Late Second Temple era Jerusalem

In recent years, Harvest Bible Chapel in Illinois has made large collaborative LEGO models a part of their week-long Vacation Bible Schools. I've previously noted their Noah's Ark and Solomon's Temple project. This year they once again did not disappoint, building a huge model of late Second Temple era Jerusalem. I'm pretty sure they drew heavily on the huge Holyland Model of Jerusalem, located at the Israel Museum, as you can see it on a TV screen in the background of one of the photos. The model shows key locations in the old city. That higher wall in the upper right would lead to Temple mount.



Casey was kind enough to provide a key. He designed both Herod's palace and Caiaphas' palace.

Sagrada Familia

I've blogged this before, but today Google is celebrating Antoni Gaudí's 161st birthday, so it seemed appropriate to post the Sagrada Familia from Master Builder Kazuyoshi Naoe's Piece of Peace exhibition.



And from Enigmabadger's 'Travels of Bager', here is, presumably, Bager with the real thing.

Cristo Rei

When the Cardinal of Lisbon visited Rio de Janeiro in 1934, he was inspired by the then-newly built huge statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooking the city from Mount Corcovado, and wanted something similar for his own city. It took over thirty years for his dream to come to completion, before Cristo Rei (Christ the King) was finished. The monument was built in part out of gratitude for Portugal being spared the ravages of World War II. Here Elex built a LEGO Cristo-Rei. BTW, I originally assumed that this was based on the Brazilian statue, but that doesn't have the tall base. I found this interesting article on the world's largest statues of Jesus, which pointed me to Lisbon.r

Philae

In Egyptian mythology, Osiris was the son of Geb, the brother and husband of Isis, and the father of Horus. After he was killed by his brother Set, Isis buried him on the island of Philae in the upper Nile. He then became king of the underworld. The island became the location of a whole complex of temples, built over a period of about 500 years, and a center for devotion to Isis and Osiris, among other deities. One of the largest structures is Trajan's Kiosk, built perhaps as a resting place for Isis' boat. In the 1960's the construction of the Aswan High Dam threatened to flood the island, so all of the ruins were carefully moved to a site on higher ground at Agilkia Island.

Christ Church, Spitalfields

Lee McGinty built this rendition of Christ Church, Spitalfields. In 1710, the English Parliament established a commission to build fifty churches to serve the growing London population. This church was built in an area dominated by Huguenots and other denominations not in the Church of England in order to emphasize the authority of the Anglican Church.

Pope Francis

Raúl Segarra posted this virtual mosaic of Pope Francis.

Tractatus Artis Bene Moriendi

In the early 15th century, a Dominican friar wrote the Tractatus Artis Bene Moriendi on the Art of Dying Well. This very popular work reminded the reader of the promise of Heaven, warned against despair and other sins, urged them to imitate Christ's life, and provided prayers and other procedures in caring for the dying. Fifty years later a shorter version appeared, excerpting portions of the original and illustrating them with woodcuts, as Lolino illustrated here with LEGO.

Gragger (Annoy-o-matic)

Yesterday we were at Barnes & Noble, and I was flipping through the book LEGO Crazy Action Contraptions when I ran across a gragger. They call it an 'annoy-o-matic', and it is often called a 'ratchet instrument'. The reason to note it here is that this is part of a Jewish tradition at Purim. During the Purim celebration, the story of Esther is read. Whenever Haman is mentioned, everyone makes noise, often with graggers, to blot out his name forevermore. You may recall that I've previously blogged Joanna Brichetto's LEGO graggers. BTW, doing some online searching, I found a similar Easter tradition in some parts of the Czech republic, where the noise is to chase away Judas.



Joanna gives instructions for her graggers. If you look at this version from the Crazy Action Contraptions book, it's fairly similar to hers and pretty easy to make.

Herod's Temple

Paul Vermeesch built this great rendition of Jerusalem in the first century. The focus is on the Temple, but there are a lot of other details surrounding it.

