Medieval Gothic Churches

Thursday-May 28

Keep handing in the videos for the Grade 8 Farewell

Next Week, I will keep being online at 1pm, but from school. You can also book an appointment by phoning the school to come in and see a teacher.

Friday-Kahoot

Go on a tour of some of the beautiful Medieval churches, but around a 1000 years ago.  For your own tour, here is a link to a virtual tour of Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral, before it burned last year, a Gothic church built in the Middle ages, about a thousand years ago.  Here is link to the outside. Here is a another Notre Dame Cathedral in France, a little newer, but still very old, and my personal favourite.  This church, Sainte-Chapelle, is older than the two Notre Dame churches. Here is a link to multiple pictures of multiple Gothic Churches from the Middle Ages. 

 

Note  the pointed arches

and the ribbed vaults.

the huge doors  

the flying buttresses

all the tall windows  

the grotesques

 

 and gargoyles  

Gargoyles doing their work while the teacher was caught in the rain.
 

And inside be prepared to see some Relics

Relic were usually items brought back from the 'Holy Lands' by returning crusaders. Items that supposedly touched Jesus or some other holy figure. One such relic that has been in Częstochowa since the Middle Ages is the Black Madonna, said to have been painted by St. Luke on boards from the table of the holy family. Its power is said to have rebelled and killed invaders, including the person who put two slashes onto the face.

People come and pray to the Madonna and are said to be miraculously healed, leaving their crutches, wheelchairs, glasses, walkers, etc behind.  Here is a small sample of several walls that are covered with these medical devices. 

Whether you believe in relics or not, one undisputed fact is that people who come and visit the relics, called pilgrims, enrich the local economy as any tourist would, paying for food, lodging and other services. The relics often paid for the building of the church. Częstochowa has had pilgrims/tourists visiting for a thousand years enriching the local economy because of the Black Madonna. 

Relics in popular culture today

Information here and here and here on the role of relics and what some of them were/are. Take some time with the above links and enjoy the virtual field trip. You might find it a little cool in the churches, and remember, no matter how hot outside, shoes, covered shoulders and covered knees inside the church, and a uncovered head for men. 

Some more information about Stained glass here  And some more information on cathedrals here.

1. If Kris came back to town from the crusades with a piece of wood and a nail that he said came from the cross that Jesus Christ died on, how could this artifact help the town economy? (if people believed him).

2. Looking down from above, what shape did gothic churches have?

3. The first part of the church built, the part with the alter where the priest stands, is the ______ part of the finished Church (North, South, East, West).

4. Would the designer of one of these Gothic Cathedrals live to see the finished work?

5. Books were scarce and most people couldn't read. Where in the Church can they see stories from the Bible?