戴安娜王妃婚礼地点－圣保罗大教堂
1981年的7月，在英国伦敦的圣保罗大教堂举行了一场最具童话色彩的婚礼，这就是平民王妃戴安娜和王子查尔斯的婚礼，今天我们要说的不是王妃，而是这座教堂……
For nearly 300 years the dome of the present St. Paul's Cathedral has presided over London's skyline. Considered one of England's most beautiful landmarks, two designs by noted architect Sir Christopher Wren were rejected at first, but revised plans were accepted in 1675.
Wren had one great idea and that was to have a great domed building. That was the one thing that was essential to his concept of the Cathedral from beginning to end. It proved to be too revolutionary I think for the Dean and Chapter of the time, it was too much a single domed building, not sufficiently a building that had nave, chancel, choir aisles.
Wren redesigned and persevered for nearly 50 years, living to see the dome's construction completed. Weighing more than 71 thousand tons when finished, it was a logistical and engineering feat.
Inside, the Cathedral combines architectural splendor with historical memorials. The tombs of British military heroes, the Duke of Wellington and Admiral Horatio Nelson are situated near American military heroes in a chapel commemorating US service men and women who died during World War II. Now the Cathedral is undergoing its most extensive restoration to date. Parts like the dome were repaired decades before, but items like the peristyle just below need some attention this time around. The weight of the dome pushed out the supporting wall, causing it to crack.
While the stones are pushed, displaced, they open up, and the water can then get in through the skin of the building. Now Wren used a certain amount of iron work, if iron gets wet as we all know it rusts, when it rusts it expands, when it expands it blows the stonework to pieces. It's therefore extremely important that we keep the whole thing watertight.
Water also seeps through stone into an iron belt that supports the dome destroying the surrounding stone.
"Well, what you are actually seeing here is one of the large fractures that come right down through the chain. We're just making sure that the chain is whole, protected, and doing its job."
The Portland stone blocks replacing those damaged in the peristyle are hand carved, just as they were three centuries ago. But interior walls were gentlely cleaned using 21st century mixtures of rubber latex and alkaline base. Combining tradition and technology in this restoration project will allow millions to enjoy the Cathedral for centuries to come. |
英伦如果是湿润～那南欧如果是热烈的话～北欧则是清冷了～～