Saturday, February 2, 2008

Cathedral made feelable for the blind

There is this cathedral in Lund, called Lunds Domkyrka. It is open for public, it has an interesting clockwork inside and many more things to see. I am not going to explain all that because you can see the wiki page for yourself. Interestingly and not mentioned in the wiki, there is a wooden model of the building inside as well. A note explains that it is there so that the blind can feel what the outside of the building 'looks' like. Now, this is a service to the blind that I haven't seen before in a church, cathedral or any building for that matter. In some cases I have seen model buildings inside buildings, but usually there is a 'do not touch' sign or 'do not touch' artifact to prevent people from touching it (see picture). In fact, the seeing are not supposed to touch the model of the Lunds Domkyrka because another note asks the seeing not to touch the model but look at the original.

Although to me the Lunds Domkyrka model seems a great service to the blind, I do wonder how the blind are made aware of the presence of the model? And, how are they told that they are allowed to touch the model?
The model is quite detailed. One can even see through the tiny windows and door of the model into its interior and notice that it is filled with details as well. It is difficult to reach inside the model. But then again, that would be silly. After all, one is standing inside the original, right?

Model of St. Paul's Cathedral inside St. Paul's Cathedral (picture taken in the nineteen eighties)

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