I meant to post this last week and things have gotten away from me, but on Saturday in El Salvador we went on a little sight seeing tour and one of the places we went was the Iglesia El Rosario. The church from the outside (seen above) pales in comparison to the cathedral across the Central Park in downtown San Salvador. In fact, barring the post-modern bell tower, you would never know it was a church. It looks much more like an aircraft hangar from the outside. But I cannot image that the traditional cathedral can hold a candle to the interior of the all concrete, glass and steel decor of the El Rosario.
The architect designed everything from the exterior to the interior and even the stations of the cross and the stained glass that tells the stories of the Bible (you can see these in the Pano, they are very stylistic panels of steel over clear glass across the top of the doors and back wall) from the three simple materials. The walls are fully ventilated in a way that is really too hard to describe, but let me just say that the outside air literally blows straight through the building. I counted only about a dozen small light sources that were not provided by God himself. Everything else was natural light.
The Stations of the Cross didn't actually show the entire body of Christ. For the most part they were just his arms, or hands. The entire space was truly a work of art. Although I didn't take my panoramic head and tripod on the day long trip, I did manage to hack together a panoramic that will give you a good idea of the space and its beauty.
If you make it to El Salvador, please make a trip to see this amazing building. But please... take a tour guide or fixer. It's in a rather rough part of the downtown market area but is well worth the trip.
