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Gothic cathedrals are not religious buildings of the ancient Goths, but temples built in the Gothic style of architecture. This architectural style appeared in France in the 12th century, it replaced the Romanesque style.
Gothic architecture spread throughout Western Europe and continued to develop until the 16th century. With the advent of the Renaissance, Gothic began to lose its significance. Best of all, the Gothic style manifested itself in the architecture of cathedrals, temples and monasteries. Gothic is characterized by narrow and high towers, arches with pointed tops, columns, multicolored stained glass windows and a richly decorated facade. An integral part of Gothic art is sculpture. The gloomy figures of gargoyles and mythical creatures served as a particularly frequent decoration on the walls. The combination of stained-glass windows shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow, magnificent patterns and stone sculptures of figures create an inimitable ensemble.
Gothic covers various works of art: painting, fresco, stained glass, sculpture, book miniature and many others. But as already mentioned, it is the medieval cathedrals of Europe that fully demonstrate all the beauty and grandeur of the Gothic style. They will be discussed below.
10 gothic cathedrals photo.
St Stephen's Cathedral, located in the heart of Vienna, has survived many wars and is now a symbol of the freedom of the city. The Gothic cathedral stands on the ruins of two previous churches. Its construction was largely initiated in the 14th century by Duke Rudolf IV. And the most recognizable characteristic of the cathedral, the tiled roof with the national coat of arms and the coat of arms of the city of Vienna, was added only in 1952.
Hotels and hotels: St. Stephen's Cathedral
2. Burgos Cathedral. Burgos, Spain
Burgos Cathedral is a medieval cathedral in the city of the same name, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It is famous for its huge size and unique gothic architecture. The construction of the cathedral began in 1221, and after a long break of almost two centuries, it was completed in 1567. In 1919, the cathedral became the burial place of the national hero Rodrigo Diaz de Vivara (El Cid Campeador) and his wife Jimena Diaz.
Nearest hotels: Burgos Cathedral
3. Reims Cathedral. Reims, France
Reims Cathedral is the place where numerous French monarchs were officially crowned. It was built on the site of the basilica, where once (about 496) Clovis I, one of the greatest politicians of his time, was baptized by Saint Remy. The construction of the cathedral was completed by the end of the 13th century.
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The exceptionally large and elaborate Gothic cathedral in Milan's main square is one of the most famous buildings in Europe. This is one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in the world. Construction began in 1386 under the patronage of Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo (Antonio da Saluzzo) in a late Gothic style more typical than. It took five centuries before the building was completed.
Nearest hotels: Milan Cathedral
5. Seville Cathedral. Seville, Spain
Situated on the site of the majestic Almohada Mosque, the medieval cathedral was built to showcase the power and wealth of Seville after the long process of the Reconquista. When completed in the 16th century, it superseded Hagia Sophia as the largest in the world. The builders used some of the columns and elements of the former mosque. The most famous Giralda is a tower with rich patterns and ornaments, formerly a minaret, and transformed into a bell tower.
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6. York Minster York, England
One of the two largest Gothic cathedrals in Northern Europe (along with Germany). York Cathedral rises above the horizon in the ancient city of the same name and includes all stages of Gothic architectural development in. The construction of the present building was begun around 1230 and completed in 1472. The cathedral is famous for its largest medieval stained-glass windows.
Hotels in York Minster
Notre Dame Cathedral (Notre Dame de Paris) is a beautiful Catholic cathedral in the fourth arrondissement. Construction, begun in 1163, was not completed until 1345. One of the most famous French Gothic cathedrals, Notre Dame de Paris is an excellent example of French Gothic architecture, sculpture and stained glass. During the French Revolution in 1790, most of the sculptures and treasures were destroyed and looted. And yet, on December 2, 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned emperor here.
Hotels in Notre Dame Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral has been the most famous symbol of the city for many centuries. Its height is 157.4 meters. The famous cathedral stands on the site where a Roman temple was located back in the 4th century. Construction of the Gothic cathedral began in 1248 and continued intermittently for more than 600 years. The cathedral is dedicated to Saints Peter and Mary and is the main temple of the Cologne Archdiocese.
