CATHEDRALS OF THE OLD AND NEW WORLD 



By J. Bernard Walker 



With Illustrations from Photographs in the National Geographic Society Collections 



1 MONG the capital cities of the regretted that, more often than not, these 



/\ world, Washington carries the un- noble structures are so closely beset with 



X ^ enviable distinction that it pos- commonplace buildings as to render any 



sesses no monumental building dedicated near view of their beauties impossible. 



to the worship of God. The Washington cathedral will suffer 



France has its Notre Dame, London its no such disadvantage. The site, corn- 

 Westminster, Rome its St. Peter's, and prising 60 acres of beautifully wooded 

 even in far-distant Constantinople the land, lies on the crest of a hill, at an 

 majestic dome of Sancta Sophia puts the elevation of nearly 400 feet above the 

 Moslem people in perpetual remembrance Potomac River. In every direction the 

 of their God and His Prophet. ground falls away from the Cathedral 



But Washington, the capital of the close, with the result that, from whatever 



greatest nation of these later days, for side it is viewed, this superb structure 



all its superb display of costly buildings — will be revealed against the skyline in all 



governmental, municipal, and memorial — its unobstructed majesty, 

 has seemingly forgotten to raise any na- 



tional tribute to that God of our fathers comparison with the cathedrals of 



in recognition of whom the Republic was Europe 



founded, and under whose fostering care Be he amateur or professional, every 



it has grown to its present commanding student of the Washington cathedral will 



position among the sovereign states of inevitably turn to the Gothic cathedrals of 



the world. England and France for a scale where- 



Not to any neglect of George Wash- with to judge of its size and architec- 



ington and the founders of the Republic tural quality; and the accompanying table. 



may this anomaly be charged. On the in which are included some of the largest 



contrary, the scheme for a representative and most notable of these, serves to show 



national church of becoming size and that it will rank with the largest existing 



dignity occupied the mind of the Father cathedrals in size. Moreover, in the per- 



of his Country, and he saw to it that fection of its proportions and the purity 



when Major L/Enfant drafted the plans of its style it will stand without a peer, 



of the Federal City a large plot of land, width of 



centrally situated, should be reserved for nave - 



. 1 T t ,1 Extreme center to Height Height 



such a purpose. Upon that square now outside center of of of 



stands the red, Brobdingnagian pile of lensrth - piers - nave " tc T rs ' 



the Pension Office Building. Washington.... 500 45 95 262 



c £ ^ & r ., • Westminster... 505 40 ro2 22^ 



bo tar as the question of site is con- Lincoln 500 46 82 271 



cerned, the change in the city's plans is York 518 53 93 198 



not to be regretted; for the new Protest- Ely 525 37 7? - 215 



ant Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. $££fc": gS % If *%* 



whose recently completed apse lifts its Notre Dame. . . 442 46 no 226 



delicate beauty upon the summit of Mount Amiens 475 48 i-io 223 



St. Alban, will occupy the noblest site of Beauvais Choir 52 iS7 l A 



any cathedral in the Old World or the ° y 



New. Conspicuous from any point in The writer ventures this statement 



Washington, the 500- feet stretch of nave without fear of successful contradiction. 



and choir, crowned by the lofty towers of The revival of interest in Gothic archi- 



the western front and the crossing, will be tecture, which began in the middle of the 



visible also throughout a far-flung radius nineteenth century, has gradually devel- 



of the surrounding country. oped a group of architects, at once en- 

 thusiastic, serious, and scholarly, whose 



a cathedral set on a hiee work bears abundant evidence that they 



Every American who has made a tour not only have caught the fine spirit of the 



of the cathedrals of Europe must have medieval builders, but are capable of 



61 



