Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, belonging to the Episcopal Church, the Americans call the Washington National Cathedral. Stuck and became almost the official name of the church emphasizes the importance for the whole country. Congress is no accident called the Cathedral, the sixth in the world and the second largest in the United States, the national house of prayer. Here funeral presidents, senators, astronauts, victims of wars and disasters, where Martin Luther King delivered his last Sunday sermon here during World War II prayed about the whole nation.

The huge building of Indiana limestone in Gothic Revival style seems old, but it was built in the XX century. Although the idea of ​​the construction of the National Cathedral was born still in the planning of Washington architect Pierre Langfang, construction only began in 1907. Emphasizing the importance of the future of the cathedral, it was taken by the highest point in the city. In laying the foundation acted President Theodore Roosevelt. The temple was built in '83 - he was fully completed only in 1990.

Over the years, the design of the cathedral occupy different architects from George Frederick Bodley Philip Hubert Frohman before, but the building does not look eclectic. Influence of medieval Gothic (mainly English) can be seen in everything - in the pointed arches, buttresses, flying buttresses, stained glass windows, carved stone ornaments and three towers. The central tower, "Glory to God" in height 206 meters is one of the highest points in Washington. On it, you can climb the 333 steps of the spiral staircase - it's not easy, but the views of Washington's worth.

The building is replete with decorations: wood carvings, wrought iron details, reliefs, frescoes, mosaics. There has 112 gargoyles, 288 figures of angels, 231 stained glass. From the stained glass windows of the most well known so-called space dedicated to landing a man on the moon (in the mounted image fragment of lunar rocks). The main altar is made of stones brought from the quarries of King Solomon in Jerusalem, where many believe the stones were mined for the First Temple. The floor in front of the altar walled ten slabs of the cave of Moses on Mount Sinai, where, according to legend, he was waiting for receipt of the Ten Commandments.

Among the many gargoyles and chimeras have unexpected sculpture - head Darth Vader, the hero of the epic "Star Wars." In the 1980s, the administration of the cathedral, along with a children's magazine National Geographic World announced a competition for the best chimera. One of the winners - a boy from Nebraska - drew Darth Vader as a symbol of evil. Kinogeroya fashioned sculptor Jay Hall Carpenter, for twenty years, designed the cathedral. Tourists wishing to see such an unusual sculpture for the church, it is necessary to get out of the cathedral through the wooden doors that near the statue of Abraham Lincoln, turn right and turn around in the near (north-west) tower. Nice to have your binoculars - Darth Vader is very high.