In this stunning, full-colour book, John Kinross explores the fascinating history behind the smaller, lesser-known churches of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Cheshire and the Welsh borders. Areas characterised by their rural beauty and agricultural charm, it is no surprise that they are home to such extraordinary relics. From the tiny church of St David, Rhulen, in Radnorshire to the even smaller church of Hope Bagot, St John, with its nearby well and wild flowers, each site tells a different tale. Beautifully illustrated and extremely informative, Churches of the Marches is a must-read that pinpoints the ecclesiastical treasures of our Marches.

St. John's Chapel in Chichester is a rare survivor--a Georgian proprietary chapel which has largely escaped the attentions of modernizers. By the noted architect James Elmes, it is listed Grade I and no ordinary place of worship, it was built and run as a commercial venture. Although firmly part of the Church of England, it had no parish to fund it and its trustees had to pay dividends to the shareholders as well as the minister's salary. Investors included John Marsh, that most prolific Georgian composer, who was also chapel warden until his death. Keeping the "business" afloat up to its closure in 1973 proved to be a constant struggle, as this very entertaining new narrative account reveals. The Black Friars' monastery had occupied an important site in the south-east of the city which became the grounds of a large mansion house. In the early 19th century it came into the possession of Major General John Gustavus Crosbie, who also owned much land to the south of Chichester and was a promoter of the Chichester Canal. In 1808 he put up the entire Black Friars site for sale by auction, intending to create a New Town of grand houses for the professional classes. To this end he put restrictive covenants in the deeds, forbidding "unpleasant trades." The New Town provided the ideal site for St. John's and many invested in both projects. Now, Alan Green has provided the first account of the history of this part of Chichester. His important new book is detailed, comprehensive, and impeccably researched. He tells the entire story of the New Town and of St John's--including architecture, construction, intrigues, personalities, and the Trustee's perpetual battle to keep the chapel open. He also explores and explains not only the people who came to live there but also the various businesses, including the Corn Exchange, which, despite Crosbie's covenants, managed to become established in Newtown.

A radical reassessment of the role of movement, emotion, and the viewing experience in Gothic sculpture Gothic cathedrals in northern Europe dazzle visitors with arrays of sculpted saints, angels, and noble patrons adorning their portals and interiors. In this highly original and erudite volume, Jacqueline E. Jung explores how medieval sculptors used a form of bodily poetics-involving facial expression, gesture, stance, and torsion-to create meanings beyond conventional iconography and to subtly manipulate spatial dynamics, forging connections between the sculptures and beholders. Filled with more than 500 images that capture the suppleness and dynamism of cathedral sculpture, often through multiple angles, Eloquent Bodies demonstrates how viewers confronted and, in turn, were addressed by sculptures at major cathedrals in France and Germany, from Chartres and Reims to Strasbourg, Bamberg, Magdeburg, and Naumburg. Shedding new light on the charismatic and kinetic qualities of Gothic sculpture, this book also illuminates the ways artistic ingenuity and technical skill converged to enliven sacred spaces.

Kishwar Rizvi, drawing on the multifaceted history of the Middle East, offers a richly illustrated analysis of the role of transnational mosques in the construction of contemporary Muslim identity. As Rizvi explains, transnational mosques are structures built through the support of both government sponsorship, whether in the home country or abroad, and diverse transnational networks. By concentrating on mosques--especially those built at the turn of the twenty-first century--as the epitome of Islamic architecture, Rizvi elucidates their significance as sites for both the validation of religious praxis and the construction of national and religious ideologies. Rizvi delineates the transnational religious, political, economic, and architectural networks supporting mosques in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in countries within their spheres of influence, such as Pakistan, Syria, and Turkmenistan. She discerns how the buildings feature architectural designs that traverse geographic and temporal distances, gesturing to far-flung places and times for inspiration. Digging deeper, however, Rizvi reveals significant diversity among the mosques--whether in a Wahabi-Sunni kingdom, a Shi i theocratic government, or a republic balancing secularism and moderate Islam--that repudiates representations of Islam as a monolith. Mosques reveal alliances and contests for influence among multinational corporations, nations, and communities of belief, Rizvi shows, and her work demonstrates how the built environment is a critical resource for understanding culture and politics in the contemporary Middle East and the Islamic world.

