Interesting Facts On A Couple Of Churches
The world's largest Gothic cathedral is in New York City. It is the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Amsterdam Avenue and 112th Street. The cathedral measures 601 feet long, 146 feet wide, and has a transept measuring 320 feet from end to end.
The first gold brought back by Christopher Columbus from the Americas was used to gild the ceiling of the church of Santa maria Maggiore in Rome. The ceiling and the gold are still there.
Many Gothic churches of the Middle Ages were built in the following way: a quarry site was established, often as much as 50 miles from the place where the church was to be erected. When the rocks were mined, volunteers from all over the countryside would form a living chain from the quarry to the building site. The rocks would then be passed from hand to hand all the way to the construction grounds.
In the original architectural design, the French cathedral of Chartres had six spires. (It was built with two spires.)