Anthony Esolen on Restoring a Sense of Beauty in Sacred Architecture

"The men who built the cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres did not have diesel engines, or lightweight metals like soft aluminum or firm titanium, or steel girders. The men who built Europe's greatest Gothic church did not have cranes that could tower a hundred feet in the air without toppling, while lifting pre-formed blocks of concrete. They did not have computer models. They did not have the calculus. Most of them assuredly could not read.

"They had to fit stones atop one another precisely to be both balanced and beautiful, and that meant that the stones had to be cleanly and accurately dressed, shaved with saws, cut to fit. Their carpenters had to know how to build safe scaffolding from the hewn trunks of hardwood trees, to soar ten or twelve stories in the air, supporting the men who, with sledges and pulleys and main strength, set in place the stones of lovely arches, springing on each side at exactly the same oblique angle from the pillars beneath, to intersect one another at a point clinched by the keystone."

In a recent commentary, writer (and professor of classical literature at Thomas More University) Anthony Esolen reflected on the importance of restoring a sense of beauty in sacred architecture.

To access complete essay, please visit:

The Institute for Sacred Architecture: Except the Lord Build the House: Restoring a Sense of Beauty