Tea at Trianon: St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine Finally Opens

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, December 16, 2022

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine Finally Opens

From Architectural Digest:

Twenty years earlier, the original St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was destroyed in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center—the only religious structure impacted—and the Spanish architect was selected to redesign a new church for the congregation. “To see the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine finally open is emblematic of Lower Manhattan’s storied future and defining past,” Calatrava said in a statement. “I hope to see this structure serve its purpose as a sanctuary for worship but also as a place for reflection on what the city endured and how it is moving forward.”

Heavily influenced by Byzantine architecture, the rebuilt structure is made from Pentelic marble—the same type of stone that makes up the Parthenon in Athens. The church’s form is defined by four stone-clad towers that support a large dome. This shape in particular was specifically inspired by a mosaic in Hagia Sophia: the Virgin Mary as the “Throne of Wisdom.” Through a series of watercolors, Calatrava slowly morphed the the outlines and shapes in the artwork into the facade of the church. (Read more.)