Beautiful Churches: Thorncrown Chapel

By The Editors Published on November 1, 2015

The groves were God’s first temples,” the poet says, and Thorncrown Chapel is a church uniquely set to display the fact. Thorncrown is a glass chapel set in the Ozarks, where its builders wanted anyone sitting inside “to have the feeling that they were sitting out in the woods.”

Thorncrown Chapel is located just outside of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The structure is made of wood, besides the 425 windows and over 6,000 square feet of glass.

Thorncrown was built by Jim Reed, who ran out of money when the chapel was being built and said that “the first time [he] ever got down on [his] knees was on the chapel floor,” where he prayed to God and left a changed man.

Thorncrown Chapel Interior - 900
 

The money came in, the chapel was completed, and it is now considered a preeminent work of twentieth century American architecture. More than six million people have visited Thorncrown since it opened in 1980.

To learn more about the church and its history, click here.

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