Gothic Architecture and Cathedrals, Week Eight

The 6-8th graders for this class tried every week of the semester to magically make this class not happen in the medieval period but during the World War 2 period. I've promised them a WW2 class in the future, but made this last class into a study of the gothic architecture and cathedrals that suffered the bombings during WW2. The three cathedrals are the ones located in Cologne and Frankfurt, Germany, and St. Stephan's Dom in Vienna, Austria.

This first map shows the locations of theses three cities and the movement of troops, both Axis and Allies.

The Kölner Dom or Cologne Cathedral: The Epitome of Gothic Grandeur. It's Germany's most visited landmark with 20,000+ visitors a day. Construction began in 1248 and halted in 1473. Work was restarted in the 1800s and the cathedral was finished using the original plans, based on Amiens Cathedral,  in 1880. It is the largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe and the largest gothic facade in the world. Housing the reliquary of the Magi, it was a place of pilgrimage and worship for the Holy Roman Emperor. 14 August, 1880, the cathedral was complete and a celebration was had, attended by Kaiser Wilhelm I. The cathedral took 14 direct hits in air raids during the 2nd world war. The twin spires were recognizable and used as an aviation navigational landmark for Allied aircraft. Cologne itself suffered 262 air raids (4,711 tons of bombs dropped by the RAF), and was the site of the first "1,000 bomber raid" by the RAF, codename Operation Millennium. After the war, repairs were completed in 1956. 

Germany's Cologne Cathedral | DW

The Second World War: The Blitz on Cologne

Frankfurter Dom

The Dom in Frankfurt was not a true cathedral despite its name. It is a Kaiserdom, and Imperial Cathedral due to its importance as a former election and coronation church of the Holy Roman Empire. It was a symbol of national unity. The gothic structure was the third church building on this site. It is also called St. Bartholomew's and contains his relics. Between October 1943 and March 1944, Allied forces bombed six times. 

Frankfurter Dom 

Damage to Franfurt was extensive during the Allied Forces bombing campaigns. Here are photos and footage of the aftermath.

Stephansdom, Vienna, Austria
This is probably one of my favorite cathedrals because of the roof.
And one more Rick Steve's video of Stephansdom. 

The roof burned in one of the raids.

And to wrap up the class, a Drone video... which has quickly become a favorite video type for this class. I have thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of this class and hope to do it again.

Gothic Architecture and Cathedrals, Week Seven

We scooted through England last week, and now we are in Ireland. Christianity in Ireland was great deal different than what was found the Continent and in England, whose Christianity was influenced directly through Constantinople and Rome. Irish Christianity is also known as Celtic or Insular Christianity. While it began in the Catholic mold, it is distinguishable from the Roman Catholic Church. While the differences are not necessarily in theology, the Celts were able to maintain their regional/traditional practices. A history of the Christian faith in Ireland can be viewed here. Celtic art, as this video shows, was drastically different than the Roman to French to Norman England. Therefore the art found in cathedrals and other ecclesiastical expressions were unique, following a distinct Celtic tradition. This video discusses Celtic art and Christianity.

Two distinguishable differences are the emphasis on writing/scholasticism and the Irish mission system of St. Columba. In the earliest of days, monasticism in Ireland was primarily focused on education and ecclesiastical writings. The monastic settlement of Iona is said to have produced the Book of Kells, today housed in the library at Trinity College in Dublin, and revered in Ireland as an illuminated text, as seen here. Mission work was also a unique part of Celtic monasticism, as they recognized the importance of their patron saint's mission work to Ireland: St. Patrick.

Glendalough was a monastic settlement south of Dublin. From here, Abbot Laurence O'Toole made the move to Dublin in 1162AD to be Archbishop of Dublin. While in this position, he helped rebuild Christ Church into a cathedral, the first in Ireland and in the Gothic style. Christ Church Cathedral: A Thousand Years of History can be viewed at this link. Drone footage of the cathedral, interior and exterior, can be seen here. I use these videos in class and we spend time pointing out the things that make it Gothic. With drone videos we usually start on the outside where we can note the shape of the cruciform, the flying buttresses, the pointed arches of the windows, and the rose window. Each class, we discuss the design of the layout, as I detailed in Week Three of this class. 