Britain is well-known for its churches and cathedrals; buildings of great architecture and religious grandeur that form many of our recognisable skylines. But these grand structures are also full of facts, histories and stories that you may not have been aware of.

Did you know that there are only three cathedrals in Britain without a ringing bell? Or that St Davids Cathedral, nestled away in a Welsh valley, has a very unique choir, where the top line is sung only by female choristers, aged eight to eighteen? How about that the Great Pyramids in Egypt were the world's tallest structures for over 3,870 years, until the construction of Lincoln Cathedral in 1311?

Award-wining travel writer and editor Sue Dobson takes us on a journey around the United Kingdom, showing us her highlights while providing fascinating details and stories along the way.

When Greyfriars Graveyard opened in Edinburgh in the sixteenth century, built on the site of a Franciscan monastery on the edge of the Old Town below the castle, it became Edinburgh's most important burial site. Over the centuries many of Edinburgh's leading figures have been buried at Greyfriars, alongside many more ordinary folk, and it is home to a spectacular collection of post-Reformation monuments. In this book local historian Charlotte Golledge takes the reader on a tour around Greyfriars Graveyard to reveal the history of the cemetery, from when James I granted the land as a monastery to the present day. She explores the huge variety of its monuments and gravestones and explains the symbolism behind the stones and carvings and how the styles changed over the years. Through this she paints a remarkable picture of life and death in Edinburgh over the centuries, which will appeal to both residents and visitors to the Scottish capital.

Framing the Church takes a nontraditional approach to the study of the hallmark of French Gothic architecture: the buttress. In a series of case studies spanning approximately five hundred years and incorporating some of Gothic France’s most significant monuments, Maile S. Hutterer examines the aesthetics, social processes, and iconography of flying buttresses and buttress piers to explain how they supported the church both symbolically and structurally. Surrounding all or part of a building with periodically spaced massive piers, the buttressing frame defines an edge that simultaneously maintains permeability, creating an intermediary space around the structure. Making extensive use of archival sources, Hutterer argues that the areas between the buttresses distinguished the consecrated, sacred ground of the church interior from its unconsecrated, nonsacred surroundings, a division that was of increasing concern to theologians in the High Middle Ages. She traces how, over the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, artists and patrons increasingly associated buttressing frames with sacred places through the incorporation of sculptural programs related to theology, processions, and protection. In this way, buttressing frames mediated the interaction between visitor and building and participated in the liturgical and ritual purpose of the church’s structure. Original and persuasive, this book illuminates the buttresses’ social and religious meaning for medieval viewers by introducing architectural iconography to a form that is primarily understood in terms of its structural utility. It will be welcomed by students and scholars of medieval architecture and medieval French history.

As China struggled to redefine itself at the turn of the twentieth century, nationalism, religion, and material culture intertwined in revealing ways. This phenomenon is evident in the twin biographies of North China's leading Catholic bishop of the time, Alphonse Favier (1837-1905), and the Beitang cathedral, epicenter of the Roman Catholic mission in China through incarnations that began in 1701. After its relocation and reconstruction under Favier's supervision, the cathedral-and Favier-miraculously survived a two-month siege in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion. Featuring a French Gothic Revival design augmented by Chinese dragon-shaped gargoyles, marble balustrades in the style of Daoist and Buddhist temples, and other Chinese aesthetic flourishes, Beitang remains an icon of Sino-Western interaction. Anthony Clark draws on archival materials from the Vatican and collections in France, Italy, China, Poland, and the United States to trace the prominent role of French architecture in introducing Western culture and Catholicism to China. A principal device was the aesthetic imagined by the Gothic Revival movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the premier example of this in China being the Beitang cathedral. Bishop Favier's biography is a lens through which to examine Western missionaries' role in colonial endeavors and their complex relationship with the Chinese communities in which they lived and worked.