Lost Blueprints: The Most Ambitious Cathedrals We Never Got to See

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]History is paved with the stone and mortar of the world's most breathtaking cathedrals. [music] St. Peter's, Notre Dame, Sagrada Familia. We know their silhouettes by heart. But for every masterpiece that reached the heavens, there is another that remained trapped in the mind of the architect.

[00:00:13]>> [music] >> So, in this video, I'm going to show you eight grand Catholic churches that never broke ground or were never finished.

[00:00:19]I've narrowed the list down to examples where we have some sort of sketch or idea of what the structure was actually going to look like. So, let's take a look. Number one, Sir Edwin Lutyens' Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. So, this project was commissioned in 1930 and was intended to be a massive monument to the Catholic revival in England, designed to rival St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Lutyens envisioned a colossal Byzantine-Romanesque structure made of pinkish-brown brick and silver-gray granite. The scale was intended to be overwhelming. Had it been completed, it would have been the largest dome in the world. Construction began on Whit Monday in 1933, but work was halted as resources and labor were diverted to the front lines during World War II. After the war, the project was just deemed as too expensive for a country recovering from devastation.

[00:01:03][music] The only part of Lutyens' design that was actually built was the crypt.

[00:01:07]Located beneath the current cathedral, the crypt is a masterpiece featuring intricate brickwork and massive granite columns. [music] In the 1960s, a new contract was awarded to modernist designer Sir Frederick Gibberd, who built the cathedral that we see in Liverpool today. Number two, Holy Name Cathedral in Brisbane, Australia.

[00:01:23]So, this project was a brainchild of Archbishop James Duhig, who was nicknamed Duhig the Builder for his fixation with large-scale construction.

[00:01:30]The cathedral was designed by Jack Hennessy in the English Baroque style.

[00:01:34]It was meant to be the largest church in the Southern Hemisphere and the largest sacred building in the British Commonwealth. [music] Despite the grand laying of the foundation stone in 1928, the cathedral never rose above the ground. Only 10 weeks after the Archbishop opened a factory specifically to manufacture a specialized molded stone for the project, the global economy collapsed amidst the Great Depression.

[00:01:53]>> [music] >> The sheer ambition of the project overtaxed the financial resources of the local Catholic community during a time of immense economic hardship. For decades, the site sat as an empty lot with only the completed crypt visible below the ground. In 1985, the Archdiocese finally admitted defeat and sold the land. The site is now occupied by a large apartment complex appropriately named Cathedral Place.

[00:02:14]Number three, the Franciscan Missions in Tangier, Morocco. In 1892, Antoni Gaudí was commissioned to design a Franciscan mission for the city of Tangier, Morocco. You might know that name because he was also the genius behind the Basilica of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. The project commissioned by the Franciscan friars and funded by the Marquis of Comillas was intended to serve as a church, a hospital, and a school.

[00:02:35]>> [music] >> Gaudí's design was a radical departure from the architecture of the time. The most striking feature was a cluster of parabolic towers. [music] These were designed to be structurally self-supporting, mimicking the natural forms Gaudí observed in the Montserrat Mountains.

[00:02:48]The complex was designed as a large fortress-like square with the central church and its soaring towers acting [music] as the focal point. The project was ultimately abandoned around 1893.

[00:02:57]Morocco was undergoing significant political upheaval at the end of the 19th century, and the scale of the project was just too immense.

[00:03:03]>> [music] >> The logistics of transporting materials and managing construction in this region proved too daunting for the sponsors.

[00:03:08][music] Yet, this failure paved the way for what would become his lasting legacy in Barcelona.

[00:03:14]Number four, St. Joseph's Basilica in Alberta, Canada. So, this is a classic tale of grand ambitions meeting the harsh reality of global crises.

[00:03:21]In 1913, the local Catholic community realized that the local church could no longer handle the growing population.

[00:03:27]So, construction began on a grand new church with the foundation and crypt being completed by 1924. The plan was to finish the upper structure immediately, but the timing was disastrous. The onset of the Great Depression, followed shortly by World War II, effectively froze the project. For the next 38 years, the congregation held all their masses in the basement [music] crypt.

[00:03:46]The basilica we see today is actually a much more modest version of what was originally intended.

[00:03:50]>> [music] >> The first designs were for a massive, highly ornate Gothic Revival Cathedral.

[00:03:54]It featured two towering steeples and intricate stonework that would have made it one of the most imposing landmarks in Canada. If you look at the Basilica today, you can still see traces of the unbuilt history. The full spires were never installed, the facade was simplified, and the bells are housed in an open-air structure on the side of the building. So, while still a beautiful Catholic Church, the full potential was never realized.

[00:04:15]Before we take a look at the next four grand Catholic Churches that were never built, I want to talk about Ad Veritatem. This is a brand new Catholic news site that you need to read if you want to stay up to date on what's happening in the Vatican and around the world. And if you want to see more video content like this, follow Ad Veritatem on YouTube, where I'll be making exclusive shorts about current happenings in the Catholic Church. So, follow the link in my description and make your free account at Ad Veritatem today.

