The Beauty of Wells Cathedral
If you love beautiful architecture and a bit of history, then a visit to Wells Cathedral near Bath in the UK is definitely in order –
Theres been some form of worship going on around the sacred spring at Wells since before Roman times with a Saxon mortuary built in around 705AD and the current Cathedral begun its life in 1175 and finally finished 200 years later.
It turns out that Wells was the first cathedral built in the English Gothic Style in England under the patronage of Bishop Reginald de Bohun and master mason Adam Locke and the cathedral also has the largest number of surviving medieval statues in the UK at 300 – they are quite amazing to look at and have vivid detail showing aspects of medieval life, culture and fashion.
Theres plenty of information on the history on wikipedia if you fancy it
The chapter house which has an amazing arched ceiling was completed in 1306 with later cloisters added and the cathedral was then extended by a 1/3rd to make it the imposing building we see today.
heres the amazing vaulted ceiling
the stone work is incredible and yet it still feels light and airy – much more so than you would expect in a gothic style structure.
these amazing arches took my breath away – why cant we make beautiful edifices like these any more? im not sure that the crafts still exist to build with this level of sophistication and spirit.
i especially loved this old stone staircase that runs up to the chapter house – all wonky from millenia of people’s feet pounding them into new shapes.
Heres one of the cloisters at Wells showing you how the arch decoration runs throughout the cathedral.
Its a wonderful place to visit so we highly recommend it!
