150 Churches in Paris and elsewhere

Göteborg Cathedral: first church in Sweden to get central heating Lots more white and gold than in your common or garden cathedral. I particularly liked the modern religious art - a crown of thorns with noone wearing it, a christ-like tunic in metal fabric; very spiritual, I thought. As perhaps you knew, in Scandinavia countries have a national Church each (two in Finland: don’t ask). So this is a Church of Sweden cathedral. The Church of Sweden is a Lutheran church (basically, good works are not the point, faith is where it’s at, and you only get two sacraments, not the seven the Catholics can boast). Their view on transubstantiation is worth a look, too. After a huge fire burned down the second cathedral on the site at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the present cathedral, the third, was built, in (neo)classical style. It was the first church in Sweden to be fitted with central heating, in 1852.

  Metz, France, St Stephen's cathedral - making dragons flee Nicely renovated Gothic cathedral - building began in 13th century; stained glass by Marc Chagall, allegedly better known for floating lovers and green violinists. I actually worked in the town of Metz in the East of France for a couple of years in the late nineties, but this was before I was heavily into churches, so I found I remembered nothing about this cathedral when, in 2024, I was in town for a day’s work. The church includes commemoration of the story of Saint Clément, a gentle medieval dragon-tamer, whose stole was enough to persuade Billy dragon to make tracks (dragon suggestion shown). There is a fabulous pulpit which looks like my grandfather’s radiogram, as well as a grander one, and a Latin inscription reminding you to go to confession(John 20:23). I found the modern matching altar table and lectern particularly beautiful. This is the church in France with the largest area of stained glass, and contains more...