The east wall of the north transept demonstrates traces of the lost Girl Chapel, demolished in the several years instantly pursuing the Civil War, in the course of which the cathedral was ransacked in 1643. The two lower windows after served as entrance archways into the dropped chapel, whilst the decrease fifty percent of its west gable is noticeable earlier mentioned.
Peterborough Cathedral is a single of England’s greatest properties, an just about finish Romanesque church on an impressive scale sitting down powering 1 of the most one of a kind and eccentric Gothic facades found anywhere in medieval Europe. The church we see currently is minimal altered given that its completion in the 13th century aside from unavoidable 19th century restorations and the critical depradations of Civil War hurt 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 primary flat picket ceilings of nave and transept. The nave ceiling retains its early medieval painted decoration with an assortment of figures established inside lozenge formed panels (mostly overpainted in the 18th and 19th generations but the overall impact is preserved). The 13th century west facade is the most extraordinary and memorable element of the making, with three wide Gothic arches forming a giant porch in entrance of the building, a exceptional design, flanked by small spires and intended to be surmounted by two pinnacled towers mounting just guiding the facade, however only that on the north side was concluded (and at first surmounted by a wooden spire which was eliminated c1800). The central tower is a amazingly squat composition of 14th century day (with a putting vaulted ceiling within just) and alongside with its counterpart at the west end tends to make surprisingly little presence on the city’s skyline for these kinds of an enormous creating. The final addition to the church prior to the Reformation is the ambulatory all over the apse, a excellent example of late medieval perpendicular with a amazing admirer-vaulted ceiling.
Supplied the vast scale of the setting up it is possibly surprising to learn that it has only experienced cathedral status because 1541, prior to that it had been basically Peterborough Abbey, but it was one of the most effectively endowed monastic residences in the nation, as witnessed by the architecture. It was the moment the burial area of two queens, Katherine of Aragon lies on the north facet of the choir and Mary Queen of Scots was initially interred listed here just before her son James I had her system moved to the additional prestigious environment of Westminster.
Unfortunately the cathedral experienced miserably through the Civil War when Parliamentarian troops ransacked the church and previous monastic properties in an orgy of destruction, a great deal of which was overseen by Cromwell himself in human being (which aids make clear its thoroughness). Tombs and monuments were being brutally defaced, and almost all the primary furnishings and woodwork ended up wrecked, along with every bit of stained glass in all the huge home windows (only the merest fragments continue to be now in the large windows of the apse). Worse still, the delightful cloisters on the south side, at the time famed for the natural beauty of their painted home windows, had been demolished leaving only their outer partitions and some tantalising reminders of their former richness. The magnificent 13th century Woman Chapel attached to the north transept (an strange arrangement, very similar to that at Ely) was a different major casualty, demolished straight away after the war so that its products could be offered in buy to elevate funds for the restoration of the cathedral adhering to the Cromwellian rampage.
In the pursuing hundreds of years much was completed to repair service the creating and bring it back into get. There ended up major restorations throughout the 19th century, which included the dismantling and rebuilding of the central tower (pursuing the identical structure and reusing unique product) owing to impending structural failure in the crossing piers.
What we see now is consequently a marvel of architecture, a church of wonderful beauty, but a fairly hollow one owing to the misfortunes of historical past. Just one therefore won’t discover at Peterborough the very same litter of the centuries that other cathedrals often possess (in terms of tombs and furnishings) and there are handful of windows of actual notice, but for the grandeur of its architecture it is just one of the quite greatest church buildings we have.
For more background see the link under:-
www.peterborough-cathedral.org.british isles/history.aspx
Posted by Aidan McRae Thomson on 2017-06-19 21:45:40
Tagged: , Peterborough , Cathedral , Cambridgeshire , architecture , medieval
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