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[00:05:09]Because Real Estate for Life gives a portion of their proceeds from every sale to pro-life charities. It's a rare triple win. If you live in the United States or Canada and have a move on the horizon, follow the link in my description and make sure to say that Purely Catholic sent you. [music] Okay, number five, the Beauvais Cathedral in France. In the 13th century, French cities were in an arms race to build the tallest Gothic Cathedral. After Amiens Cathedral reached record heights, the builders at Beauvais wanted to go even further.

[00:05:34]>> [music] >> Their plan was to build a vault 157 ft high, the tallest in the world. The original plan called for very few support pillars to allow for massive stained glass windows, [music] creating an ivory tower of light.

[00:05:45]However, only 12 years after the choir was completed, a large section of the vault collapsed. The pillars are spaced too far apart to handle the wind loads and the sheer weight of the stone at that height. To save the building, architects had to double the number of pillars in the choir. This ruined the openness of the original design, but kept the roof from falling [music] again. Work stopped for over 150 years due to the 100 Years' War.

[00:06:07]>> [music] >> When they resumed in the 1500s, instead of building the nave, they decided to build a massive central spire. The spire reached 502 ft, briefly making Beauvais the tallest structure in the world.

[00:06:17]Because there was no nave to act as a counterweight, [music] the structure was unstable. In 1573, the spire collapsed.

[00:06:24]If you visit today, you see a half cathedral. Beauvais is often called the Icarus of Gothic architecture. It represents the absolute physical limit of what could be done with stone and mortar. [music] Number six, the Church of the Colonia Güell in Spain. In 1898, Count Eusebi Güell wanted to build a church for the workers at his textile factory. He gave renowned architect Antoni Gaudí total creative freedom and an unlimited budget. Gaudí didn't care about the timeline, he just wanted a masterpiece.

[00:06:49]Because he wasn't rushed, Gaudí spent 10 years just working on the design. He didn't use traditional blueprints.

[00:06:55]>> [music] >> Instead, he built a famous stereostatic model in a shed on the site. This allowed him to build leaning columns that didn't need flying buttresses, a breakthrough he later applied to the Sagrada Família.

[00:07:05]Construction finally began in 1908.

[00:07:07]Gaudí envisioned [music] a two-story church with a series of towers and a central 40-m dome. However, by 1914, the Güell family faced financial difficulties and stopped the funding. To make the building usable, the ceiling of the crypt was simply roofed over. If you look at the top of the church today, it looks flat and jagged because it was meant to be the floor of the upper church. So, while the structure never reached its full potential, it did serve a purpose. Because without the experiments he conducted in the small workers' village, the iconic towers in Barcelona would likely never have been built.

[00:07:36]Number seven, the unfinished chapels at Batalha Monastery in Portugal. So, these chapels were commissioned in 1437 by King Duarte I as a royal pantheon for himself and his descendants. He wanted a space separate from the Founders Chapel where his father was buried. However, construction was plagued by delays. The biggest issue was when King Duarte died in 1438. Later, King Manuel I took interest and added the lavish Manueline decorations.

[00:07:59]>> [music] >> Work stopped permanently when Manuel I shifted all resources and funding to the construction of another monastery in Lisbon. Despite being unfinished, the chapels are considered a masterpiece of stone carving. It features intricate carvings of thistles, ivy, and acorns, seven concentric tiers of decoration, and a Renaissance balcony added in 1533.

[00:08:17][music] While beautiful, the chapels remain obviously unfinished. The central octagonal space was intended to be covered by a massive stone [music] vault. The large pillars meant to support this vault stop abruptly midair.

[00:08:28]You can see where the stonemasons simply stopped stacking blocks. In the center of the octagonal space lies the double tomb of King Duarte and his wife Eleanor of Aragon. Because the chapel has no roof, their stone effigies lie open to the sky.

[00:08:40]And number eight, the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna, Italy. So in 1390, San Petronio was commissioned by the city of Bologna. It was intended to be a symbol of civic pride. Architect Antonio di Vincenzo designed a massive structure which would have been significantly larger than the original St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. By the 16th century, the project was gaining momentum.

[00:09:00]However, Bologna was under the control of the Papal States and Pope Pius IV was not pleased with the idea of a provincial city housing a church that dwarfed the Vatican's.

[00:09:08]>> [music] >> In 1562, the Pope ordered of the first permanent seat of the University of Bologna on the exact spot where the eastern arm of the church was supposed to go.

[00:09:17]As a result, the builders were forced to scrap the grand [music] transepts and simply finish the nave, ending the church much earlier than planned.

[00:09:24]Evidence of this abrupt finish can be found in the facade. The lower portion is covered in exquisite white and red marble featuring intricate carvings. Yet the upper half of the facade remains raw exposed brown brick. For over 400 years, there have been various competitions and proposals to finish the marble covering, but the people of Bologna have consistently rejected them, preferring the unfinished look as a testament to the city's history. So, there you have it, eight Catholic churches that were conceived and either never built at all or never came close to reaching their full potential. And there are plenty of other examples out there, many of which have no designs or sketches to show, such as the proposed cathedral in Los Angeles that was supposed to be the massive Gothic Revival architectural feat, but ended up as a polarizing modern structure.

[00:10:05]Whether these monuments were halted by the plague, political sabotage, or a simple lack of funds, these skeletons in stone stand as a testament to the massive ambitions of the past and sometimes the very human drama that got in the way. So, if I left anything out, let me know in the comments and thanks for watching.