Nearest hotels: Cologne Cathedral
9. Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Florence, Italy
The Gothic-style construction that began in 1296 was completed in 1436. The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is the symbol of the city and one of the most beautiful buildings in Florence. Notable are the outer walls of the basilica, lined with beautiful marble panels of various shades: green, white, pink. And the huge brick dome is also impressive.
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10. Chartres Cathedral. Chartres, France
Chartres Cathedral is located in the city of the same name not far from. Its merit, besides being one of the finest examples of French High Gothic, is that it has been almost perfectly preserved. Most of the cathedral's original stained glass windows have remained intact, while the architecture has seen only minor changes since the early 13th century.
Hotels in Chartres Cathedral
Gothic cathedral ciphers
The cathedral is not only beauty, which: m: we cannot but admire.
Even if for you this is no longer an instruction to be followed, then, in any case, this is a book that must be understood.
The portal of the Gothic cathedral is the Bible.
Marcel Proust. Memory of the killed churches
Gothic is a style that has become the hallmark of the Middle Ages. She was by no means the only style of the era, but only the last and, perhaps, the most spectacular. It is customary to call Gothic monuments of architecture of the XII, XIII, XIV and partly XV and XVI centuries, in which the medieval mood is most fully reflected and the influence of Greek and Roman art is least detected. Decorated with fantastic lace carvings, stone spiers shot up and blossomed into the precious radiance of stained glass windows throughout Catholic Europe since the 12th century. France, England, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic and even Italy, the birthplace of the Renaissance, who hated it. But the leading roles in the history of Gothic art, which was, above all, the art of architects, were played, however, by France, England and Germany. France became the birthplace of the Gothic. England chose it as a national style, constantly returning to its forms, transforming them, but not forgetting. Germany, its romantics, got the honor to return Gothic art from the darkness of oblivion, to reveal its beauty to the world.
Modern man takes his breath away with admiration when looking at the masterpieces of Gothic, and hardly any other style of art has been subjected to so many attacks and such terrible criticism as Gothic. The term itself did not originate in the Middle Ages, as it might seem, but in the Renaissance. The very definition of art as "Gothic" testifies to the hostile and complete misunderstanding of the attitude that artists and scientists of the era of the enlightened Renaissance showed towards it.
In the middle of the 15th century, a number of works appeared in Italy in which the antique style, revived by Brunelleschi, is opposed to the “modern” style, brought to Italy during the migration of peoples by barbarians, the so-called Gothic. The art of the Goths, that is, the art of the barbarians, was called all works of non-antique art. But the art that replaced the Romanesque was not created by the Goths and has nothing to do with them at all. French architects of the 16th century noted the remoteness of the Gothic style from antique proportions and the lack of taste in fantastic Gothic ornamentation. The architect Philibert de l'Orme does not consider the Gothic style, or "la mode francaise", to be true architecture at all. The reviews of the French classics of the 17th century are interesting. Molière speaks indignantly about Notre Dame Cathedral, and for La Bruyère and Racine "Gothic" is a complete synonym for "barbarian". In 1800, Petit Radel even presented a project for the destruction of Gothic churches, and in 1857, Bayle devoted a whole lecture to proving that Gothic architecture in France is not national and is the embodiment of flawed religious ideas, obscurantism and anti-spirituality.
By the way, the invention of the term "Gothic" is attributed to Raphael. There was a witty theory "explaining" the emergence of the famous lancet arches. In a letter to Leo X, someone ( for a long time Raphael was indeed considered the author) indicated that they originated “from those uncut trees, which, if bent a little and tying their branches together, form a pointed arch”. But this is more of a historical anecdote. But thanks to Vasari, who shared the dislike of his predecessors for the Gothic, the name "Gothic" becomes common.
