Interesting comments on the photograph of the Church Madonna Della Lacrimal in Syracuse. OK, hands up, I am an architect, albeit retired now, and have no experience in the eclesiastical field of design so I may be biased in my views. However, the drivers of church and cathedral design have always tried to inspire congregations by building edifices that were not part of the local vernacular and were set up to impress, particularly in respect of the height of their spires or towers or, in the case of Italy, the scale and scope of their interior ornamentation. This has always been part of their attraction. The building formed around a central altar is similar in many ways to the new cathedrals in the UK at, for instance Liverpool and Bristol (Clifton) but the aim was to create a structure that reached to the heavens in the way that the spires of old did.
I have a funny feeling that as these concepts seem rather at odds with a proportion of the current population they will gather greater interest as time goes on and religious concepts evolve but I am sure that the more faithful will correct me in this.
