What's up with the Pope's Audience Hall?

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Because it was built during the worst time for architectural fads where the church was, unfortunately, trying to seem open to “modern” (aka instantly dated) things. And whatever his other virtues, Pope Paul liked ugly art and architecture in general.
 
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Well, to give Pope Paul VI a break, we should remember that one of John Paul II’s major accomplishments while archbishop of Krakow was the building of the Ark Pana Church in Nowa Huta. Getting a Catholic Church built in the 60s under a communist regime was a heck of an accomplishment, but lets not kid ourselves about the form of the building.
 
Oh look, it’s Pope Francis speaking from the mouth of the serpent.

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As a mid century fan, all things art and architecture, it makes my heart sing.

Also

earthsky.org

| EarthSky

earthsky.org earthsky.org
 
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[Popes audience hall]

Our Lord’s head depicted as the head of the serpent with it’s mouth open wide…
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whatistrue said:
I find it interesting that a post claiming to show Jesus as having a serpent’s head was immediately after one mentioning pareidolia.
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Yeah, and people are just imagining the whole blatant “serpent” theme of that hall.

“pareidolia” lol
 
I will only say that if it were as blatant as you say then everyone would see it. I don’t, so it really isn’t that blatant.
Nigel7 said:
“pareidolia” lol
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Laugh all you want, but it is the most reasonable explanation.
 
Oh, I can tell where someone might get that vibe, but it really doesn’t look like a snake’s head to me, no. And the supposed “Jesus with serpent’s head” thing just looks to me like a pattern of light and shadow in a depiction of flowing hair behind Jesus’ head. If you want to “lol” about it that’s fine with me - I am rather amused by the other perspective to be honest.
 
whatistrue said:
Oh, I can tell where someone might get that vibe, but it really doesn’t look like a snake’s head to me, no.
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It doesn’t look like it to me either. I’m not sure why this is even a thing. There is plenty to criticize about the aesthetics of the auditorium without relying on conspiracy theories.
 
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Joe_5859 said:
I’m not sure why this is even a thing
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I have a suspicion why, but I choose not to put it out there explicitly as it would be uncharitable. Not to mention possibly drawing unwanted attention from moderators.
 
From an outsiders point of view it just looks like a mid twentieth century concert hall with some extra stained glass. I imagine the roof shaping provides good acoustics, I think people are looking for something to be ‘wrong’ rather than considering that ultimately it’ll be the best engineering solution to the problem.
 
I have to concur. And I must say that my earlier posts lumping it together with ugly Churches around the world were wrong. There were many ugly churches, the audience hall is not that bad considering its function (if it was a Church it would indeed be ugly). I am not a fan of the artwork, but the hall itself is acceptable.
 
Inquisitor85 said:
I think people are looking for something to be ‘wrong’ rather than considering that ultimately it’ll be the best engineering solution to the problem.
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That’s exactly what it was. When studying in Rome, my Church History professor knew one of the architects who worked on the project. It was a nightmare, apparently. They kept having to redesign it because the acoustics were originally horrible and no matter how many light sconces and chandeliers they put in it, it was dark as a tomb because of the neighboring buildings and that it was primarily in use when it rained so there was little natural light to begin with. That’s the reason for the odd shape, windows, and ceiling. In the end, they just had a huge blank wall behind where the pope would stand and their best option was to put a sculpture up which would let sound through (hence all the holes in the sculpture) to reverberate off the back wall.
 
The exterior of the building doesn’t look like a snake to me.

This is just evangelical conspiracy theory.
 
It is hard to unsee something when it is pointed out in advance that it vaguely resembles a snakehead, but if this thread could somehow be unseen and if any of us walked into that auditorium, we wouldn’t see anything.

And it doesn’t really matter one way or another. Like most other animals, snakes can symbolize lots of things and they’re depicted in the Bible both negatively and positively. They’re a symbol for resurrection (shedding new skin), medicine, and health. Venom can be used medicinally in tiny amounts for heart attacks or cancer or neurological disorders.

So what it means is really nothing at all.
 
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