>that house of God we just built is beautiful but I feel it's

>>1702625
They look cool.

>>1702625
*early medieval church

>>1702633
I agree, but isn't it a bit like building a mosque and decorating it with statues of pigs?

they make for funny movie characters

Aren't they supposed to scare off evil spirits or birds or something?

>>1702625
It's almost like people have different cultures and they somehow incorporate them into their art and religion.
HMMMMMMM

>>1702625
St. Bernard of Clairvaux didn't get it either.
>What are these fantastic monsters doing in the cloisters before the eyes of the brothers as they read? What is the meaning of these unclean monkeys, these strange savage lions, and monsters? To what purpose are here placed these creatures, half beast, half man, or these spotted tigers? I see several bodies with one head and several heads with one body. Here is a quadruped with a serpent's head, there a fish with a quadruped's head, then again an animal half horse, half goat... Surely if we do not blush for such absurdities, we should at least regret what we have spent on them

>>1702625
I've always found the whole thing weird, and the "it'll scare the demons:D" explanation odd, and made by people who should know better(aka the bishops who commanded the church architecture)

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>>1702648
Yes sure, but islam also discourages depictions of human in general.
It's like celebrating christmas or pentagrams. Little pagan things where the church was smart enough to appropriate them.

>>1702682
>"No fun allowed!"

Another explanation could be that they show people the alternatives. Imagine walking by the church, thinking you'll skip the Sabbath meeting; you catch a glimpse of the demons and shit and get several good reasons why you should go.

Why wouldn't you want to have kick ass rain spouts like that?

I interpret them this way.

These demonic creatures made of stone, cannot jump or fly down, they can only look down. They can open their mouths but no cry will come out of them. The demons depicted wish they could do this things, but can't.

They look more ridiculous than scary. They are powerless.

Because they are on a church.

Now inside the church you are obviously safe from sin and temptation, but the Church isn't just a series of buildings, it's a community, the faithful are the Temple of the Lord, wherever they are, wherever they go.

These silly-looking beasts and gargoyles do not guard the church, it's the Church that stands on guard against them, against the foul temptations and nightmares of the evil within.

>>1702706
Time spent goggling at gargoyles, is time not spent copying manuscripts. The new vestry isn't going to pay for itself you know!

>>1702708

This is the true reason.

The gargoyles were meant to keep the fear of God in people.

>>1702733
they come alive at night, jokes on you St. Bernard of Clairvaux

>>1702682
St Bernard was a cunt whose hawkishness was partly to blame for the failure of the second crusade. Not that relevant, but I feel it needs to be said.

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>>1702702
Do you think it's a coincidence that (((pagan symbols))) are based off geometry, a science that was essential in building cathedrals?

>>1702625
Lore related


The dragon or gargouille: On the left bank of the Seine were wild swamps through which rampaged a huge serpent or dragon who "devoured and destroyed people and beasts of the field". Romanus decided to hunt in this area but could only find one man to help him, a man condemned to death who had nothing to lose. They arrived in the serpent's land and Romanus drew the sign of the cross on the beast. It then lay down at his feet and let Romanus put his stole on him as a leash, in which manner he led it into the town to be condemned to death and burned on the parvis of the cathedral (or thrown into the Seine according to other authors). This legend was the origin for the bishops' privilege (lasting until 1790) to pardon one prisoner condemned to death each year, by giving the pardoned man or woman the reliquary holding Romanus's relics in a procession.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanus_of_Rouen