LIVERPOOL METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL OF CHRIST THE KING

Few cities can boast two cathedrals! Liverpool's history is at least as rich as that of the city itself. During the Great Famine (1845-1852), half a million Irish found refuge on the banks of the Mersey. Many left for America, but many others chose to stay. Most of them were Catholics, so the question of finding them a place to worship soon arose. In 1856, the Lady Chapel was built, but never became a cathedral, and was finally demolished in the 1980s. When land was acquired at the north end of Hope Street in 1930, Sir Edwin Lutyens was commissioned to build a building worthy of the Anglican neo-Gothic neighbor. His bold plans imagined the second largest church in the world, inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. But the war put an end to the project, deemed too costly. Only the crypt was completed. In 1953, the man who took up the torch was none other than Adrian Gilbert Scott, Giles' brother! But the story would have been too good to be true, and he didn't succeed either. Sir Frederick Gibberd is responsible for the version visible today, completed in 1967. Its facade impresses with a crown-shaped tower that rises skyward, and its spatial forms are in stark contrast to the initial sketches. Inside, beautiful modernist stained-glass windows glow spectacularly in the sunlight, casting colorful gleams on the walls. The circular, celestial shape of the room leaves you speechless and completely out of time.