In games, in riddles, seemingly at random;
But superstition, like belief, must die,
And what remains when disbelief has gone?
Grass, weedy pavement, brambles, buttress, sky,

A shape less recognisable each week,
A purpose more obscure. I wonder who
Will be the last, the very last, to seek
This place for what it was; one of the crew
That tap and jot and know what rood-lofts were?
Some ruin-bibber, randy for antique,
Or Christmas-addict, counting on a whiff
Of gown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh?
Or will he be my representative,

Bored, uninformed, knowing the ghostly silt
Dispersed, yet tending to this cross of ground
Through suburb scrub because it held unspilt
So long and equably what since is found
Only in separation - marriage, and birth,
And death, and thoughts of these - for which was built
This special shell? For, though I've no idea
What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;

A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.

Christian and Islamic architecture

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