Official set: Leaning Tower of Pisa

LEGO has just released a new set in their Architecture line: 21015, Leaning Tower of Pisa. Some may not associate the Tower with religion, but indeed it is the campanile (free standing bell tower) of the Duomo di Santa Maria Assunta (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption), the main cathedral of Pisa. Most people are familiar with the sight of the leaning tower, but the cathedral and baptistry that form a complex are also quite striking. I've previously described past LEGO sets with religious content. They are few and far between, and last year LEGO released a statement that they would not produce sets with "Religious references including symbols, buildings, or people." At least via the Cuusoo site that allows LEGO fans to propose set ideas. The Architecture line, OTOH, at least opens the possibility of religious structures, and here we see the result. As noted, most people don't see the Leaning Tower as religious - I do hope that they decide to go on and do something a little more explicit, such as Notre Dame or another cathedral (they did include the Sagrada Familia as a potential Architecture set. Not that LEGO has to copy other toy companies, but it is notable that Nanoblock has sets based on the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Mont St Michel, the Kaminarimon (complete with statues of Shinto gods), Kinkakuji Temple, Sagrada Familia, the Taj Mahal, and the Moai of Easter Island. Okay, a couple of those are only subtly or potentially religious sites, but others are quite explicitly so.

Bonfire of the Vanities

Bonfire of the Vanities (here by SkyWalter) - On February 7, 1497, Florentine friar Girolamo Savonarola led his followers in burning thousands of books and artworks in a public ceremony. They saw this as an act of piety, believing that these works were temptations to sin.

Squire Voland

Jojo presents Squire Voland, a guise of the devil Mephistopheles in Goethe's version of the Faust legend. Faust is an extended parable of temptation, damnation and redemption, and Goethe's version of the tale is one of the most important works of German literature.

What do you see?

4estFeller designed this artistic cross. It kind of reminds me of the 'what do you see' type optical illusions like the famous old woman/young woman optical illusion or this Jesus bumper sticker.

Durga Puja

Durga Puja is an annual fall six day festival by Hindus, particularly in eastern India and Bangladesh, celebrating the visit of the goddess Durga and her children, before returning again to the Himalayas to be with her husband Shiva. One of the traditions is the building of Pandals, temporary structures housing an idol of the goddess, essentially temporary temples. People visit these in a very festive atmosphere, also a time for food, music and dancing. The Pandals are often fancifully decorated, and sometimes are based around themes, and can be a year in the planning, only to be torn down after the festival is over. It sort of reminds me of some of the elaborate floats in the Rose Parade in the US. A couple of years ago, West Bengal was home to a LEGO themed Pandal. Sadly, it's actually built of wood, not LEGO.

Buddha's birthday

Yesterday many Buddhists around the world celebrated the birth of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. Andybear, a LEGO builder from Hong Kong, made this mosaic (via the Brothers-Brick).

Kali

R.Goff1 made this rendition of Kali.

Rosary

In Roman Catholicism, the rosary is a set of prayer beads, a tool to aid in prayer and meditation. As the practitioner counts their way around the necklace, they recite a number of prayers in a prescribed order, including the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the Doxology. Praying the rosary is particularly important as an aspect of Marian devotion. Cmaddison made this LEGO rosary.

Scrolls

Scrolls are necessarily religious, but that's how we generally see them. Scrolls were long strips of papyrus or parchment (or shorter pieces glued together) rolled around two dowels. They were first invented in the Mediterranean region, maybe Egypt, some time between 2000 and 1000 BC. They stayed in general use until some time into the Roman era, eventually supplanted by the codex, or bound book, invented in the first century AD. In ancient times scrolls were used for really any longer work, certainly including religious works. Today scrolls are still used in ceremonial reading from the Sefer Torah, a hand written scroll of the Torah used for ritual reading during services in a synagogue. BTW, here's a fun scroll fact - the work for scroll in Latin is VOLVME, which is the source in English both for the word 'volume' and the word 'revolve'. Here are a couple of wonderful renditions of scrolls in LEGO form by Bruce Lowell and Filip Soukup.

Hagia Sophia

Fraslund made this great model of the cathedral-turned-mosque-turned-museum, the Hagia Sophia.

Bob and Larry

Veggie Tales is a series of Christian children's videos where vegetables (yes, if you don't believe me, you'll just have to watch them) act out Bible stories and other tales with moral messages. The main characters are Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber, and they've also inspired several LEGO representations.

BriXwerX made this Bob and Larry as a gift. They were a scaled-down version of an earlier MOC.



I've previously noted Joshua Christenson's MOC.


Chris Howard made a great mosaic.


Goldcreek made several characters.