A short ๐งต๐ on Civilisation and Decline in Architecture.
An obvious cue that tells a lot about the health of a society or a civilisation by the way the people act, and by what they consider important. But a less often considered insight into these qualities is architecture.
An obvious cue that tells a lot about the health of a society or a civilisation by the way the people act, and by what they consider important. But a less often considered insight into these qualities is architecture.
I won't talk about specific styles, or building types, or urban planning in this thread, today I want to talk about something that almost never gets brought up in these discussions; 'Wonders'. Despite the graphic, for the sake of this discussion I'll consider a wonder to be;
Any building or complex of structures which, undertaken at one time, is understood by the society or people building it that it will not be completed within the lifetime of the architect, benefactor, or laborers.
In essence, a great project. For much of human history, the building of wonders was - ironically, commonplace. The Cologne Cathedral, for example, famously took over 600 years to fully complete. This is, for modern people, an unfathomable length of time.
St. Basil's Cathedral took 123 years. York Minster took 252 years. Petra took 600 to carve out of rock. These projects are incomprehensible to us today, so much so that people are now quick to say; "Well, if they'd had modern materials!..."
If they had used modern materials we'd have never heard about any of them because they'd have been dust by now. I know we don't believe in it anymore, but there is a virtue in building something to last beyond one's own waking life. The people we came from understood this.
Wonders are evidence that a society has a proper understanding of the individual and the transcendent. To commit time, effort, labor, resources, riches to the construction of something which everyone involved understands that will not see is a triumph of the human spirit.
The self absorbed, the materialist, the hedonist - none can understand the wonder. Not unless perhaps it is a statue of their likeness. But a building? A social square? A dedication to God? These things never cross our minds anymore.
In the aftermath of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire, I was approached by someone asking my opinion on what is to be done. It cannot be restored, they say, because trees of the size used in the original rafters no longer exist anywhere in the world. Why does this matter?
The Restoration: Turn one of the local parks into a tree nursery. Keep the trees for however long it takes - 300 years or so, and at that time restore the Cathedral to exactly as it was. It doesn't matter that we won't see it, it matters that it will be done right.
Our people, our civilization, our society is not about us - our life is fleeting, but keeping the flame and carrying the gifts that we have inherited, creating a human world informed by meaning and purpose and inherited wisdom, this is what makes human life special.
Few things are more evidence of the death cult that pervades modern materialist nihilism than our refusal to undertake any grand design that might not realize itself for ourselves. It is as if aspiration of all kind except to material pleasure has been entirely abandoned.
This thread is getting too long for a short thread, but I will end on this thought; we do not need to surrender this way. The first picture is of the Sagrada Familia, first ground broken in 1882, 141 years ago, which will not be complete yet until perhaps 2026. A New Wonder.
As an addendum I want to add that, it's absolutely true and should go without saying that without Franco's Nationalist victory we would have certainly lost our New Wonder forever. Think on that.
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