I did a study abroad semester in Italy, near Florence, & one course involved field trips to all the major cathedrals in Tuscany and Umbria, led by the professor of architecture from the local uni; a native Florentine.
One idea he introduced has always stuck with me:
"A cathedral is a bridge between Man and God. The columns rise up like bridges into the sky, to cast our gaze upwards to beauty, art & the unachievable perfection of Heaven."
The walls below are minimally adorned, the ceiling elaborate and ornate... to make us cast our eyes up.
The separation of sacred & perfect from human & mundane speaks to the beliefs of the people who created these buildings and their unconventional, even impractical designs.
They were building bridges to Heaven, a place for gods to reside.
The same principles work with ancient Roman or pagan temples designs. The columns represent literal bridges, but the roof must be forever beyond human reach.
The Pantheon in Rome has a literal gate or oculus that looks like a portal into the sky, with a beam shining down on the poor mortals who toil underneath the dome of the heavens.
When people visit Muir Woods, or any of the other redwood forest preserves, I think it's common to describe them as a cathedral to nature... and that captures what I learned in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore: gods reside at the ends of those arboreal bridges to heaven.
Fascinating to me how themes like Jack & the Beanstalk, Muir Woods, the Pyramids of Giza, Tuscan Cathedrals & Roman temples all share a common perceptual cue: we look up to the unachievable, the otherworldly, the beautiful.
A bridge we can't cross in this world.
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