Cathedrals

Cathedrals are magnificent and beautiful but it also takes a long time to build. Sometimes people can’t even see the finished cathedral in their lifetime. Part of the word Cathedra is Greek for “chair”. Cathedrals are built surrounded by the rest of the town. Cathedrals were a staple of most medieval cities.

The common type of cathedral was called Romanesque. That style was developed around the 12^th century. Instead of having rounded arches cathedrals had pointed arches. They had a certain type of support to the thick and high stone walls and they were called flying buttresses. They had very high ceiling but they needed no interior support. The architecture is very beautiful in cathedrals so the builders took lots of time into the architecture. Sometimes, what were added to the architecture were gargoyles. These were stone beasts that sometimes were put on the flying buttresses. These stone creations had a symbolic purpose.  One of the reasons that they had gargoyles was to divert water away from the cathedral. There was also a spiritual reason as well. They were to keep the evil spirits away from the church.

They of course need a lot of money to build the cathedrals because they were very expensive to build, so they had to raise money. One of the common ways that they raised money was by selling indulgences.

The largest cathedral is located in Cologne and that church took about 600 years to finish. So the first people who were starting to build could not see the finished cathedral in their lifetime, but at least the future generation could enjoy what beautiful cathedrals they created.