New in PJ Media:
One little-noted effort Donald Trump took to Make America Great Again was a Dec. 2020 executive order combating the aggressive ugliness of the modern American public square. That effort is worth reviving. It is useful to recall that on this day in the year 537, a grand structure was inaugurated that still stands as a model of what public buildings can and should be.
Trump’s executive order noted that “societies have long recognized the importance of beautiful public architecture. Ancient Greek and Roman public buildings were designed to be sturdy and useful, and also to beautify public spaces and inspire civic pride.” Old Joe Biden’s regime, of course, deep-sixed that idea in a hurry; apparently, beautiful and inspiring public buildings are racist or transphobic or something. Civic pride is not something this socialist internationalist regime wants us to have.
Saner societies had a sounder understanding of the importance of beauty. In 532, the Roman Emperor Justinian, determined to make his empire great again, ordered work begun on a grand new cathedral to adorn his capital city, Constantinople, which would outshine all cathedrals constructed before or since. Working at truly astonishing speed, Justinian’s craftsmen completed this new cathedral, Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom”), in only five years. As “Empire of God: How the Byzantines Saved Civilization” details, when he entered the church for the first time as it was nearing completion, Justinian is said to have exclaimed, “Glory to God that I have been judged worthy of accomplishing such a work as this. O Solomon! I have outdone you!” He believed that his new cathedral was even greater than the Temple of Solomon that had once stood in Jerusalem.
Justinian’s grand building has survived for nearly fifteen hundred years now. It stood for nearly a millennium as the largest and grandest church in the Christian world and was widely imitated. Saint Mark’s Basilica in Venice bears numerous points of resemblance to Hagia Sophia and is filled with icons and other sacred objects taken from Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204. The Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, built in 691, is also largely patterned after Hagia Sophia, as is the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, the Suleyman Pasha Mosque in Cairo, and several mosques in present-day Istanbul itself. Even the nineteenth-century Great Synagogue of Florence sports a dome that shows signs of Hagia Sophia’s influence.
Hagia Sophia itself remains as potent a symbol fifteen hundred years after its construction as it was on the day it was consecrated. What exactly it symbolizes, however, has shifted throughout history.
There is more. Read the rest here.
Homer Bedloe says
The author of Mein Kampf posited that public buildings should be beautiful and built to last so that future generations could see what their ancestors built and be proud of their historical accomplishments. He also loved dogs. Two positive attributes and millions of negative ones still makes him a very bad man.
gravenimage says
Homer–with all respect–Hitler lauded Brutalist architecture, that was supposed to make the man on the street feel powerless and faceless except as part of the collective.
Some Nazi design is admirable in a technical sense, but I cannot think of any of it that can be considered beautiful.
As for his dogs, in the end Hitler had all of his dogs poisoned or shot–even his favorite dog Blondi–even though this was unnecessary. He could have given them to a loyal but low ranking Nazi to care for.
That two posters–here at Jihad Watch!–cite Putin’s War Cathedral and Hitler’s accolades to the brutality of the Nazi state as examples for us to follow is quite disturbing when we have Renaissance Rome, 18th century Vienna, Fin de Sicle Paris, Neoclassical Washington DC, and (as poster James Lincoln ably notes) the Art Deco skyscrapers of mid-century New York City as examples.
SteveM says
Russia still build em. Here is new Cathedral of Armed forces
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/875ba8801097858061c332bb491af0cfdda90511/0_90_4867_2921/master/4867.jpg?width=1300&dpr=1&s=none
The floors and walkways are Nazi steel melted down. I was there last Summer (don’t go to Russia in Winter) and it was awe inspiring.
Sister Albert says
Wow! America can’t build anything magnificent anymore. We just transfer a trillion dollars a year to outstretched hands. And tear down statues from the past which don’t conform to the current climate of opinions.
gravenimage says
Steve–with all respect–that you consider this monstrosity, which is a paean to murder and has *nothing* to do with Christianity to be the epitome of beauty is quite disturbing. Here’s the savage interior:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/Ceremony_of_consecration_of_the_Main_temple_15.jpg/600px-Ceremony_of_consecration_of_the_Main_temple_15.jpg
This is all former KGB agent Putin’s vision of a god who will help him crush his enemies–including Ukranian civilians, NATO, and the US.
Bud says
Since making Hagia Sophia an active mosque again, apparently there has been significant disregard for the care and preservation of this historic site. They are using heavy cleaning equipment to clean/polish the marble floors and apparently the heavy equipment is breaking the marble flooring.
James Lincoln says
I have always thought that the Art Deco style Chrysler building in Manhattan was beautiful architecture – both inside and out.
gravenimage says
Agree, James. That and the Empire State Building are examples of buildings that are both practical and very beautiful.
James Lincoln says
Yes, gravenimage.
And nothing says “New York” quite like the Empire State Building!
gravenimage says
Yes–somethign that Americans can be proud of!
nicholas tesdorf says
One reason for the decline in beauty in architecture, generally, is the change in the intention for building use. Nowadays buildings are largely seen as sources of revenue or as advertising for the prestige of private or public bodies. Also nowadays buildings are designed on computers by people with no experience is the problems of physical construction. Failures in construction inevitably ladd to poor appearance.
Architects are always subject to the directions of their patrons and most attempts to improve the appearance of buildings will be met by objections from the client like: “But what will that cost?’ These objections are usually sufficient to revert the design to a low-cost mundane design. These days, there is little awareness of good design in the public mind as it has been removed from education and people’s lives are rarely exposed to good design anywhere. As a result there is no great groundswell to prevent the construction of monstrosities.
gravenimage says
This is true, Nicholas, but this largely applies to buildings that are just spiritless boxes. As ugly as these buildings are, they are seldom the worst examples.
There are artists and architects who actively *want* to discomfit whatever is left of the bourgeoisie. These buildings are often *spectacularly* ugly, and are often not cheap to design or build.
Here’s an example of a monstrosity grafted onto a lovely old building. This is not ugly because they didn’t have any ready examples of beauty:
https://images.ctfassets.net/26961o1141cc/4TeRgQQFG10io7Ga5BLxhO/613a6aaa8965dd5c9f2eff213ec3494a/Ugly_Buildings_-_Architecture_We_Love_to_Hate-_MaxPixel.net-House-Prague-Building-Architecture-Dancing-House-3716982-1024×68.jpg?fm=webp
OLD GUY says
I think we have more important things to deal with.
I. Illegal immigration
2. Illegal Drugs and Cartels
3 Broken justice system that protects the criminals not the victims.
4 Education system
5. Mental health, homeless people
6, Foreign aid give away of our tax dollars
7. potholes
8. crooked Politicians
9. mass transit
10. Stop the selling of America.
gravenimage says
OLD GUY, these issues are *not* unrelated. The philosophy of a society determines its values–what it wants to be, what it will figh for, and what its pubic face looks like.
gravenimage says
Remember When Public Buildings Were Beautiful?
…………………………….
Yes indeed–and I understand the philosophy that created such beauty. (by the way, I have a degree in Art History).
Grimly, “aggressive ugliness” does indeed characyerize much of what has been publicly built in the West in the last few decades. It does not say much for our legacy–or our future…