The second cathedral in Dublin we studied was St. Patrick's Cathedral. The history of the church on this site can be viewed here, and the drone video can be viewed here. The building fell into disrepair in the late 1800s by Benjamin Guinness. He offered to pay for the entirety of the restoration but stipulated that he would hold the all final decisions on design. This move was controversial and some nicknamed St. Patrick's Cathedral as the Whiskey Church. His restoration was again in the Gothic style and with a reverence for medieval art and architecture. Information on this restoration can be found here. 

This week, our final class, we finish up in Germany and Austria.

                                                                                                                     

Poe & Pop Culture, Week Seven

One week of classes left! This class has gone so well-- so many things came together; learning and entertainment meshed beautifully. That being said we are on to class notes and links for week seven: Poe and the mystery genre; our reading was The Murders in the Rue Morgue. I forgot to snap a picture of the white board and the time line I used, so we start with my typed version.

• 1829, Sir Robert Peele and his 'bobbies'; the first organized police force
• 1837-1839, Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
• 1841, The Murders in the Rue Morgue
• 1852-1853, Bleak House by Charles Dickens
• 1868, Wilkie Collins writes The Moonstone
• 1887, Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet; the first of the Sherlock Holmes stories to be published
• 1920, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie's first novel and first Hercule Poirot story

*Industrial Revolution: 1750-1840

*Victorian Era, 1837-1901

*Edwardian Era, 1901-1910

This small timeline may seem odd, but there is a direct correlation between the rise of the mystery genre and the rise of crime at the tail end of the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian Era. Three results of the Industrial Revolution are 1) more people were living in cities in overcrowded, squalid conditions, 2) disease was rampant-- cholera, typhoid, typhus, etc., and 3) employment was uncertain and working conditions were unsafe and dismal. The masses were poor and desperate, living and surviving in close quarters. This video is rather long, but the first twelve minutes discuss the rise of crime in Victorian England, the need for a police force, and the early days of forensic science. The last part of the video goes off on a tangent about locks and locksmithing.

Novels of the day responded directly to the social upheaval, like Charles Dickens with his Oliver Twist and Bleak House. Poe was the first author to write a murder mystery, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, with the basic tropes of the genre: the eccentric, yet brilliant detective, the bumbling police authorities, first person narrative from someone other than the main character, and the inspector announces the solution followed by the reasoning leading to it. At the time, the word 'detective' did not exist. Later writings in the genre would expand on the tropes. The 'red herring' or false trail could be attributed to Poe's character M. Le Bron in Rue Morgue, but this was not utilized more obviously until later. Poe called his three mystery stores (The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, and The Purloined Letters) 'tales of ratiocination'. According to dictionary.com, ratiocination is 'reasoning, conscious deliberate interference; the activity or process of reasoning; thought or reasoning that is exact; valid and rational; a proposition arrived at by such thought. Dupin, the protagonist of The Murders in the Rue Morgue, investigated primarily for his own amusement and to prove the falsely accused innocent. The character Dupin became the prototype for Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. As an aside, The Murders in the Rue Morgue is also the first 'locked room' mystery, where the the murders happen within a room that's been locked from the inside.

For the pop culture portion of this class, not a whole lot has been used directly from The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Several movies for film and television have used the name, but have widely ignored the contents of the story, beginning in 1932 with a Bela Lugosi film and up to a 1986 version, starring George C. Scott and Val Kilmer. In 2004, Dark Horse Comics released a one-shot Van Helsing story using a murder scene from The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

This video, Mystery: The Symbiotic Storyline, discusses the mystery genre, how it came to be and how it has grown and morphed with other genres. As we are dealing with the mystery genre, read murder mystery, and this is a Poe class in particular, there are some seconds within this video that show murder (of course it's Hollywood) taking place.

The reading for this last week of class is The Mystery of Marie Roget and The Purloined Letter.

Poe & Pop Culture, Week Six

In this lesson, we are wrapping up the science fiction element that is Poe. I had this timeline up on the board, with my notes to follow.

Poe is often considered the father of science fiction and detective mysteries. He shares the founding of science fiction with Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. His contemporaries and the authors that came up soon after his death all, in some way, experienced the glories and the tragedies of the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840). It was an innovative time that brought machines, chemicals, steam power, and industry on a massive scale. It was the time of Darwin and his drive to understand human life. John Green's Crash Course World History has to be one of my favorite smashing through history series yet. Here is his take on the Industrial Revolution. 

