Peterborough Cathedral is just one of England’s best structures, an almost finish Romanesque church on an amazing scale sitting driving just one of the most unique and eccentric Gothic facades uncovered wherever in medieval Europe. The church we see right now is little altered given that its completion in the 13th century apart from unavoidable 19th century restorations and the serious depradations of Civil War injury in the mid 17th century.
The bulk of the church is 12th century Norman, retaining even its apse (a rarity in England) and even the original flat picket ceilings of nave and transept. The nave ceiling retains its early medieval painted decoration with an assortment of figures established in lozenge formed panels (mainly overpainted in the 18th and 19th hundreds of years but the general result is preserved). The 13th century west facade is the most remarkable and unforgettable element of the creating, with 3 large Gothic arches forming a big porch in entrance of the making, a exceptional structure, flanked by modest spires and meant to be surmounted by two pinnacled towers mounting just driving the facade, even though only that on the north side was finished (and originally surmounted by a wood spire which was eradicated c1800). The central tower is a remarkably squat structure of 14th century day (with a striking vaulted ceiling within just) and alongside with its counterpart at the west conclude helps make shockingly tiny existence on the city’s skyline for this sort of an great making. The remaining addition to the church prior to the Reformation is the ambulatory all-around the apse, a superb instance of late medieval perpendicular with a stunning lover-vaulted ceiling.
Given the extensive scale of the setting up it is possibly surprising to find out that it has only experienced cathedral position considering the fact that 1541, prior to that it experienced been only Peterborough Abbey, but it was a person of the most well endowed monastic residences in the country, as witnessed by the architecture. It was as soon as the burial position of two queens, Katherine of Aragon lies on the north aspect of the choir and Mary Queen of Scots was originally interred here ahead of her son James I experienced her entire body moved to the additional prestigious environment of Westminster.
Regrettably the cathedral suffered miserably through the Civil War when Parliamentarian troops ransacked the church and former monastic structures in an orgy of destruction, substantially of which was overseen by Cromwell himself in human being (which helps ex[lain its thoroughness). Tombs and monuments were brutally defaced, almost all the primary furnishings and woodwork have been destroyed, along with just about every bit of stained glass in all the huge windows (only the merest fragments remain nowadays in the higher home windows of the apse). Even worse nevertheless, the pleasant cloisters on the south side, the moment famed for the natural beauty of their painted home windows, ended up demolished leaving only their outer partitions and some tantalising reminders of their former richness. The impressive 13th century Girl Chapel hooked up to the north transept (an uncommon arrangement, related to that at Ely) was another major casualty, demolished immediately right after the war so that its materials could be marketed in order to raise cash for the restoration of the cathedral following the Cromwellian rampage.
In the following centuries significantly was done to repair service the developing and bring it back again into get. There were being big restorations for the duration of the 19th century, which incorporated the dismantling and rebuilding of the central tower (adhering to the identical structure and reusing unique content) owing to impending structural failure in the crossing piers.
What we see today is therefore a marvel of architecture, a church of good natural beauty, but a considerably hollow a single owing to the misfortunes of record. 1 thus doesn’t obtain at Peterborough the identical litter of the hundreds of years that other cathedrals typically possess (in conditions of tombs and furnishings) and there are handful of windows of authentic notice, but for the grandeur of its architecture it is one of the extremely best churches we have.
For a lot more history see the hyperlink below:-
www.peterborough-cathedral.org.uk/historical past.aspx
Posted by Aidan McRae Thomson on 2017-06-06 07:23:58
Tagged: , Peterborough , Cathedral , Cambridgeshire , architecture , medieval , ceiling , vault , vaulting
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