The world of Gothic is mysterious, confusing and ambiguous. Any Gothic temple is a multi-meaning riddle, only not made aloud, but embodied in stone, stained-glass windows, labyrinths laid out on the floor, sculptures and compositions. A huge number of legends are associated with Gothic cathedrals. Someone sees masterpieces of architecture in these buildings, for someone it is the Universe, a model of the Universe, a Bible for the illiterate, an anthology of metaphysics, symbolic messages of the Templars and alchemists. Adherents of esoteric teachings argue that the architecture and symbolism, for example, of the Parisian Notre Dame, is a kind of encrypted set of occult teachings. It is in this sense that Victor Hugo spoke of Notre Dame as "the most satisfactory concise guide to the occult." The slightest curls in the ornaments of its decor are shrouded in legends. Here, for example, is the legend of the gates of Notre Dame de Paris.
The doors of the gates of Notre Dame Cathedral are decorated with a wonderful pattern of wrought iron with equally amazing iron locks. Forging them was entrusted to a blacksmith named Biskorn. When the blacksmith heard that he would need to forge figured locks and patterns for the gates of the most beautiful cathedral in Paris, he was frightened in earnest. Deciding that he would never be able to cope with this, he tried to call on the help of the devil. The next day, when the canon of Notre Dame came to look at the work, he found the blacksmith unconscious, but in the forge he saw a real masterpiece: curly locks, overhead forged patterns, which were openwork intertwining leaves, in a word, the canon was satisfied. When the gate decoration was finished and the locks were cut in, the gate could not be opened! I had to sprinkle them with holy water. In 1724, the historian of Paris, Henri Sauval, expressed some thoughts about the mysterious origin of the patterns on the gates of Notre Dame. No one knew how they were made: whether they were cast or forged. Biskorn remained silent, the secret was lost with his death, and Sauval adds: “Biskorn, stung by remorse, became sad, became silent and soon died. He took his secret with him, never revealing it - either out of fear that the secret would be stolen, or fear that, in the end, it would turn out that no one saw how he forged the gates of Notre Dame "....
But this story is just a light warm-up for a bored tourist - Gothic architecture is fraught with deeper and strange things. The very birth of Gothic as a style, the artistic transformation of the utilitarian design into a composition is not such a simple and unambiguous process as it might seem at first glance.
Over its many thousands of years of history, art has known many styles, but it is very rare to name the author, the exact date and place of birth of any of them. Gothic is a rare exception. She was born in France and, by the way, precisely because of the light: from the idea that God is light (this is how the main postulate of the doctrine that became the theoretical justification for Gothic art can be formulated in this way). The "father" of the Gothic is Abbot Suger, who was the rector of the main church "institution" of France at that time - the abbey of Saint-Denis. Abbot Suger was one of the most educated people of his time. Theologian, historian, in 1147 - regent under the French king Louis VII, in addition to philosophical writings, he wrote a treatise on the aesthetics of Christian architecture, in which he substantiated the symbolic meaning of many elements of the architectural composition, including stained-glass windows and lancet arches. The new style became for him the embodiment of an idea found in the writings attributed at that time to the founder of the ancient monastery, the former burial place of the French kings, St. Dionysius, the first saint of France. From now on, the cathedral is a reliquary, a reliquary for the divine light that penetrates through the windows that have swallowed the walls. Never before had color and light played such a symbolic role.
Today, scientists are trying to unravel the secrets of Gothic cathedrals, and, no matter how curious it sounds, they succeeded in this, using software, originally developed for entertainment purposes. Animation programs used in the work on last film from the Star Wars series, after a slight modernization, allowed scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to unravel one of the many mysteries of Gothic cathedrals. With their help, it became clear how the builders of the XII-XIII centuries could create amazing “air” cathedrals with the means and tools available at that time and ensure their impeccable strength. “In order to understand the architectural features of Gothic cathedrals, we searched for lines of internal compression that carry the structure's weight down to its foundation,” explained MIT Architecture Professor John Oschendorf. - If these lines go beyond the vaults and walls of a Gothic cathedral, then it simply cannot exist. What is surprising is the borderline balance that the internal compression lines maintain. It is their presence at the threshold borders, but still in the security zone, that gives this incredible feeling of overcoming the laws of matter and gravity. It is difficult to get rid of the impression that the Creator himself led the medieval architects.
