Cathedral of Saint John the divine on Amsterdam Avenue is the fourth largest Christian Church in the world. Its construction is not yet complete, history of erecting a huge building reminiscent of the epic medieval churches.

The Cathedral belongs to the Episcopal Church of the USA – separated as in the war for independence branch of the Anglican Church. The head of the Anglicans is the British monarch is therefore the clergy deposited colonies established independent of recent metropolis Church. Thus, it is Protestant.

In 1887 Bishop Henry Codman Potter put forward the idea of building a Protestant Cathedral, not inferior to the size and attractiveness of the Catholic St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. The project in the Byzantine-Romanesque style, was designed by architects George Lewis Heins and Christopher Grant Lafarge, the construction began in 1892. From the very beginning it faced difficulties: due to the weak soil foundations had to be sunk by 22 feet. By 1900 managed to build a huge vault, which took place at the beginning of the service. By 1911 it became clear that the original design of the building is outdated, the Byzantine-Romanesque style was out of fashion. Alteration of the project attracted architect Ralph Adams of Crema, a proponent of the Gothic, in which he saw the top of the Western architecture.

The first stone of the nave was laid in 1925. New York Committee to raise funds for the construction of the Cathedral was headed by the lawyer Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who eight years later became President of the United States. Thanks to money collected work continued even during the great depression.

The Cathedral was opened on 30 November 1941, a week before the Japanese attack on pearl Harbor. During the war, work stopped: the bishops felt that in difficult times the resources of the Church should be spent on works of mercy, and workers lacked. Architect cram still cherished the idea of replacing the Byzantine domes of the Gothic tower, but the plan never was implemented, in the Cathedral connected with various architectural styles. In 1979, the new York mayor Edward Koch joked: "I was told that some of the great cathedrals were built five hundred years. We are still in the first century".

The temple is huge: the length of two football fields, it contains 5 thousand believers. If you do not know his history, you may find that this is an example of late Gothic architecture of Northern France in about the thirteenth century. The huge bronze doors of the West facade of the Cathedral was made by the architect and designer Henry Wilson. They depict scenes from the New and old Testaments. The rose window of the over the entrance is the largest in the USA stained glass, muralist Charles Connick has made it from ten thousand pieces of glass. Seven chapels of the Cathedral known as "the chapel of languages", they are dedicated to the heavenly patrons of various ethnic groups in new York. Nearby is a memorial to firefighters who died in the line of duty.

Near the Cathedral is a sculpture by Greg Wyatt fountain of the world – it allegorically depicts the struggle between good and evil. On the plates around the fountain (in which there is never water) depicts thinkers and philosophers: Gandhi, Socrates, Einstein, John Lennon. In the Cathedral annually celebrate the feast of St. Francis, which receive the blessings of the animals – up to camels and elephants.