St Bede’s Catholic Church in Pyrmont Street is the oldest, continuously functioning church on the Pyrmont peninsula. The Sydney Morning Herald article on the laying of the foundation stone (7/2/1867) stated that, when completed, the new church would be “a very neat and elegant structure

The United States has the second largest Jewish community in the world with a wealth of history and architecture spanning 363 years. From the earliest Jewish congregations established in the original thirteen colonies, to the later congregations established in the central and western regions of the country, beautiful synagogues were built and vital communities were created and thrived. Jewish congregations and their members contributed to the life and success of small towns and large cities alike. America's Pioneer Jewish Congregations: Architecture, Community and History takes the reader on a tour of the oldest existing Jewish congregation in each of the 50 states plus Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. It highlights the history of each congregation and includes photographs of the various buildings that housed these congregations over the years. Some are one of only a few synagogues in a particular state, while others are part of a statewide Jewish community with hundreds of synagogues. The whole spectrum of American synagogue life is represented in all its diversity.

Traces Pope Julius II's controversial early sixteenth-century construction of a new basilica in place of the Emperor Constantine's millennium-old St. Peter's Basilica, documenting how building efforts spanned two centuries and more than two dozen papacies while incorporating the contributions of such master artists as Michelangelo and Raphael. Reprint.

They are dotted around the British Isles, houses of God, that are now lost in time, and forgotten. Left to neglect, renovated for commercial use, or simply demolished completely, with no trace left other than photographs or illustrations to mark their existence. But, at one time or another, they were more than simply bricks and mortar. They represented the glue of life for countless communities, large and small, no matter what faith they professed, nor rich or poor. Just as we rightly celebrate the glorious buildings still thriving - offering succour to dwindling congregations - in books such as Simon Jenkins England's Thousand Best Churches, we should also celebrate the many churches which have been lost through history. Architectural commentator Matthew Hyde travels the length and breadth of the country to seek out and tell the biographies of a wide variety of Churches now lost to history. From buildings erected to workshop God, as well as defy the elements in Orkney; to abbeys destroyed in Henry VIII's dissolution programme; to royal churches were erected in North Wales; to those now sadly submerged under newly built reservoirs in Cumbria and the terrible cost of aerial warfare, which resulted in their total destruction from Hitler's Blitz in World War Two. Complete with archive photography and illustrations mirroring their glorious past, to personal photography from the author of how many look today, shrouded in undergrowth, left as ruins, and some completely gone forever. It is an emotional and poignant tribute to the many buildings that were at one time, the house of God.

Describes how a fifteenth-century goldsmith and clockmaker, Filippo Brunelleschi, came up with a unique design for the dome to crown Florence's magnificent new cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, in a dramatic study set against the turbulent backdrop of Renaissance Italy. Reprint.

Describes how a fifteenth-century goldsmith and clockmaker, Filippo Brunelleschi, came up with a unique design for the dome to crown Florence's magnificent new cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, in a dramatic study set against the turbulent backdrop of Renaissance Italy.

Magical spaces rich in history, the missions of California, featured here in all-new photography, invite reverie and hint of romance. The twenty-one missions of California, from San Diego to San Francisco Solano, are historic treasures and sites of pilgrimage for visitors from the world over. Intrinsically beautiful structures typically built of adobe brick and wood, adorned with towers, domes, whitewashed stucco, often surrounded by lush gardens, the missions are at the very heart of California. Established by Spanish padres, built by Native Californians, and preserved and restored by historians and architects, California’s missions are unique monuments to the region’s early American Indian and European histories. This colorful, informative exploration of all twenty-one missions, each with its own rich story to tell, journeys along the historic Camino Real, from Mission Dolores with its flower-strewn courtyard gardens, in San Francisco, to San Juan Capistrano, famous for the swallows that flock to its inviting grounds. With lush photography that captures the missions’ details so splendidly, this is the perfect book for mission visitors and lovers of their strong and simple forms.

St Vitus