Sunday, June 8, 2014

The Old Greco-Roman St. Paul Chapel QC is Gone Forever

Perfect for a Museum... but now it is gone
Photos retrieved and enhanced by Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Original St Paul of Chartres Novitiate Chapel, Quezon City, rebuilt after WWII. Note classical Greco-Roman architectural design. A second floor serves as the lobby that gracefully adds solemnity and grandeur. The altar in a semi-dome design suggests 

continuum with heaven. It was for two generations that the  chapel gave the faithful with what they needed most - the holiness and warmth in their reverence and devotion to God.


Refurbished in the seventies, then the house of worship for the St Paul College. Note features of colonial architecture. The colors of magenta and rich brown suggest


medieval Europe, likely the Renaissance in the 15th to the 17th century. The pews are made of plain solid narra planks.

NOTE: The chapel has been replaced with a new one in the late nineties. The new chapel is like a catacomb - low, dim, and not even half the size of the original chapel. It has been patterned after the Levesville chapel in France where the St Paul of Chartres Congregation was founded in the 17th century. The new chapel is a radical change from the ambiance of the old one - it instills a catacomb's aura, reminiscent of the early Christians propagating the faith amidst persecution by the Romans.

The chapel's site is located where the Little Theatre was. Above it is the Fr James Reuter's Theatre. The whole old building was totally replaced with a modern one.

Indeed things change, and to accept change we have to erase memories, which for many reasons is a painful process. Some succeed, others don't. x x x

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