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Cathedrals are fascinating storehouses of religious and general historical knowledge. If you're ever in the vicinity of a British cathedral, taking a decent gui
by bencollier49 5y ago
Cathedrals are fascinating storehouses of religious and general historical knowledge. If you're ever in the vicinity of a British cathedral, taking a decent guided tour is well worth the time, as the building will likely have gone through around a thousand years of slow (or dramatic) change, intimately linked to the history of the local area.
In Hereford, for instance, the font has a lockable cover to stop locals stealing the holy water to make magic potions, the west end collapsed and was rebuilt, and the town's crest is surrounded by saltires, as the city endured a siege by an army of Scots which was finally broken by the arrival of the king.
Meanwhile St. Alban's was built from stone reclaimed from Roman buildings at the nearby site of Verulamium.
- rich_sasha 5y agoPeterborough Cathedral is very grand and beautiful, but all human figures, sculpted and painted, have their faces removed (chipped off or painted) from Reformation days.
- bencollier49 5y agoUnfortunately that's common in a lot of places. Many of the cathedrals were actually used to billet roundhead troops, and they seem to have spent their free time doing that sort of thing.
- rich_sasha 5y agoIt's an interesting piece of history at least.
- kitd 5y agoWinchester is another good example, with some corners of it being the original Norman building. You can see chests purportedly bearing the bones of the Saxon and Danish kings, bullet holes from the 17thC civil war in the pillars, and Jane Austen's grave. While you're there, read up about William Walker too. An amazing story.
- dageshi 5y agoThere's a good time team on Salisbury Cathedral that's worth a watch, sadly the quality of the uploaded version is only 360p https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so8WBdhsUnw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so8WBdhsUnw
- musicale 5y agoSalisbury is magnificent (though Gothic/13th c. - it replaced the Norman cathedral at Old Sarum.) Not to mention the town and Stonehenge as well!
- dn3500 5y agoI live in Mérida, Yucatán, and our cathedral was built in the 1500s out of blocks taken from older Mayan temples. So you can go inside and see Mayan heiroglyphics on the walls!
- notdang 5y agoThe are a lot of old temples in that area. I've seen houses build out of those stones.
- jfengel 5y agoI've been meaning to visit Hereford Cathedral. Most famously it's home to the Mappa Mundi, a very large map of the world circa 1300. As well as the world's largest collection of chained books.