Repeated wooden columns create the rhythm of a cathedral aisle, but the setting is a landscape rather than an enclosed stone building. Giuliano Mauri’s tree-cathedral idea invites time and living growth into the artwork.
Photo: Inexhibit
A framework for change
Wooden structures surround growing trees, suggesting architectural volume while allowing light, weather and vegetation to remain part of the scene. Snow makes the open framework especially visible: the eye follows its repeated vertical lines before discovering how much sky lies between them.
Mauri developed more than one project using this idea. Arte Sella identifies its Cattedrale Vegetale with 2001. That history should not be combined indiscriminately with details from the separate Oltre il Colle project near Mount Arera.
Why the distinction matters
A mixed online gallery can accidentally turn several installations into one building with contradictory dates and column counts. The enduring idea is clearer when each site keeps its own history. Check the relevant venue’s current information before planning a visit.
For temporary architecture made from another winter material, compare Harbin’s monumental snow sculpture. For a photographic illusion rather than a physical installation, see Daniel Barreto’s Woodhouses.
An artwork designed to include time
The timber framework gives the cathedral its outline immediately; the trees introduce a much slower rhythm. That combination changes what it means to look at the work. Close views draw attention to individual supports and the plants within them, while a view along the aisle brings the repeated verticals together as a single space. Snow adds another temporary layer, picking out edges and covering the ground. The architecture is therefore experienced through both its constructed form and the season in which it is photographed.
Mauri’s own project catalogue distinguishes the Orobie work dated 2010 from the Val di Sella project. Each installation has its own construction history and column count. A number describing one installation should not be multiplied across every column or transferred to another site. The photographs can still be appreciated together as examples of an artistic idea, provided each documented location retains its identity rather than becoming a single imaginary cathedral with incompatible specifications.
Sources, photography and further reading
Original feature and image attributions:
- Flickr
- Virtual Sacred Space
- Wikimedia Commons
- P Base
- Queste Dolomiti
- Inexhibit
- NY Times
- Flickr
- My Modern Met.
- Viral Nova
- Lago del Predil – One of the Most Scenic Recreational Areas in Italy
- Streets of Spello – the Most Exciting Hike in an Ancient Town, Italy
- Riomaggiore - First Village of the Five of the Cinque Terre, Italy
- Lake Garda – the Largest Stunning Lake in Italy
- Top 10 Italian Coastal Sites
- Arte Sella
- Harbin’s monumental snow sculpture
- Daniel Barreto’s Woodhouses
Current reference information, checked 15 September 2026:
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