On Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan, etched into the exterior stonework of the landmarked Cathedral of St. John the Divine, you'll find a scene that depicts the End of Days. The backdrop to this apocalypse is NYC, and features the Twin Towers toppling, the Brooklyn Bridge breaking in half, and a series of mushroom clouds above it all. There are skulls, snakes, and people running, as chaos reigns and the four horsemen trot in. This is presumably a depiction of NYC as "Babylon the Great," as mentioned in the Book of Revelation. In other words, the city that suffers destruction at the hands of God. "Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons."
The pieces can be found on what the church calls their Portal of Paradise, located on the western facade, and it's been there since the late 1980s (though the church itself was conceived in the late 1800s, finally fully opening in 1941). A rep for the church explained the piece to Gothamist:
The Portal of Paradise, as the Cathedral’s central portal is called, was completed by master stonecarver Simon Verity between 1988 and 1997. The frieze over the Portal doors shows Jesus, and below him is John the Divine with paper and quill. Flanking the doors are Old and New Testament figures. Under their feet are some of the most striking examples of the Cathedral’s modern stonework. In keeping with the Italian Renaissance tradition of depicting Biblical scenes in modern settings, the sections below these figures show visions of destruction, with NYC collapsing beneath the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion.
The depictions—which also feature giant waves, the NYSE, Chrysler Building and a sinking Statue of Liberty—have piqued the interest of conspiracy theorists, particularly after September 11th, the rep told us.
Although the inclusion of the Twin Towers amongst these scenes of apocalyptic devastation might seem particularly eerie to viewers and visitors post-9/11, beneath these scenes is another: that of resurrection, as stonemasons build a great cathedral upon the ashes of the city, just as Nehmiah built the Second Temple upon the ruins of Solomon’s temple. There are many other examples of specifically American imagery in the Cathedral, perhaps most notably an image of the sinking of the Titanic in stained glass. As an American cathedral, this space and its artwork are intended to speak directly to the history and surroundings of the people who engineered its construction, and to connect that American imagery to historic church iconography and symbolism.
Of course, the scene is even more distressing now given the whole impending nuclear war that's being dangled over our heads.
