Thursday, August 6, 2009

The World's Largest Cathedral

We visited The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine twice, the second visit was to be a part of their vertical tour (which we highly recommend). The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the largest cathedral in the world and is the Cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It's located in the Morningside Heights area on Amsterdam Avenue between West 110th (known as "Cathedral Parkway" and 113th. The Cathedral remains an unfinished church. It was closed for seven years after a large fire in 2001 and reopened in November 2008 but its restoration remains in process.

Information and more photos about the church here: and

The doors depict images of the Old and New Testaments.

The Great Rose Window is the largest stained-glass window in the U.S. Just the image of Jesus in the center stands at 5 feet 7 inches to give you an idea of how large it is.

There's so many difference ares of the Cathedral that we'd have to load at least a hundred photos to show you the many intricate details and parts of this church. There's also mini cathedrals within the cathedral in the back area.

Notable figures.

Can you see the crack in the wall?

The Poet's Corner of the Cathedral dedicated to American Literature.

As mentioned, we went back to the Cathedral for a second visit to take their vertical tour, which happens every Saturday at noon and 2 pm, and lasts an hour. The tour allows you to climb 124 feet through the spiral stone staircases to the top of the Cathedral. You get to look at the huge scale of the nave restoration and study the architecture while standing on the buttress. The tour ends on the roof with a view of the Morningside Heights. They can only take a certain amount of people per tour so recommendations are highly recommended.

We were able to climb to and stand in the open areas as shown next to the stained-glass windows (on all the levels).

Wear comfortable shoes because you have to climb narrow stairs and it's dark, but it's worth the climb to be able to see the church from different perspectives that most people normally don't have a chance to see.

A bird's eye view of the Cathedral's entrance area.

We were able to see the top stained-glass windows up close. We had a knowledgeable and personable tour guide (probably the best we'll ever encounter) that gave us a lot of details and history about the church - what the stained glass windows meant, including the story of the communication stained-glass window where the artist predicted the television as a form of communication before its time, how the dimensions of the church all add up the number 7.

Our tour guide also told us the Cathedral is a place for concerts, including the New York Philharmonic's performances there that take up almost the entire ground level space, which explains why unlike other churches, most of the Cathedral's seating consists of fold up chairs.

The most amusing thing that our tour guide told us was that the church bells you hear ringing every hour is from a CD, it's not actual church bells. The Cathedral is still being constructed and there is no capability to have the normal area where a church's bell would be rung, hence the need to use a musical recording of church bells (which is what we referenced in our Tom's Restaurant blog below).

The remarkable and intricate stone work. Even all the flowers carved out of stones are all unique pieces - not one is like the other. It's remarkable how much beauty, as contained in this Cathedral, was done with just a man's hands, without any sort of technology.

We climbed up and into what our guide called "the non-spiritual part of the church." This attachment was designed to counter balance the structure. Weights were added to compress the the domed ceiling.

This roof above the roof was damp, moldy and rusty. It felt as though we found the remains of Noah's Ark.

Finally, a nice breath of fresh air on the Cathedral's rooftop.

Since we were standing on a slanted rooftop, they don't allow people to climb to this level during winter months or when it's been raining.

These "scissors" on the roof help with the water drainage when it rains.

A view of the peace fountain from the rooftop. If you're ever planning to visit The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, go on a Saturday and do the vertical tour. Seeing the church from different levels and angles and the stories provided by the tour guide is completely worth the hour of your time.

A good way to wrap up the Cathedral visit is in the Children's Sculpture Garden next to the Cathedral. This is the magnificent Peace Fountain located there. It depicts the struggle of good and evil, with the forces of good embodied in the archangel Michael decapitating Satan (and his head shown dangling).

The Peace Fountain is encircled by 24 bronze animal sculptures called "Animals of Freedom" along the Ring of Freedom sculpted by children from kindergarten through high school.

You can find these plaque like dedications in the Children's Sculpture Garden among the hedges. In addition to this one of Ghandi, you can find dedications to Walt Disney and John Lennon, to name a few.

A view of the rooftop where we stood looking down to the Peace Fountain.

A view from the Biblical Garden of the unfinished section of the Cathedral.

When you leave the Cathedral, take a stroll down the street to either Tom's Restaurant (if you're a Seinfeld fanatic) or walk through the nearby Columbia University campus to see what the $30,000+/year college price tag gets those students (the campus is beautiful).