This paper examines the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Temple of Heaven, and Summer Palace as it looks into the similarities and differences between the buildings. The Temple of Heaven is located in Chongwen District Beijing. Its construction began in 1420, which was the 18th year of the reign of Ming Emperor Yongle but was extended and renovated later in the reign of other emperors. It was constructed at the place of worship for Ming and Qing dynasties and the people of the entire community. It covers 273 hectares hence considered the largest architectural complex across the globe for spiritual purposes like prayers and rituals. St. John, the Divine Cathedral, is located at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in NewYork, NY 10025. It is said to be the largest cathedral and the Anglican Church in New York and third largest Christian Church globally. Summer Palace is situated in Haidian District in the northwestern part of Beijing that is 15 kilometres from central Beijing. It is the largest and perfectly preserved royal park in China with a great influence of the Chinese famous cultural interests that have long been recognized as the Museum of Royal Gardens. It was constructed in 1750 as a luxurious and beautiful royal garden for royal families for their rest and entertainment.
Located in a rocky area that required a vast foundation and crypt, the St. John Cathedral was constructed in sections with the first section completed in 1911. It is known to be a great and beautiful architecture with incomplete internal and external surroundings. According to Gray (2002), the building is filled with parking lots, huge stone yard and construction that are currently under litigation. It has been chosen for comparison because it stands as a refined 13th century High Catholic style exercise of northern France. Also called the Chapels of the Tongues, St. John the Divine cathedral has a unique design, meant to represent the seven known or popular ethnic groups that first mitigated New York City in the opening of the Elish Island in early 1892 when its construction begun. In the central point beyond the crossing is an expanded and raised High Alter with a wrought iron enclosure behind the Alter that contains a Gothic style tomb of the person who conceived its foundation (Yiheyuan, 3). Directly below is a large hall in the basement that is used for feeding the homeless and the poor as well as holding meetings and multiple crypts. On the ground towards the south are several buildings with a large bronze work of public art. The structure was, however designated a landmark in 2003 by the Landmarks Preservation Commission of the New York City.
Temple of Heaven
It has two layers of surrounding walls that divide the temple into outer and Inner Alter with the principal buildings congregating thin the Inner Alter for worship during spring and winter solstice. It was mainly constructed for prayers to the heavens for a good harvest in the community. The north structure is thus the Alter for Bumper harvest while the hall of prayers was aimed at asking the heavens for a good harvest. It is considered a precious Chinese ancient art for worshiping heavens. With a large scale of construction, it was fixed with traditional lighting systems and a bell for alerting the public of the times of worship. Currently, it has been listed by the State Council as among the monuments under state protection for human heritage.
Summer Palace
Summer Palace was originally constructed for royal families for their rest and entertainment. However, like the other gardens in Beijing, it was also destroyed by fire in the rampages of the Anglo-French Allied Force before its reconstruction in 1888. In 1924, it was opened to the public as a world heritage site where it became the first national tourist sport in China ranking it a world heritage site by UNESCO. Comprising of the Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill, it covers an area of 300.59 hectares with nice pavilions, bridges, towers, and corridors.
Similarities and differences between the three sites
Comparing the three structures, all of them were constructed with the main purpose of being social and cultural meeting points. The Divine, Cathedral of St. John and Temple of Heaven were constructed as worship centres for spiritual purposes while Summer Palace was mainly for entertainment. In all the three centres, people would meet and share different aspects. They are all large, covering many hectares of land in their specific areas of the location. The difference comes in their construction style where only the Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven has been completed. However, the St. John Cathedral is seen to be missing most is the necessary towers. Finishing it is estimated to require $ 100 million and can only come to completion in hundred years. As it stands currently, the building primarily conforms to a second design campaign of the prolific Catholic Revival architect without copying any existing historical model and compromising its stone-on-stone construction of the modern steel girders. The three centres have been considered as places of national heritage in the respective country of location and are under the protected national monuments (Gray, 1).
Restate thesis
In conclusion, the paper examines the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Temple of Heaven, and Summer Palace as it looks into the similarities and differences between the buildings. It describes when they were constructed and the main purpose of construction as it explains if they still perform the functions they were mainly constructed to do. Currently, they serve as international human heritage centres.
Works cited
Gray, Christopher, Top 25 NY Buildings, June 2002, Retrieved from http://nyc-architecture.com/HAR/HAR002.html. Web
Yiheyuan,Ying. Summer Palace August 2004, Retrieved from http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/summer.html. Web
