The Italian created a majestic cathedral from living trees (14 photos)

They say that art is to give people the opportunity to look at their environment with different eyes. This is exactly what the Italian artist did. Giuliano Mauri, when he created the Cattedrale Vegetale, or Woody the cathedral. He planted two groves of trees that will eventually grow to two breathtaking basilicas.





Giuliano Mauri is an Italian artist best known for his work in natural architecture.



He has participated in numerous architectural forums such as the Venice Biennale, the Milan Triennale and the Penn Biennale.





He decided to create something even more exciting than his previous work and started working on the Tree Cathedral.



First of all, he began to assemble the frame of the cathedral from branches and tree trunks.



From them, he collected such cells, after which he planted in them two groves, including 80 hornbeam seedlings, which will grow into big trees.



The idea is that nature will come along and fill in the gaps as the wood decays over time.



The tree cathedral consists of 42 columns forming a five-aisled basilica.



This project used 1800 spruce trunks, as well as 600 chestnut branches, which were then fastened together with 6000 meters of branches hazelnuts. The artist did this using traditional weaving techniques.



As the trees begin to grow, a natural roof will form over this cathedral.



The cathedral is huge - you can truly appreciate the size of this place only after visiting it.



It took months to build and covers an area of ​​650 square meters. It is over 27 meters long, 24 meters wide and ranges from 5 to 21 meters.



Mauri began work on the cathedral in 2001, but in 2009 the artist has died. The cathedral was completed in 2010 and is now monument to Mauri and his work.



The tree cathedral can be found at the foot of Mount Arera, which is located in Northern Italy.