For literature, some of the greatest classics came from this time period. In 1818, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. This was unlike anything written before. It's the first instances of the mad scientist, experimentation, technology, idealizing things beyond the science humans had up to that point, and looking at the human condition from an outside perspective. Nine years later, The Mummy! Or a Tale of the Twenty Second Century by Jane C. Loudon brought the story of Cheops resurrected by scientists and dropped into world crisis, a world that was clearly not his own. Our reading for this week was The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaal (1835). Poe utilized a flight to the moon, detailing construction, launch, and many other science-like aspects. His The Balloon Hoax, which we read last week, was not written until 1844. In 1836, Louis Geoffrey wrote Napoleon et la Coquete du Mondes, an alternate history of the world if Napoleon had conquered it. Rather like the current television series The Man in the High Castle, based on the 1962 book by Philip K. Dick and creates a dystopian, alternate history based on the Axis Powers winning World War II instead of the Allies. Samuel Butler wrote Erewhon in 1872 creating the future trope of machines one day becoming sentient and overtaking the human race. Current examples of this would be the films Wall E and I, Robot starring Will Smith. Mark Twain jumped into the time travel trope with A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889). Engineer Hank Morgan goes back to King Arthur's time and wows the inhabitants of that time with his 19th century knowledge. The Bing Crosby film version of 1949 is brilliant, however, it's not on youtube other that the trailer.  By 1900, Frank Baum was surrounded by so many exceptional examples of science fiction, he wrote fourteen books, from 1900-1920.

So what is science fiction? Here is a summary.  The narrator covers the eras and the history of the genre. 

By the time the 1860s come around, science fiction begins in earnest. Poe was an originator of the genre, but Verne and Wells gave it definition. Verne wrote from the perspective that all this science and forward thinking is romantic and a grand adventure. Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1869), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Verne specifically took the idea of Poe's The Balloon Hoax and ran with it. I adore the Steve Coogan/Jackie Chan movie version of Around the World in 80 Days. It is the Victorian spirit of science, invention, adventure, and romance. Verne, unlike Poe, was commercially successful and was able to make a living at his novel writing. Sprague de Camp (1907-2006), an American writer of science fiction, declared Verne as "the world's first full-time science fiction novelist."

While Verne romanticized the genre, H.G. Wells used his writing to make didactic points (teaching points) about society. This method of writing was utilized by Charles Dickens, as he used stories to teach and dissect society, its goodness and its woes. Oliver Twist (1837-1839), A Tale of Two Cities (1859), and A Christmas Carol (1843) are all novels that take into account the human condition. The Wells type of science fiction glosses over the technical details and delves into the metaphors of a dystopian society versus the society in the world as we know it. The science fiction conundrum is this: do authors present realist technology and focus on the adventures of the characters as entertainment or do authors tell the story and build it up to make a point?

We spent time in class discussing the science fiction of the last century. Star Trek (the idea that humankind can overcome anything, exploration, positive attitude), Star Wars (combination of science fiction and fantasy), Firefly (which we don't talk about too much for obviously short reasons), and the longest running television series Doctor Who (sci-fi doesn't always have to be about the pessimistic). This video breaks down the genre and the "science fiction any work with the presence of novum."  

With Doctor Who, the Doctor continues to seek out the wonders of the universe despite adversity and terror. The 11th Doctor says "I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams." The Doctor also says "It's the universe's cruelty which makes human kindness and ingenuity all the more precious and unique."

To sign off for the week, and because I can, here are several Doctor Who links that are didactic moments, playing to the strengths of human beings (as a massive portion of sci-fi reflects negatively on the human race). 

• 12th Doctor, "The Zygon Inversion" speech
• Doctor Who, The Greatest Speeches
• 10th Doctor, "The Age of Steel"
• 12th Doctor, Kindness Speech
• 11th Doctor, Regeneration Change Speech

Reading for this week is The Murders in the Rue Morgue. 

