The Subtle Differences
How little differences in architecture tell a story about a place (London vs. Paris)
Buildings are like a time-capsule of the culture and society of that place. We like to travel to these places and see their cities and architecture because it gives a glimpse into their history and what their culture today is all about. To me, all of the little differences in the culture between your home and this new place can be seen by just comparing buildings.
That might sound a bit odd, but hear me out.
Let’s compare St Paul’s Cathedral in London to Les Invalides Church in Paris.
Both buildings seem to have very strikingly similar features whilst still being clearly very different. It’s like they’re cousins.
Those domes you can see on the image are typical of Renaissance and Baroque architecture. The crowning jewel of Renaissance architecture would be St Peter’s Basilica in The Vatican. From there, the trend spread to the rest of Europe with the grandeur and domes representing Catholic-style churches. But what is odd about about this, is that St Paul’s was built (as we know it today) under the reign of Charles II- a Protestant king for whom outwardly being Catholic could have cost him his head.
So why did Charles II commission St. Paul’s Cathedral in this Catholic style?
Just before Charles II’s Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, The English Civil War had meant his father, Charles I, had been beheaded- and for a short while England was a republic. Religion was a big factor in causing division in England. Charles I’s seeming fondness for Catholicism exacerbated tensions.
When Charles II finally took back the throne, he had to be careful not to cause more upset and aggravate the intrinsic disdain for Catholicism in England.
And so he didn’t.
But then here’s the situation: under his reign he commissioned a building that would dominate the London skyline for centuries to come, in a typically Catholic signature-and it’s not even subtle. But when you hear that Charles II’s had spent years in France, and his first cousin was the King of France it seems to make a little more sense where the influences came from…
…France was proudly and openly Catholic. Les Invalides was built under Louis XIV, the Sun King, who liked splashing out on fancy buildings such as the Palace of Versailles. Inside the Les Invalides complex there’s a massive portrait of Louis- larger than the pictures of Jesus. That’s a statement. Louis was placing the importance of the French monarchy inline with God.
Conversely, in St Paul’s there are NO fancy portraits of Charles II, or any other monarch for that matter. Putting him inside the Cathedral would almost seem to put him on the same level as God, and in the aftermath of Civil War (with religion being a part of that), that would have been stupid.
The lack of pictures of monarchs in St Paul’s echoes the significant shift in the country’s view of monarchy- they were no longer God-like, they served the people. (For France, that shift would take another 75 years to take place under the French Revolution.)
The overarching point of all of this is that buildings speak to the culture and society of the time when they were built. Even in comparing two buildings from two cities that are 300 miles away, you can see the similarities and differences of their history.
St. Paul’s is perhaps only in that particular style because Charles II had spent time with Louis XIV because of his exile- a result of the Civil War; but St. Paul’s could not adorne itself with the same grandeur and portraits as Les Invalides because of the religious tensions still very present in England. This was million miles away from Louis in France, enjoying the life of an absolute monarchy and all the splendeur it came with (while it lasted). Architecture reveals similarities as well as differences- that could due to shared religion, custom or even cousins.
