Christ The King Church is a Catholic church in the Turners Cross area of Cork City, Ireland. It was designed by the American architect Barry Byrne and built between 1929 and 1931. The church is a fine example of 20th-century ecclesiastical architecture, and is considered to be one of Byrne’s most important works.
The church is built in a simplified Hiberno-Romanesque style, with a long nave and a short transept. The exterior is made of limestone, and the interior is decorated with marble and mosaics. The most striking feature of the church is the large statue of Christ the King, which stands at the entrance. The statue was designed by the American sculptor John Storrs.
John Henry Bradley Storrs (June 25, 1885 – April 26, 1956), also known as John Bradley Storrs and John H. Storrs, was an American modernist sculptor best remembered for his art deco sculptures that examined the relationship between architecture and sculpture
Storrs was born in Chicago in 1885, son of architect D.W. Storrs. In 1905, he traveled to Berlin to study singing, but he soon decided to become a sculptor. He studied with Lorado Taft at the Art Institute of Chicago, with Bela Pratt at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and with Charles Grafly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. By 1911, he was living in Paris, where he studied with Auguste Rodin and also attended the Académie Julian. He gradually moved from representational sculpture and wood engravings to the machine-like sculptures for which he is best known.
During his time in France, Storrs became friends with Jacques Lipchitz. In 1914, Storrs married the novelist and writer Marguerite Deville Chabrol and started dividing his time between France and the United States. In the 1930s, Storrs turned to abstract painting that often suggested the human figure. During World War II Storrs was twice arrested and imprisoned by the German occupation forces. After being released, he returned to his studio in Mer, France, and worked and lived there until his death in 1956.
Some of the images are distorted because I used a wide angle lens. This was, more or less, my first real opportunity to us my Sony A7RIV which I purchased in September 2019.
When I visited Cork in August 2021 my activities were very much constrained because of Covid-19. Also, the hotel where I stayed had been block booked by the Government in order to house nursing staff. I was one of the first commercial guests and full service had yet to be restored. The weather was not at all good and I could not depend on the bus service so I walked everywhere and ended up Turner’s Cross more by accident than by design. When I arrived at The Christ The King church I was exhausted and did not explore the building as much as I would have liked to. I decided to return to the hotel with the intention of returning to Turner’s Cross later in the week but bad weather prevented my return.
EVERGREEN STREET – EVERGREEN ROAD TURNER’S CROSS AREA OF CORK CITY
It was misty and lighting was dull so the area looked somewhat dull and bleak when I visited
Rocque’s map of Cork of 1759 is the first to show significant housing in the Turners Cross area in the areas that are now Evergreen Street (then Maypole Lane) and Quaker Road (then Graveyard Lane). Previous maps of Cork in 1690 and 1726 show only occasional houses associated with what were then farms on the southern edge of the city. The oldest housing still existing in Turners Cross now dates from the mid 19th century.
CHRIST THE KING CHURCH BY BARRY BYRNE AT TURNER’S CROSS IN CORK
Visitors are immediately greeted by an impressive 19 foot sculpture of Christ the King, by Chicago modernist sculptor John Storrs, towering up over the twin entrance doors with arms outstretched.
Turners Cross is a ward on the south side of Cork City, and home to the Roman Catholic parish of the same name.
Largely residential, one of the key features of the area is the iconic church created by architect Barry Byrne and sculptor John Storrs, the Church of Christ The King. It was commissioned in 1927 by Rev Daniel Cohalan D.D., Bishop of Cork. The church was the first Irish church to be built from concrete instead of brick and is one of the largest suspended-ceiling churches in Europe. Opened in 1931, the church is based on the principles of Art Deco which makes strong use of symmetric and geometric forms.
Rocque’s map of Cork of 1759 is the first to show significant housing in the Turners Cross area in the areas that are now Evergreen Street (then Maypole Lane) and Quaker Road (then Graveyard Lane). Previous maps of Cork in 1690 and 1726 show only occasional houses associated with what were then farms on the southern edge of the city. The oldest housing still existing in Turners Cross now dates from the mid 19th century.
In 1879, the Cork and Macroom Direct Railway, which had shared the Cork, Bandon and South Coast Railway station at Albert Road in the city centre, moved its city terminus to a new station they created – Cork Capwell railway station in the Turners Cross area. This was used until 1925, when both the Cork and Macroom and Cork, Bandon and South Coast railways were merged into Great Southern Railways and the terminus reverted to Albert Road.
New housing was continually developed in the Turners Cross area until the 1950s, when there was little remaining spare land in the area.
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