It's strange how important and beautiful architecture can be to a holy place. During the olden days, religious places were built according to the faith system but now in the present era there is an architectural practice that is concerned with the design and construction of places of worship or sacred or intentional space, such as churches, mosques, stupas, synagogues, and temples called Sacral architecture (also known as sacred architecture or religious architecture).
Further, we will read about some of the most famous holy places and the architecture of the place and also how some religions give importance to certain aspects when a religious place is built.
The Kaaba located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia is the most sacred site because it represents the metaphorical house of God and the oneness of God in Islam, the Muslims do not worship the Kaaba. It is believed that Abraham son, Ismail, constructed the Kaaba. Tradition holds that it was originally a simple unroofed rectangular structure.
The Quraysh tribe, who ruled Mecca, rebuilt the pre-Islamic Kaaba in c. 608 CE with alternating courses of masonry and wood. The Kaaba is built from grey granite and each corner points to one of the four points of the compass. The single entrance is on the northeast, side, 2.3m above the ground. The interior of the Kaaba is bare except for three supporting wooden pillars and gold hanging lamps it can accommodate over 300,000 Muslims and the surrounding square of the Kaaba has been enlarged for over 16,000 square meters.
The Hassan II Mosque is a mosque in Casablanca, Morocco it is one of the most stunningly beautiful mosques around the world and it has the capacity to hold 25,000 worshipers at any one time.
The Grand Mosque Cordoba in Spain is a place of worship for not only the Muslims but for the Christians as well, it shows how one structure or artefact contains so many faith systems, the structure was initially a Visigothic church but then Abd ar-Rahma expanded it onto a mosque in 785 CE and gradually the successors reconstructed it and now this artefact has become a historical famous monument in Spain. The Christian faith tradition is the earliest faith communities formed. Lindisfarne also known as the holy island, is one of the most important centres of early English Christianity. The Christian community has a diverse range of sub-communities and each of these have their own rules and obligations. The churches, however, are constructed on basis of the orientation as that plays an important factor in their religion but now in contemporary society, this is increasingly being questioned. The artefact is not that easy to be constructed as there are rules, carving of figurative depictions, gothic style architecture, glazed windows that says stories, and more for the people who can't read, and many more regulations and traditions are followed and may take years to be built and a good example of that is the Wells cathedral 1175 AD took 80 years in the making, it has the West wall consisting of 300 medieval structures.
The Cloisters is a place of meditation and a walking place in churches and the yew tree is held as a mythical plant. There are other religions that involve their own rules and regulations which is different from the above religion like the Buddhism is characterized by a moon gate point entry and a threshold step built not only in Buddhism but also in Hinduism, it is believed that no bad spirit can enter due to the threshold step that blocks it out. Most of the Buddhist temples are built on mountains with a beautiful senary of nature. The Jain faith system is the oldest faith system and they believe in karma and do not harm any kind of animals or even an insect, the holy place is beautifully carved and mostly made of stone and marble flooring. The Hindu temples are always filled with colours, decorations, and huge timber doors with carvings and figurative depictions on the walls narrating stories that are not seen in Islamic tradition as they use geomatic designs on the walls. Judaism believed in a single god and the creator of the universe.
In conclusion to the above topic, building these kinds of holy places is a kind of offering to the god and each faith system have their own system to follow and method of construction. The impact of light has a lot to do with most of the traditions for example the light falling on the sculptures and hallway in the Christian tradition.
Monuments are the grappling irons that bind one generation to another --- Joseph Joubert
The Kaaba (article) | Islam. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2021, from https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/introduction-cultures-religions-apah/islam-apah/a/the-kaaba
Religious architecture. (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/architecture/Religious-architecture
The great Mosque of Cordoba (article). (n.d.). Retrieved June 17, 2021, from https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/early-europe-and-colonial-americas/ap-art-islamic-world-medieval/a/the-great-mosque-of-cordoba
Sacral architecture. (2021, May 13). Retrieved June 17, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacral_architecture#:~:text=Sacral%20architecture%20(also%20known%20as,stupas%2C%20synagogues%2C%20and%20temples.
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