Kathedraal van Sint-Michiel en Sint-Goedele, Brussel 1860 - 1900

Étienne Neurdein captured the Kathedraal van Sint-Michiel en Sint-Goedele in Brussels with his camera, immortalizing its soaring Gothic ambition. The cathedral, its facade punctuated by pointed arches and slender spires, speaks of a reaching towards the heavens. These vertical lines, ubiquitous in Gothic architecture, are not merely structural; they are a visual echo of humanity’s spiritual aspirations. Think back to the Tower of Babel, the archetype for attempts at accessing the divine, a motif mirrored in countless structures across civilizations. The Gothic arch, for instance, finds its distant cousin in the Islamic horseshoe arch, each carrying unique cultural inflections yet sharing a fundamental yearning for transcendence. The symbolic charge of the cathedral, therefore, extends beyond its immediate religious context, engaging viewers on a profound, subconscious level, tapping into our collective memory of seeking the divine. Indeed, the image resurfaces through time, constantly evolving.