What One Should Know About Lake Norman Churches

By Angela Howard


Depending with the denomination a church represents various things. According to the Roman Catholic it is seen as a symbol of the body of Christ. Generally a church is basically a structure used for worshiping and considered sacred by Christians. People come from different cultural backgrounds to meet and worship God thus promoting unity and understanding. This is worth knowing about Lake Norman churches.

The practice of building special structures for worship began long time ago. The history of churches as contained in the Bible indicates that ancient people worshipped on synagogues and in temples. To a Christian a church is simply the house of their God. History points out that earlier church were built in Western Europe before they spread to other places. Back then they not only served as places of worship but also as meeting points. Several community functions were conducted from churches.

They were used as meeting places for the community, banquet hall among others. Their design has really evolved from medieval times to the modern times. The styles include the Romanesque architecture. This become very popular in Europe during the Romanesque era which was a form of traditional Roman architecture. It is marked with bulkiness and compactness. It is dominated by circular arches with rough or octagonal towers.

With the Romanesque gone came gothic style. Comparatively Gothic was less compact Romanesque. One thing that remained unchanged in both styles is allegoric and symbolic features. The work was done using buttresses, rib vaults, and arches. Invention of better techniques which improved the system of the structure meant that they could be less compact. More room left after less compaction led to incorporation of bigger windows.

When the gothic era ended some church structures built using this architecture were left unfinished. A new style was coming up in the course of the renaissance period around the 15th and 16th century. Church designs were hugely affected. Basilicas are the best example of a renaissance church, a style which was made easier and the major key characteristic was its conventional arrangement of columns.

Baroque architectural style took over during the renaissance period. It was influenced by the development and increase in the building industry. During this period, many churches were used to indicate wealth, authority and influence. It was a complicated style since the simple forms of the renaissance period were largely exaggerated to create baroque architecture. They were decorated with moldings and sculpture works. The simple roofs were replaced by domes and capitals which were highly decorated.

After all these eras came to pass the modern era was introduced. In the modern era a common architecture for all church structures is the shape of the cross. This is represented in terms of a long rectangle with side rectangles. The traditional church is divided in to several categories. These are the nave, altar and sanctuary.

Each division had to be well spaced and designed to suit its purpose. Due to improvements in building technology, these structures seem to have developed in consideration to design. However, there still exists basilicas and cathedrals, which are designs with origins in the old era.




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