Our company involved in large and small construction projects. We already wrote on Habré , and today we propose to reflect on the grandiose construction projects of different eras, which, by today's standards, lasted a very long time, but in the end these objects became monuments of world architecture.
How was it built before?
If we shorten the history of the development of building technologies to three stages in the spirit of “I came, I saw, I conquered”, then it will turn out: a person learned that metal can be made from ore, he invented reinforced concrete, he built a bulldozer. The invention of most of the mechanisms that seriously accelerated construction occurred in the XNUMXth century. And before that, manual labor remained the main thing at the construction site. To help people were wooden rollers, levers and lifting mechanisms. Typically, construction equipment was manufactured at the construction site, after completion of construction it was dismantled.
Since all the tools were elementary and did not significantly affect productivity, it was only possible to speed up construction at the expense of additional labor, which was impossible without huge budgets. Such money was allocated, first of all, for the construction of temples and cathedrals. Here it was possible to attract as many people as needed for the construction in the shortest possible time. For example, the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (537) was built in just 6 years, which at that time was unrealistically fast for a temple 55,6 m high. But all 6 years 10 workers worked on it. Here it is - the price of a grandiose building that has become a symbol of Istanbul. For more than 000 years, this cathedral was the largest in the Christian world.
Not only labor, but also building materials cost a lot. The fact that the construction of religious buildings was very expensive, historians write. For example, the American researcher Henry Kraus compared mortar to gold and took the metaphor as the title of his book Gold was the mortar: The economics of cathedral building. This book presents his research on the financing of the construction of some European cathedrals during the Middle Ages.
Every country has its own “golden” long-term construction - in Spain (the famous Sagrada Familia), and Cambodia (Angkor Wat), and in China, and, of course, in Russia. Such projects are worthy of adding to the list of wonders of the world, and no matter how long their construction was, in the end it ended (almost everyone).
So how long can the construction of a grandiose project worthy of becoming a monument of world architecture last?
Great Wall of China - 2000 years old
One of the most famous structures in the world, the construction of which took more than 2000 years. On the way of the wall lie deserts and rivers, mountains and plains. The construction of the wall began in the 300rd century BC. and completed in the middle of the 000th century AD. At the same time, up to 2 people worked on the construction of the wall, and in total up to XNUMX million people were involved in the work.
The amount of raw materials used is measured in millions of tons. During the construction process, workers mainly received materials on site. The walls were made of sand, and for reliability, the space between the two walls was clogged with reeds and willows. In the mountains, the wall was built from raw stone and various rocks. Centuries passed, technologies improved, new materials appeared. The most recent parts of the wall, erected by the Ming Dynasty, are built of brick and mortar, just as we do today.
Curious fact: Some people think that the wall is visible from space, but this is a rumor that has already been repeatedly debunked.
Sagrada Familia - over 137 years old
We are sure that this is the first building that you remembered when you read the title of the article. Antoni Gaudí's project is still under construction. The first stone of the basilica was laid in 1882. In the year of Gaudi's death - in 1926 - the cathedral was only a quarter built, and it will be symbolic if the construction is still completed on the 100th anniversary of his death.
The Sagrada has , where one can see an optimistic forecast that the basilica could be completed in the 70st century. It is assumed that now the construction is 90,1% completed and has reached a height of 172,5 meters (XNUMX meters is planned).
By the way, on this site you can connect to the online camera at any time and personally check how the construction or restoration is progressing.
This archival drawing from 1892 shows several hoists used in the construction of the crypt of the Sagrada Familia. This wooden structure is a system of pulleys with ropes - this type of crane was first used by the Romans and could lift up to 2,5 tons.
Curious fact: The Barcelona authorities have reported that there is no record that the building permit was ever issued, requested in 1885. And now, 137 years after the start of construction, the city granted the builders a license valid until 2026. Fingers crossed: they should succeed!
Angkor Wat (Cambodia) - 37 years old
Angkor Wat was built between 1113 and 1150 AD. They say that this temple was built not for 4 decades, but for 4 hundreds of years, which is not true. The problem with the dating of construction arose because Angkor Wat was located in the heart of the Khmer empire - the city of Angkor, and some consider the years of construction of the city (and this is just 400 years) - the years of construction of the temple.
The building is a three-level pyramid, oriented to the west. The construction of the temple was carried out from the center to the periphery. From any vantage point, only three of the five towers are always open, so by modern standards, Angkor Wat is a marvel of architecture.
5 million tons of sandstone used for the construction of the temple were dragged by the workers themselves to a distance of 50 km from the nearest quarry. About 300 people and 000 elephants took part in the construction of the miracle of architecture, which is exactly what is shown in the illustration.
