The overblown love for HUGE ancient cathedrals and castles is stupid and dangerous. It helps the rulers maintain their monopoly on lethal status and lethal force.
Here’s another example. Hohenzollern Castle in Germany, on top of a bluff, was built specifically to defend against competing aristocrats and most of all to impress and OPPRESS the peasants. Every aspect of its architecture is a WEAPON, not an artistic masterpiece.
The culture lover asks “What inspired human beings to build things like this?” Only one responder is correct: Warfare.
The others meandered on and on about inspiration and innovation, artists with convictions, awe-inspiring, etc.
Well, it was meant to be awe-inspiring in EXACTLY the same way that an atom bomb or a muzzle mandate is awe-inspiring. The psychopath who paid the masons was saying I AM GOD! I AM ABOVE ALL MERE HUMANS! TREMBLE BEFORE MY UNSTOPPABLE FORCE, LOSERS!
That’s not art. That’s evil.
I’d rather be inspired by ancient toilets and bathtubs. In Christian Europe castles had latrines, often dangling over the edge of the wall, but peasants didn’t get universal indoor plumbing until the 20th century. Toilets and tubs and sewer systems were far more common in Islamic areas.
Polistra's Mill 