San Marco

Last winter I had the opportunity to visit Italy with my family. While we were there, we visited San Marco in Venice. It was terribly awe inspiring. The only other cathedral that we saw of greater magnitude was Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Imagining the sight of this cathedral at its worshipping prime, it must have been a humbling thing to see. I would imagine that entering the place would have been particularly incredible. To look up, seemingly to the sky,  and see shafts of light falling down from the high dome. When all else is significantly less extravagant, it's easy to understand the power of the church. Such massiveness and incredible magnitude would have been placed not only upon the doorstep of the physical cathedral, but of the entire Church hierarchy as well. Thus the Church gained power not only as "the gateway to God" but also through the dominance that their cathedrals had over the entire architecture of a city or town. Even in today's world, it was a very humbling thing to see. It elicited respect, even when there are buildings far larger than it everywhere else in the world. It's grandeur was and still is its power.