So what is your favourite cathedral?

[muticus]

I too love both Ely and Chichester, also have a soft spot for (don't laugh) Coventry - more for what it represents than for what it looks/feels like. Southwell and Gloucester are both lovely, but in the end the one that warms my heart the most would have to be Ripon.

[gurnemanz]

In UK, Durham for me too.
In Europe - Burgos and a distant second Poitiers.

In Europe: Durham , Reims, Albi, Pisa, Siena, Bamberg, Regensburg, Roskilde

[Don Basilio]

Canterbury, off and away: the nave, crypt and choir are all quite different in style, and the interior seems to have lots of hidden nooks and levels. The plan, with rising ambulatory around the shrine-space is unique.

Exeter and York both have rather motherly charm.

On paper, Chartres ought to be best ever, but both times I have been there I have felt overwhelmingly depressed, for what may be personal reasons rather anything to do with the building.

My nomination for Best French Cathedral would be Amiens.



I must get to Llandaff some time. The Epstein divides opinion...

[DracoM]

Albi is one of the strangest ecclesiastical buildings I have ever been in. And all that brick and darkness...........

[StephenO]

Has to be Worcester for the architecture, the history and the fine choir - and because it's the nearest.

I was amused to read on the back cover of Trio Mediaeval's Worcester Ladymass CD that 'Worcester Cathedral (is) in the Malvern region of western England'. Pleased to see they've got the relative importance of our neighbouring towns/cities right.

[Lizzie]

Albi is one of the strangest ecclesiastical buildings I have ever been in. And all that brick and darkness...........

How true. Never been quite sure if I like it or just find it fascinating for its strangeness...

[Lizzie]

Canterbury, off and away: the nave, crypt and choir are all quite different in style, and the interior seems to have lots of hidden nooks and levels. The plan, with rising ambulatory around the shrine-space is unique.

Exeter and York both have rather motherly charm.

On paper, Chartres ought to be best ever, but both times I have been there I have felt overwhelmingly depressed, for what may be personal reasons rather anything to do with the building.

My nomination for Best French Cathedral would be Amiens.



I must get to Llandaff some time. The Epstein divides opinion...

I too think Amiens is wonderful. It was almost empty when I went on a Winter day and I enjoyed it immensely. It deserves a fine organ too though. In Spain, I also adore Seville and could sit and gaze at the high altar for hours...

[muticus]

I agree with many posters that there are some wonderful European Cathedrals, but they seem to lack heart - it is (and I suspect that here at least we will all be in agreement) the loss of the daily round of the Opus Dei, that throbbing heartbeat of musical prayer, that we alone have managed to save in these islands. Day by day choristers and lay-clerks, DoM's and organists striving to produce the best not for the 'audience' not for the clergy, not even for themselves, but for God. Without this these wonderful heaps of stone are at best architectural museums, at worst tourist attractions. Thank-you to all of them.

[Serial_Apologist]

Well I'm no believer, but I admire these buildings for more than their being architectural museums or tourist attractions. The beauty, the sheer devotion to workmanship as an end in itself, not to mention the wisdom that went into their construction, often without the kind of mathematical or structural knowhow that leads to some modern monstrosities today, are surely also to be wondered at.

Many years ago I made my one and only visit to Cologne Cathedral. Inside, in the central apse, a Mercedes Benz was mounted on a revolving platform, illuminated by laser beams from on high (sic). It was on offer free if one entered a competition whose proceeds would be towards the building's upkeep. I couldn't help wondering what Jesus would have made of it all.

S-A

[Lizzie]

I agree with many posters that there are some wonderful European Cathedrals, but they seem to lack heart - it is (and I suspect that here at least we will all be in agreement) the loss of the daily round of the Opus Dei, that throbbing heartbeat of musical prayer, that we alone have managed to save in these islands. Day by day choristers and lay-clerks, DoM's and organists striving to produce the best not for the 'audience' not for the clergy, not even for themselves, but for God. Without this these wonderful heaps of stone are at best architectural museums, at worst tourist attractions. Thank-you to all of them.

Many thanks indeed! We owe them all a great deal. God bless all. Liz

[decantor]

I agree with many posters that there are some wonderful European Cathedrals, but they seem to lack heart - it is (and I suspect that here at least we will all be in agreement) the loss of the daily round of the Opus Dei, that throbbing heartbeat of musical prayer, that we alone have managed to save in these islands. Day by day choristers and lay-clerks, DoM's and organists striving to produce the best not for the 'audience' not for the clergy, not even for themselves, but for God. Without this these wonderful heaps of stone are at best architectural museums, at worst tourist attractions. Thank-you to all of them.

Absolutely right! What is more, English cathedrals and their choirs prosper in symbiosis: the masonry lives through the music, and the choirs are at their best inside the purpose-built stonework.

I've never yet entered an English cathedral that didn't talk to me in some way: St Paul's had the least to say. Any 'favourites' I might have are simply through personal associations - Lichfield, Winchester, Worcester, Durham, Lincoln, Canterbury. And the Baptistry window at Coventry is a worthy contribution to the tradition from the 20th century.

So many of the continental cathedrals that I've visited seemed cold and cheerless - only at Laon did I feel on holy ground, though Freiburg impressed me for no specific reason. For ten years throughout the 1980s, I took groups of kids to visit Chartres - I, like a previous poster, always found it dingy and depressing, and attributed the sensation to all those machine-gunners lurking in the shadows, poised to mow one down if one took an unauthorised photograph!

[Lizzie]

Sadly, I felt nothing in St Paul's and similarly inside Derby and Birmingham. I found SP cold and almost 'calculating' in its approach to visitors yet, just across the River, felt a great warmth of welcome at Southwark. Hmmm!

[salymap]

Lizzie, I knew someone who worked near Southwark Cathedral and somehow or other he arranged for me to be sent a newsletter/magazine called 'Over the Bridge' from there. A very friendly place I feel.

[Lizzie]

Lizzie, I knew someone who worked near Southwark Cathedral and somehow or other he arranged for me to be sent a newsletter/magazine called 'Over the Bridge' from there. A very friendly place I feel.

Absolutely Saly. Found everyone delightful there. Must go back again... Hope you're well. Love. Liz

[gradus]

Pretty much the last one I visited but I especially like Ely, Norwich and Worcester, largely because I've visited them the most. Oh yes, Truro too for its lovely music.