In Gothic, "overcoming the heaviness of body and soul" became a major artistic concern. Antique and classic forms, with their balance of horizontal and vertical directions, were not suitable for this purpose. In Gothic art, the "body" is only a symbol of "world feeling in space", a carrier of "immaterial extension", the idea of infinity. Hence the vertical as the dominant of the architectural composition. The Gothic cathedral only grows out of the earth, but lives in the sky. Moreover, from the closed tectonic architecture of the temple it turns into a plastic and spatial composition. Gothic architecture is not so much the organization of volumes as the spiritualization of space, internal and external. It can even be said that the Gothic style does not decorate the space, but turns everything around - separate forms, the earthly firmament and even the sky - into a figuratively significant whole. Around the Gothic temple, both the light and the sky become different.
It is clear that the solution of such a grandiose task is beyond the power of one generation. Cathedrals have been built for centuries, and like the ancient Egyptian pyramids, huge amounts of money, time, effort and lives of thousands of people were spent on their construction. Notre Dame Cathedral, founded in 1163, was under construction for more than two hundred years and was completed until the end of the 14th century. The largest of all Gothic cathedrals is located in Reims, its length is 150 m, the height of the towers is 80 m. The cathedral was built from 1211 to the beginning of the 14th century.
The hypothesis about the emergence of the Gothic as an architectural revolution of its time by Louis Charpentier in the book "Secrets of Chartres Cathedral" is closely connected with the secrets of the Templars. The creation of a master can contribute to the formation of a spiritual impulse in a person, especially an architectural structure that affects the soul. The rhythm of the material, revealed to the possessor of almost magical skill, in turn affects other people, since something consonant with this rhythm is hidden in them. Therefore, in all civilizations, religious architects have occupied a prominent position in society, and their training has always taken the form of a rite of initiation. This argument for the close connection of the Templars with the builders of the cathedrals is a fact supported by both documents and legends.
Of course, there are other ways to awaken the spiritual principle in a person - poetry, music, color, form, components of rituals ... The earth itself has such an ability: in some places the soul feels a surge of energy, and pilgrimages are usually made there. It is curious, by the way, that the places of Christian pilgrimage often coincide with the places of ancient and pagan pilgrimage - miracles constantly happen here, no matter what gods people worship.
Thus, Chartres Cathedral was erected on the site of a Druidic dolmen; where the towers of Notre-Dame de Paris now rise on the Ile de la Cité, Jupiter was once worshiped; and so on, if you dig the foundation of any Christian church, much more ancient stones will appear in the light of day. Many have argued that the new religions drive out the old ones, occupying their sacred places. But they simply draw their strength from the same sources generated by the earth itself. Therefore, people choose for places of worship mainly such places where the spiritual principle awakens faster and easier. At the same time, a search is underway for an appropriate design that allows the maximum implementation of the task of initiating this "spiritual awe" among the parishioners.
In the Middle Ages, a new form was required to influence the people. This form became the Gothic style. The appearance, spread, even the formation of the Gothic style is fraught with mysteries. For the most part, specialists took the most obvious path, suggesting that the transition from Romanesque to Gothic occurred through ordinary evolution, hence the term "transitional Gothic", which, by the way, appeared rather late (at first they spoke of primitive Gothic, which is much more accurate). This transition is indeed found, but only in the details, in the decorations, in the statue-column, which gradually breaks away from its base, in the capitals that change shape, in the elongation of the stained-glass windows. In fact, this is not a transition at all, but the assimilation of new principles of architecture. Stonemasons and carvers do not create the Gothic style on the basis of the Romanesque - just adherents of the Romanesque style adapt to the Gothic. A very significant nuance. There are also experiences of the Gothic style, where the hand of adherents of the Romanesque is felt: they would like to create something Gothic, but they, apparently, lack knowledge. Similarly, there are Gothic buildings on a Romanesque foundation. All this does not mean a transition.
