Washington National Cathedral Tour - Gargoyles and Grotesques

Last weekend I explored the awesome gargoyles and grotesques that don the roof of the Washington National Cathedral. The cathedral has 112 gargoyles and more than 3,000 grotesques many of which are carved into unique shapes. Gargoyles cover drainage spouts and were created to prevent rainwater from eroding the building. Grotesques are more cosmetic and simply reflect weather off the building.

Many of the gargoyles are carved in pairs and appear on opposite sides of cathedral pillars. 

Gargoyle Pairs

One of the cooler pairs I saw was this interesting juxtapose of age and youth. 

To symbolize age is this powerful jutting grotesque carved into an older mans head.

On the other side, is a wailing baby clutching his toys. Kinda creepy..

Another more ominous pair are these two gentleman. The first has just launched a nuclear missile into himself, a powerful image inspired by the tension of the cold war.

The other, is pulling on a gas mask on in despair.

Very powerful imagery for a church facade. 

Close up:

The sad partner in a gas mask:

Not all of the pairs where sad though... below is a fun animal pair of a hunting penguin and bear.

More Gargoyles 

I also caught a couple of cool one-off gargoyles. 

This one may require a double take. What you're seeing is a dentist working on the teeth of a walrus! Despite years of weather the details of this gargoyle are still visible, even the adorable turtle at the feet of the dentist.

This grotesque of a camera was created to commemorate the first time the Washington National Cathedral was filmed on TV. It also looks a bit like a surveillance camera, watching over the cathedral.

To get these close ups, I was actually using the front facing camera of my Galaxy 7 edge. #gargoyleselfie  

Another cute gargoyle we saw was this poodle:

One of the most famous grotesque on the cathedral is actually a carving of Darth Vader. As an ode to the Star Wars files, he was placed on the dark side of the cathedral and is covered in shadow for most of the day.

Sculpted by Jay Hall Carpender and carved by Patrick J. Plunkett, this piece was actually inspired by the third-place winner of a National Geographic World magazine contest for children. My photo is a bit grainy but hopefully you can see Darth Vader coming out for the corner.

Here is a better picture from Wikipedia.

After traversing the side of the building we climbed up further to see the high towers of the cathedral. These towers are covered in angels who are playing various instruments, presumably to celebrate the heavens. 

Angel Towers

This is a base of one of the towers with angels playing the harp and flute.

This is a picture of the top of one of the towers.

Another cool base had angels playing a mini piano, the trumpet, and some large thimbles.

This angel was clearly the rocker in the group!  🎸 

I would be remiss not show you the view of the surrounding Washington D.C. area from the top of the cathedral.

Building/Surroundings

COOK-A-DOODLE-DOO!! I couldn't image waking up to this view!

...from here you can even see the Washington Monument!

Continuing to the right...

This panorama says it all... 🐟 

Exploring these gargoyles was amazing and I highly recommend going on your own tour. You can sign up here. I took the private tour with my family and trust me you will not regret it!

Stay curious my friends~