30 Most Beautiful College Cathedrals

[GoldenIsThyFame]

Guess who is #1...

The 30 Most Beautiful College Cathedrals

 

[IrishRugger2013]

Pretty awesome, considering they included European universities.

 

[RuntheBall]

#1 Football, #1 GSR, #1 Cathedral

 

[Bogtrotter07]

I got so excited as I got down to 15. Duke! I just couldn't believe it. I am suffering from anti-Notre Dame-itus!

 

[PraetorianND]

US Air Force Academy got snubbed.

 

[GoldenIsThyFame]

^ disqualified for being a spaceship.

 

[MNIrishman]

Anyone else bothered by the fact that almost none of these are actually cathedrals?

 

[Bogtrotter07]

No.

 

[GO IRISH!!!]

Valpo #27! Nice!

 

[MNIrishman]

Bogtrotter: Just a pet peeve with the labeling, since tourists at Our Lady's University are inclined to call the Basilica of the Sacred Heart a cathedral, when in fact it has never been a cathedral.

I'm impressed by a lot of these to be sure. I've got to say that Duke's is a lot more impressive than I thought it was. I feel like a good campus church can have a significant impact on how much the university feels like home. At least, when I was applying to schools, that was the case for me. I loved Princeton and West Point, but scratched MIT off my list right after visiting campus because MIT is an abomination from an architectural standpoint, with a chapel that was a less a place of godliness than it was a dank nondescript hole.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

Bogtrotter: Just a pet peeve with the labeling, since tourists at Our Lady's University are inclined to call the Basilica of the Sacred Heart a cathedral, when in fact it has never been a cathedral.

I'm impressed by a lot of these to be sure. I've got to say that Duke's is a lot more impressive than I thought it was. I feel like a good campus church can have a significant impact on how much the university feels like home. At least, when I was applying to schools, that was the case for me. I loved Princeton and West Point, but scratched MIT off my list right after visiting campus because MIT is an abomination from an architectural standpoint, with a chapel that was a less a place of godliness than it was a dank nondescript hole.

I figured that much. But you see how when looking at a great work by Michaelangelo, the average person doesn't have the least idea whether it is a fresco or a secco? "They just know it awful beautiful."

I am excited at the whole thread because I think the Basilica is one of the most special places I have been; but it is my feeling that this whole exercise is pushed by an ecumenical movement and the article uses cathedral (in the modern Protestant sense) as well, more than "church," or "great hall," or "place of worship."

 

[Emcee77]

Bogtrotter: Just a pet peeve with the labeling, since tourists at Our Lady's University are inclined to call the Basilica of the Sacred Heart a cathedral, when in fact it has never been a cathedral.

I'm impressed by a lot of these to be sure. I've got to say that Duke's is a lot more impressive than I thought it was. I feel like a good campus church can have a significant impact on how much the university feels like home. At least, when I was applying to schools, that was the case for me. I loved Princeton and West Point, but scratched MIT off my list right after visiting campus because MIT is an abomination from an architectural standpoint, with a chapel that was a less a place of godliness than it was a dank nondescript hole.

Oh, I am with you.

In my view, a cathedral is the seat of a bishop, or in the loosest sense (which I disfavor) an important church.

Whether you accept that broad sense of the word or not, not all these churches are "important" as opposed to merely beautiful --

but even if they are all "important, "cathedral" is a dreadfully imprecise term for these buildings. These are all churches which are connected to universities. A place of worship serving a separate institution (such as a university or hospital or civic entity) is a chapel. Even though not all the churches are used exclusively by the university to which they are attached, I'd have used the term chapel. I know some people find these differences trivial but, man, that "cathedrals" really grated on my nerves.

 

[Bogtrotter07]

Good point Emcee! Thanks for clearing that up! And I think that the creators of this list were opting for the more ecumenical broader important church aspect.

On the name choice I much agree with you and Minnesota, I suppose that the list creators were getting lost in the beauty of their candidate structures.