Khmer construction belongs to a transitional stage in the development of construction technology: brick and stone reproduce the forms and techniques of wooden architecture. For example, the carvings on the walls imitate bamboo screens.
Curious fact: The temple complex at Angkor Wat is so famous that the Cambodians even put its image on their flag.
Cologne Cathedral - 632 years
6 centuries is a worthy example of the German approach: if done, then only qualitatively, even if it takes a long time. When the cathedral, begun in 1248, was completed at the end of the 157th century, it turned out to be the tallest building in the world (161 m). Later, the record was broken by the cathedral in Ulm (632 m) and skyscrapers in the United States. It is important to clarify that the construction of the Cologne Cathedral was not carried out all 1437 years: in 20, construction was stopped due to lack of money and equipment. By that time, the walls, the choir, the south tower, the base of the nave were ready, but the roof was made somehow and did not cover the inside of the temple from the weather. To complete the construction of the cathedral in the XNUMXth century, more than XNUMX years had to be spent restoring that part of it that had already been erected earlier.
Do you want to know how much the building cost? In terms of modern money, a total of more than 1 billion euros was spent. More than 500 people worked in the cathedral workshop, using the most modern construction technologies, such as a caterpillar load lifting system or steam engines.
Curious fact: 11 bells are installed in the cathedral, one of which () is the largest working bell in the world. It was cast in 1923 and weighs 24 tons.
Milan Cathedral - 579 years old
Who could compete with the Germans in the construction of high-rise buildings? Of course, the Italians. The largest cathedral in Europe and the fifth largest in the world, Milan Cathedral was founded in the same year that the great Renaissance sculptor and painter Donatello was born (1386) and completed when The Beatles released "Rubber Soul" (1965) . Construction was too long even by Italian standards - 579 years. And the stable expression fabbrica del duomo (construction of the cathedral) appeared in the language. This is what they say when it took a very long time to do something.
78 architects from Europe participated in the construction. The building was originally going to be built of terracotta bricks, but then they used Kondola marble from Lake Maggiore. Therefore, the facade turned out to be heterogeneous: there are pink, white and light gray areas. To deliver marble to the construction site, channels were specially dug in the city.
None other than Napoleon Bonaparte helped complete the construction of the cathedral. In the early 1800s, after he conquered the city, he wanted to be crowned in the Duomo, which meant that construction had to be urgently completed. Before the coronation, on his personal order, the decoration of the facade was urgently completed.
By the way, around the time that the Italians completed the Duomo di Milano, those parts of the building that were built first required restoration.
An interesting fact: the construction did not end even after the coronation of Napoleon. Until the second half of the 1965th century, work was carried out to decorate the temple: new stained-glass windows, sculptures and other decorative elements were added. And only in XNUMX the construction was finally completed.
Notre Dame Cathedral - 182 years
The first stone of the building was laid in 1163. The towers were completed in 1245 and the entire cathedral in 1345. The towers and the western side of the cathedral, differing in style (Gothic and Romanesque) and different in height, indicate that different architects took part in the construction.
Notre Dame de Paris was one of the first buildings in the world to use arched buttresses to support external supports. They were not in the original draft. But the thin walls, built to a certain height, began to crack, so outside supports were erected around the entire cathedral.
Notre Dame Cathedral was the first Gothic cathedral. This architectural style suggests an endless longing for heaven. Until then, no one imagined that the church could be of such a size, and the bell towers so high (69 m). To build this grand structure, great attention was paid to the improvement of lifting mechanisms.
An interesting fact: tax reports from Paris for 1296 and 1313 tell of the existence of two female masons, a tiler and a plasterer. Therefore, it is quite possible that female builders participated in the construction of the cathedral.
On April 15, 2019, the whole world watched Notre Dame de Paris burn. Due to the strongest fire, the spire, roof and clock were lost. The ceilings of the 5th and XNUMXth centuries were damaged. Restoration work is underway, which, according to experts, will take at least XNUMX years.
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Unlike past eras, now the economic resources of the region do not greatly affect the speed of construction: long-term construction may appear in Vladivostok and Moscow. The reasons are as old as the world - a change in management, a change in the exchange rate, the dishonesty of the management company, environmental obstacles found at the construction site, etc. It is not difficult to establish who is to blame for stopping construction in each specific case, but what to do with the object next is often completely unclear. In fact, there are not so many options: long-term construction can be left "as is" and turned into creative clusters, viewing platforms, objects for base jumping. You can try your best to complete it. And you can demolish everything and start a new construction site in this place. Modern builders should analyze the mistakes of their predecessors more often in order to prevent them in their work. And if the construction is still delayed, let's hope that they are building something outstanding.
Which of the modern buildings do you consider a work of art? How long did they build?
Source: habr.com