My Favourite Places: Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral located in Salisbury, United Kingdom. The cathedral boasts the tallest church spire in the UK, the largest cloister in England, and one of the four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta.
Building commenced when the bishopric was moved to Salisbury from Old Sarum in 1220 during the tenure of Richard Poore. Due to the high water table in the new location, the cathedral was built on only four feet of foundations, and by 1258 the nave, transepts and choir were complete. The west front was ready by 1265. The cloisters and chapter house were completed around 1280. Because the cathedral was built in only 38 years, Salisbury Cathedral has a single consistent architectural style, Early English Gothic.
The only major sections of the cathedral built later were the tower and spire, which at 404 feet (123 metres) dominated the skyline from 1320. While the spire is the cathedral's most impressive feature, it has also proved to be troublesome. Together with the tower, it added 6,397 tons (6,500 tonnes) to the weight of the building and but for the addition of buttresses, bracing arches and iron ties over the succeeding centuries, it would have suffered the fate of spires on other great ecclesiastical buildings (such as Malmesbury Abbey) and fallen down; instead, Salisbury is the tallest surviving pre-1400 spire in the world. To this day the large supporting pillars at the corners of the spire are seen to bend inwards under the strain. The addition of tie beams above the crossing led to a false ceiling being installed below the lantern stage of the tower.
Significant changes to the cathedral were made by the architect James Wyatt in 1790, including replacement of the original choir screen and demolition of the bell tower which stood about 320 feet (100 metres) north west of the main building. Salisbury is one of only three English cathedrals to lack a ring of bells, the others being Norwich Cathedral and Ely Cathedral.
[The above from Wikipedia].
This is a wonderful place and I recommend it to anyone visiting the area. It truly dominates the skyline and can be seen from miles away. It must have been truly awe inspiring when it was first completed. So far I’ve only vistied it twice (or maybe three times) but intend to revisit the place soon – now that it appears to have stopped raining for a while. It may come as a surprise to some of my readers that I like churches but most were built with the intention of making a deep impact on their visitors and I’m certainly not imune from that. In fact I make a point of visiting places of worship wherever I am.
3 comments:
I took my sister there when she came over for a visit. Fascinating place. I'd have spent longer, but she was not interested at all - refused to even go in (it might have been in protest at the entrance fee - but we didn't pay it anyway - it is a voluntary donation!), and made me feel dead guilty for stopping & looking at stuff:-( All that education & what do you get? Someone who neither knows nor cares about the history of the country!
We have every intention of going back this year tho. For a fuller visit!
I'm fascinated by church architecture. I've been reading the History of Art for the last month or so and am up to the 1600's. They go in depth and give a lot of history and pictures of the European churches. Maybe someday I'll get across the pond and take a look at a few.
dbackdad said: Maybe someday I'll get across the pond and take a look at a few.
You could spend a life time just checking out English churches - never mind the rest of Europe.
Hope you can all make it over here at some point!
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