The Ugliest Churches In The World

Catholic Vote ^ | July 11, 2014 | JOHN WHITE

[NYer]

A little something for the weekend.

Over at Real Clear Religion, Nicholas G. Hahn III has a slideshow of the ugliest churches in the world. They represent several denominations, but the vast majority are – you guessed it – Roman Catholic.

Below are just a few of these architectural miscarriages, all of them Catholic. See the rest here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ConorMacNessa]

These buildings go far beyond "ugly" - they are truly hideous!



"Dia shábháil ar fad anseo!"

Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[Ouchthatonehurt]

You can argue the architectural merits of any of these buildings. Some are good, others, not so much.
The common denominator to most all of them though is that they are “self referential.” In my opinion this is not appropriate to a house of worship - especially a Catholic church which should be sacramental.

[niteowl77]

The first one looks like a German ww2 fortification.

Now that you mention it, it wouldn't have looked out of place overlooking a beach in Normandy… all it lacks is a muzzle brake protruding from one of the windows.

I'm not sure what the lower one reminds me of - other than a mediocre attraction near some tourist-fleecing venue - but the rest would look right at home decorated with Cyrillic letters and grotesquely stylized, reinforced concrete Soviet soldier statues.

Mr. niteowl77

[righttackle44]

The physical reflects the spiritual. Those beautiful cathedrals of yesteryear have given place to the darkened minds of popular culture which confuses bad taste and misery for beauty and happiness.

Well expressed. I think you hit it right on the head.

[tflabo]

#3 needs a nose job.

[Fast Moving Angel]

I kinda like the one that resembles Stonehenge, but the third one looks like it’s flipping the bird (sorry). Very unattractive.

[JoeFromSidney]

The last one is labeled in what appears to be Thai. Is it a Buddhist temple, or some other church in Thailand?

[SES1066]

This one reminds me, in a very bad way, of a closed-in and jumbled Stonehenge. I'll take the original please!

[ConorMacNessa]

Chartres



"Dia shábháil ar fad anseo!"

Genuflectimus non ad principem sed ad Principem Pacis!

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[CrazyIvan]

I didn’t knoe Borg was a religion.

[Ransomed]

‘Loathsomely Redolent’ could be the name of the style of architecture for some of these. Others are actually very cool looking. Maybe not for churches, but it would be cool to have sci-fi conventions there or something.

Freegards

[Ransomed]

Yeah, I like the designs of some of them, maybe not for churches now. Like if someone showed me a picture of some of these and said they were churhces from 3,000 years in the future it would make more sense.

Freegards

[JoeFromSidney]

The ugly Catholic ones are probably all post-Vatican II, when the Modernizers decided to throw away everything from the past and start over. As an example of where this notion can lead, there's a hideously "modern" Lutheran church in Finland, which dates to the independence of Finland early in the 20th Century. It's built into a hillside, and the "walls" are the stone layers in the interior of the hill. With independence, the Finns decided to go "modern" with a vengeance.

[Dagnabitt]

All beauties compared to Mecca.

[workerbee]

The ugly Catholic ones are probably all post-Vatican II,

I'll go out on a limb and say there's no "probably" about it.

[MUDDOG]

You nailed it, they are Lovecraftian.

Another word he liked was "dizzying." My post was a quote from "The Call of Cthulhu."

[miss marmelstein]

So glad I live in Manhattan where most of the churches are very old and have deep roots in European beauty. I loathe ugly churches of any denomination. And I don’t like the modern synagogues (shuls) in my neighborhood, either. I long ago gave up on the gymnasiums that pass for Protestant churches.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Christ Lutheran Church (formerly St. Stephen's) in Chino, California. Where the cross is now on the building was once a Chi-Rho symbol. My boyhood church, I was a founding member along with the rest of my family.

[Salvation]

I think it looks like a dog’s snout.

[Ransomed]

Oh yeah. Another one was ‘fetor.’ As in ‘I walked into the strangely designed religious building and noticed the strong eldritch fetor right away.’

Freegards