This past weekend I visited Norwich Cathedral. Some pictures and a little information on the cathedral are below:
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| Yep that is me in this picture. Oh and the Cathedral is behind me :) |
Work on Norwich Cathedral began in 1096 when it was founded by the Bishop Herbert de Losinga. The cathedral has stood for over 900 years, through fire, wars, angry mobs, and a nest of hawks about halfway up the spire whose nest was filmed on a live webcam for awhile.
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| Picture taken from inside the cloisters |
The Cathedral is still a working building so the cloisters as well as the inside are completely open to the public. The floor of the cloisters as well as much of the inside floor are gravestones for the people buried beneath them. Mark (my tour guide for the day and another student here at UEA) and I were wondering whose idea it was to first start burying people under these stone floors. I know it was a common practice for a long time and can even be found in some of the really old churches out east in America. But, think of all the work that must have went into pulling up each of those individual stones to bury someone there? (I will remember to get a picture of one of these the next time I visit so that you can see what I mean. And at what point did someone say, "okay there has got to be an easier way to bury these people"? Or did it just go out of fashion when churches were no longer built of stone?
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| The one detailing I found. |
Inside the Cathedral there were three pictures of ceiling details that could be found out in the cloisters with a sign asking children if they could find them all. So of course I had to try it. I only found one .... but I suppose I have a year to find the other two still :)
If you are interested in learning more about the Norwich Cathedral you can:
1) Check out this webpage:
http://www.visitnorwich.co.uk/norwich-cathedral-history.aspx
2) Perhaps try and hunt down this book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Norwich-Cathedral-Church-Diocese-1096-1996/dp/1852851341
3) Or track me down during the Christmas holidays and demand to see the brochures I have on it. :)
If historical fiction is more your speed, I recommend you check out
"Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet. It is a long book, but it is a very interesting story about the building of a English cathedral city. I believe it has also been made into a mini series of the same name.
What a beautiful cathedral - it must be quite an experience to see it up close & personal. I loved "Pillars of the Earth"; it was a book I couldn't put down because the story of the characters was so compelling.
ReplyDeleteDid you read his second book in that series that takes place like 100-200 years later? 'World Without End'. I read a large chunk of it on the way over here, and it is almost just as good as the first.
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