The Prettiest Building You've Never Heard Of

As we stepped off the train, noticing the brick supported, carved out mountainside, I noted the classic British look that Liverpool had. Countless bronze statues of long dead royalty mirrored the partially modernized cityscape. The city had been marred by bombs from world war two and struggled to rebuild the affected areas until recently. It was finally able to bounce back from tough economic times 30 years past and build new buildings in their place.

As we meandered the streets of the city, I noticed that one would be lined with old European buildings while the next you could swear was an ordinary road in San Francisco. This dichotomy climaxed at the city’s main port. On the water, three gorgeous stone buildings with a rich and exciting history as bustling center of commerce sat next to three drab buildings that threatened the port’s UNESCO World Heritage Site status.

The strangest part of all this was that as we saw these all of buildings on our free walking tour, not a single word was said the prettiest building I have ever seen in my entire life – by far the prettiest Liverpool has to offer. If my friend had not previously seen it and told me we had to go see it, we would never have visited. As I sit writing this, I’m struggling to form words that properly describe the breathtaking beauty of the Liverpool Cathedral.

Ten days ago I saw the Sagrada Familia – this is more impressive. The sheer size of the building, the grace, the lightness of the walls and arches makes you want to sit and just stare for hours on end. The foot of the cathedral dawns enormous and intricate stained glass windows that illuminate a barren nave. Neo-gothic arches float up wall after wall. A full sized church hidden within the southern end (verify) contrasts the rest of the cathedral with its classic gothic architecture. The quote underneath the stained glass windows of the exit tied the entire experience together for me; it read ‘I felt you and I knew I loved you.’

Not only was this building beautiful, it was empirically impressive. A fifteen story building could fit under the main arch. A ten meter high bridge is dwarfed by the central nave when viewed from the head of the cathedral. Yes, the cathedral has a bridge in it. It can comfortably fit 3000 people with unobstructed views. 100 meters up, you can stand atop the central tower and get a panoramic view of the city. On the journey up, you walk by a subtly gigantic bell. Oh and it’s the largest functioning bell in the world and it weighs in at 29,000 pounds!

How has this building been so overlooked? By the world and people of Liverpool as well! Nobody even know this place exists. How did I just hear about this place? We had to talk one of the workers to even hear that the massive bell even existed -- you’d think it’d be all fancy out in an elegant display somewhere. And it’s comical how poorly pictures represent the beauty of this cathedral. I’m sorry, I just spent an entire blog ranting about this random building in Liverpool that I don’t think many of you have heard of. But yeah, that should tell you something about how crazy this place was. Go see it. You won’t regret it – I think I’m still in shock from it.