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Construction on the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, the largest church on earth, started 28 years ago in the small Ivory Coast city of Yamoussoukro. Planned by then-president Flix Houphout-Boigny, who led the country through two decades of economic boomtime known as the "Ivorian miracle," the church would be a monumentto God, but also to himself.

The economic miracle spanned from 1960, when independence from France arrived, to the late 1970s. Like similar booms in the United States or Germany, it had already begun to show troubling signs of decay by the early 1980s. But, by then, the 75-year-old Houphout-Boigny was in the process of putting the finishing touch on his presidency: Moving the Ivory Coast's capital to Yamoussoukro, his tiny hometown more than 150 miles inland of the country's biggest city.

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To build his capital, Houphout-Boigny recruited a French-Lebanese architect named Pierre Fakhoury. Together, they planned a grand, super-modern city of the future, featuring palaces, roads, one of the largest airports in Africa, and a churchthe Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukrothat would be modeled directly after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

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The church would be the crown on the new capital's head: A 320,000 square foot masterpiece, filled with details to shame the real vatican. There would be a 100-pound gold cross, an ornate papal villa, and a massive stained glass window showing Jesus Christ, flanked by the president himself. The Vatican requested that Fakhoury make the church's dome just slightly lower than St. Peter's own.

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Read the original here:
How a Giant Replica of the Vatican Ended Up In a Small African City

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January 15, 2014 at 12:55 pm by Mr HomeBuilder
Category: Church Construction