How do you feel about a splash of divine color?

One of the primary reasons for expanding the Kardtects range of Building Cards, is not only that builders can build more defined card structures, but also more colorful ones.

Although we appreciate and expect the colorful painted walls of the Egyptian temples, it is a little known fact that Christian churches also use to be commonly adorned with vast and colorful frescoes and paintings.

Almost every church and cathedral in England had rich painted walls, but with the Reformation enforced by Henry VIII in the 16th century, many of the walls were white washed and from then it established centuries of expectation of the plain presentation of churches, not just in England, but Europe. For example, by the 17th century, the passion for plain churches was so widespread that the French King, Louis XIV, actually oversaw the whitewashing of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Although the Henry’s reforms only officially related to the destruction of the reliquaries of Saints (these were special tombs or shrines which held the body – or part of the body of a saint, or a relic that related to a Saint’s life), it is during the reign of his successor, that under young Edward VI’s court, that these reformations really encouraged the systematic whitewashing of all church and cathedral walls, or, at times, even tearing out decorated walls altogether. The purge even destroyed the famous colored glass windows that flooded these religious buildings with color. This became such a forgotten art, that when the Gothic style of building was revived in the 19th century, glass workers had to rediscover the skills of the craft of making stain-glass windows.

As such from the 16th to 18th century, it became expected that churches should look plain inside, as such this was the standard look for churches not just Europe but also America.

So, now it is up to you, do you decorate, or be plain? The choice is yours, enjoy.