Christ Church

Dublin has no shortage of churches (Actually, that could be said of all of Ireland). They are monstrous and beautiful buildings full of all kinds of history (not all of it positive) and stunning glass and architectural details.
Christ church cathedral is one of the most important churches in Ireland, history wise. The cathedral is located in the former heart of mediaeval Dublin. However a major dual carriage-way building scheme around it separated it from the original mediaeval street pattern which once surrounded it, with it original architectural context (at the centre of a maze of small buildings and streets) lost both by road-building and by the demolition of the older residential quarter at Wood Quay. As a result the cathedral now appears dominant in isolation behind new civil offices along the quays, out of its original mediaeval context.
The amount of stained glass is astonishing and lovely. The cathedral is imposing in the middle of town, taking up the better part of a city block. It is humbling to think of how many people over the hundreds and hundreds of years of its existence have crossed its threshold and worshiped there. Having recently read a novel that fictionally covered the corruption of the church while attached to the state, I also have to wonder what kinds of corruption and history making happened behind its beautiful closed doors.