Gothic Architecture and Cathedrals, Week Six

We've officially moved across the English Channel with the Norman invasion (William the Conqueror in 1066)  and the French Gothic style. With the Gothic style originating in France, and growing over the next several hundred years, it's no surprise that it takes longer for England to use the style. By the time England is firmly in the "English Gothic" stage of architecture, France is beginning to turn their eyes to Italy and the early Renaissance style. The English Gothic takes longer to grow and hangs around quite a bit longer (roughly 1180-1520) than it did on the Continent. The English Gothic utilizes the basic constructs: pointed arches, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, large windows, rose window, and spires. Their additions to the Gothic style are the longer naves, and wider transepts. The sculpture and art in the arches are predominantly English. The earliest large scale English Gothic cathedrals was at Canterbury and Westminster. For this lesson, we will be studying Westminster Abbey and Ely Cathedral.

Welcome to Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey was founded in 960 as a Benedictine monastery. It wasn't until much later it was given cathedral status, meaning it was a Bishop's seat. In 1042, Edward the Confessor began rebuilding the abbey for a royal burial ground, which he had built in the Romanesque style. Formally known as the Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Westminster, this structure was finished a week before Edward's death in 1066.  A few months later, it was the site of the coronation of William the Conqueror, and every subsequent coronation of an English/British monarch since. Henry II built a chapel, known as either the Lady Chapel or the Henry II Chapel. It's dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and the space is done in the Decorative style, which hides the bones of the structure. It's about the aesthetic here and a departure from the heaviness of the structure and its visible bones.

Fast forward a bit and the Gothic cathedrals in England hit a snag. Henry VIII. Serial husband who took umbrage with the Pope's refusal to grant him a divorce from his wife Catherine of Aragon, broke with the Papacy and declared himself the head of the Church of England.

A drone video of Westminster

By 1560, Westminster Abbey is no long an abbey or cathedral. Fun fact: it is said during this time the phrase "robbing Peter to pay Paul" gained in popularity when monies set aside for St. Peter's (Westminster) was sent to St. Paul's Cathedral treasury instead. Also in 1560, Elizabeth I made Westminster Abbey a 'royal peculiar,' meaning it is of the Church of England but answering directly to the Sovereign. This made Westminster Abbey first and foremost a State Church. Coronations, burials, some weddings, and other state functions are held at Westminster. Most recently, the wedding of William and Kate was held there, and in coming months a memorial for Stephen Hawkings will be held there as well.

As this is a church used by the state, the interior is one part Christ and the other a massive memorial to the greats of the British monarchy and history. The South Transept of Westminster is known as Poet's Corner. This area is dedicated to writers, from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Dickens, Austen, and Caroll,  some are memorials and others are buried beneath the floor. You can visit the area here. 

Fun fact: You have to have a purchased ticket to tour Westminster. Ely is free. You can't take photos inside Westminster. Ely you can take as many as you could ever want.

Ely Cathedral, an excellent glimpse at the scope and size of this structure.

A ways to the northeast of Westminster Abbey is the town of Ely, in Cambridgeshire. In 673 AD St. Etheldreda founded a monastery. Ely Cathedral, dedicated to Etheldreda, began in the Norman (Romanesque) style and was adjusted over the years of building to become a Gothic structure.

Here you can see elements left over from the Norman (Romanesque) structure: the rounded arches, the heavier, darker stone work, and the lack of ribbed arches above.

In 1321 an additional structure was built to the side, the Lady Chapel. This chapel was built in the later Decorative Gothic style and can be viewed here.  As Henry VIII dismissed the authority of the Papacy, Ely and other cathedrals throughout England floundered. The religious/state upheaval of the next several years brought the destruction of many buildings. At Ely, much of what was considered specifically of the Catholic faith were destroyed. The sculptures of the Lady Chapel were either removed or had the faces smashed off.

Notice the lack of faces on the sculptures in the niches.

This is an example of the decorative Gothic style. This is the ceiling in the chapel dedicated to St. Etheldreda.

We have discussed the memorials that have since been added to these cathedrals. Many are from the modern wars. The stained glass here is a memorial to those lost in World War II.

The art and stain glass of Ely Cathedral can be seen here.

An aerial drone view of the cathedral can be seen here.

This concludes our foray into England and the English Gothic. This week we hop the Irish Sea and land in Dublin to study the art and architecture of Christ Church and St. Patrick's Cathedral.