Cathedral of Saint John the Divine on Amsterdam Avenue - the fourth largest Christian church in the world. Its construction is not yet complete, the history of the construction of the building resembles a colossal epic medieval churches.

The cathedral belongs to the Episcopal Church USA - stood apart during the war for the independence of the branches of the Anglican Church. The head of the British monarch is the Anglicans - clergy so deposited colonies established independent of the recent metropolitan church. Thus, it is a Protestant.

In 1887, Bishop Henry Potter Kodmen put forward the idea of ​​building a Protestant cathedral, not inferior in size and attractiveness of the Catholic Cathedral of St. Patrick that on Fifth Avenue. The project is in the Byzantine-Romanesque style, designed by the architects George Lewis Heins and Christopher Grant Lafarge, construction began in 1892. From the outset, it encountered difficulties: because of weak soil foundation had to bury 22 meters. By 1900, only managed to build a huge crypt, in which were initially service. By 1911 it became clear that the original design of the building is outdated, Byzantine-Romanesque style went out of fashion. By reworking the project attracted the architect Ralph Adams Cram, a supporter of the Gothic, which he saw the top of Western architecture.

The first stone of the nave was built in 1925. New York Committee to raise funds for the construction of the cathedral was headed lawyer Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who eight years later became president of the United States. Thanks to raise money works continued even during the Great Depression.

The cathedral was opened November 30, 1941, a week before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. During the war, the work stopped: the episcopate found it that difficult time the Church of resources better spent on works of charity, and not enough hands. Architect Cram more cherished the idea of ​​replacing the Byzantine dome gothic towers, but the plan has never been implemented, the cathedral connects the various architectural styles. In 1979, New York City Mayor Edward Koch joked: "I was told that some of the great cathedrals were built five hundred years. We are still in the first century. "

The temple is huge: the length of two football fields, it can accommodate 5000 worshipers. If you do not know its history, it can be considered that this is an example of late Gothic architecture in northern France around the XIII century. The huge bronze doors of the west facade of the cathedral made architect and designer Henry Wilson. They depict scenes from the New and Old Testaments. Rose-window above the entrance - the largest stained glass window in the US, muralist Charles Connick has made it out of ten thousand pieces of glass. Seven chapels of the cathedral known as "Chapel of languages", they are dedicated to the heavenly patrons of various ethnic groups in New York. Next - a memorial to firefighters killed in the line of duty.

Near the cathedral is Greg Wyatt sculpture "Fountain of the world" - she allegorically depicts the struggle between good and evil. On the plates around the fountain (which had no water) are shown thinkers and philosophers: Gandhi, Socrates, Einstein, John Lennon. In the cathedral annually celebrate the holiday of St. Francis, where the animals are blessed - until the camels and elephants.