Thank you so much dear @soulsdetour. I was actually skeptical the first time I heard about an American replica of the Holy Land. So I had to see the landmark in person to believe it! Again, I'm not saying this due to lack of faith or an unstable religious foundation, but fundamentally from an architectural point of view. You see, my memorable experiences at this sacred sanctuary could not be explained by mere words - despite having tried my best to narrate them in this post. Besides the sensual, mental, and emotional impressions of this location's architecture, apparently, there was a spiritual connection at work! And that was simply what I was looking forward to for pilgrimage sites such as this one.
I agree. Indeed, our dear friend @juancar347 is a master storyteller of history, culture, and most importantly, architecture. Being an architectural explorer and researcher himself, his interesting adventures and personal experiences are a tremendous inspiration for all. It's a great honor to have him with us.
On the other hand, you're doing pretty well here too! And I truly admire the way you express yourself in written content - they're highly stimulating, positively provocative, encouraging readers to think outside the box and be more constructively critical in their approach. Do you have other brilliant ideas about how our community members can improve their engagement with each other? Perhaps @juancar347 can also offer his valuable advice here. 😊
First of all, dear friends, @soulsdetour and @storiesoferne, I would like to thank you for the generosity with which you treat me, undeserved, on the other hand, because I only try to contribute my vision of things, which may or may not be understood or shared or not shared. I have nothing against replicas, but I will say something that I think is important and has a lot to do with it: in the past, temples were not built anywhere, but in very specific places and that they had important antecedents, both as a replacement for a place of ancient cult, as of harnessing, let us say, telluric energies (in the Romanesque, our friends the little mermaids, apart from exoterically representing passionate sin, had, according to many authors (an idea I share), the purpose of 'signaling' the currents telluric, which generally coincided with the most important place in the temple: the apse and hence the number of its queues) that 'charged' the place with energies, generally positive, that people really felt. In my comment to the excellent work, both descriptive and photographic, of our friend Erne, I was tempted by the detail of Franciscan architecture, due to its relationship with Templar architecture (a topic that obviously interests me a lot) and I let myself be carried away by my particular enthusiasm and for my experiences with Franciscan architecture, especially in Galicia, where there are very good examples, both in Betanzos (A Coruña) and in the capital Lugo itself, where both were. Besides, I confirm my desire to one day see the Al Aksá mosque, the Dome of the Rock, since it was not only the Mother House of the Temple, as I said in my comment, but its model was also imported to Spain and can be found in numerous and curious temples, some of which I think you know from having done the Camino de Santiago, such as Santa María de Eunate or San Miguel de Olcoz. An affectionate greeting to both of you.
Thank you very much for your words of wisdom dear friend @juancar347. More power! 😊
In no way has it bothered me that you tag me. On the contrary, I believe that the contributions and impressions of all are important and enriching, since I always start from the basis that we all learn from each other. An affectionate greeting and a good weekend.
So grateful to you dear @soulsdetour for sharing your personal opinion. I'm surely moved by your humility, plus your ardent desire to accumulate more knowledge derived from the wealth of learning experiences of the authors and members of our beloved community. Please continue doing what you love - immersing yourself in the various stories about architecture and design from around the world. I'm truly glad we have encouraged you to be more open as a person, being more active in our special channel by interacting, commenting, and showing interest in our advocacies. Stay awesome, as always! 😊