In an architectural sense, the fundamental difference between the Romanesque and Gothic styles lies in the form of the vault. Changes in masonry, window shapes and other elements stem from this fundamental difference. The Romanesque vault is the covering that presses against the walls. It follows that the main structural element is the wall, which is extremely strong and dense for safety reasons. The Gothic vault is a bundle of tension of all stones, the coating no longer presses on the walls, but “rushes” upwards. The walls to some extent lose their significance and seem to dissolve into the void - hence the appearance of large stained-glass planes on the walls freed from the weight of the bearing functions.
There can be no direct transition between such systems. The Gothic arch would have crushed the Romanesque walls - unless their masonry would have been truly cyclopean. The Romanesque vault, clamped by two flying buttresses, would have bent and broken.
Gothic is a completely new system. Two flying buttresses pinch the vault, which would crumble under this pressure if it were not held in place by the weight of its lock. Meanwhile, it is the weight of the flying buttresses that creates their lateral pressure. It is the weight of the stones of the vault that creates the vertical, upward pressure of the castle. Consequently, it is the weight of the stones that ensures the aspiration of the vault upwards.
The weight seems to destroy itself. It's almost a levitation phenomenon. The walls seem to disappear in streams of light pouring in from huge stained-glass windows. In fact, the vaults are incredibly heavy and crush with enormous weight, relying on buttresses, taken out of the building and therefore invisible to the viewer inside.
The intersection of the vault arrows can be called the calling card of the Gothic style.
Such a strong tension is created that, they say, the masters who worked on the construction of Gothic cathedrals were afraid to even touch some stones, because from a light touch the same sound waves arose, as if a spring or string of a musical instrument stretched to the stop was touched.
And it was precisely this ever-present vibration of the Gothic temple - regardless of whether it was heard or not - that was the most powerful means of influencing the people to whom these churches and cathedrals were presented as a gift, because they were not only a place of worship, but also a kind of "common house ”, where people willingly gathered. The architect of a Gothic temple, the vault of which is located a few tens of meters from the ground, must have had very deep and serious knowledge.
In his book The Secrets of Chartres Cathedral, Charpentier concludes that the builders of Chartres, and especially the authors of the project, undoubtedly had in their hands some text of incredible scientific value, which could well be the Tablets of the Law brought from the Holy Land by the Knights Templar. According to legend, advanced knowledge of architecture was brought from the East by the first Knights Templar. Encouraged by Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian monastic order, nine French knights renounced all worldly things and went in search of the "mysteries" believed to be kept in a sanctuary under the ruins of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. It was suspected that during their ten-year campaign, the knights were engaged in the occult sciences. When they returned in 1128, a rumor spread in France that they had found the Ark of the Covenant, which supposedly contained the secrets of the Divine law governing numbers, weights and measures, including the so-called "golden number" - 1.618. Proportion 1:1.618 - " golden ratio”, or “golden mean”, - was considered ideal in the Renaissance and later times for the aesthetic perception of works of art and architecture. The return of the knights coincided with the appearance in Europe of the first examples of Gothic architecture, and six years later the construction of the first cathedral at Chartres began. There are several other interesting facts about this. Religious architects from the brotherhood "Companions of Duty and Freedom", who built several Gothic temples of amazing purity of lines, did not hide from whom they borrowed their "touch" - something like descriptive geometry, without which it is impossible to create a Gothic design. They received this knowledge from the Cistercian monks.
Almost all researchers agree that the Gothic style came out of the Cistercian order; in extreme cases, the Cistercians are recognized as the distributors of the Gothic. The Order of the Temple was in some way filial to the main Intercian abbey of Citeau - through Saint Bernard of Clairvaux "who taught him and entrusted him with his mission". And the order of the Temple is closely connected with the Gothic style. The French scholar Daniel Rho says: "Many of the most essential features of the Gothic style came from Saint Bernard."
It is amazing that among the then French population, still very small, there were such a number of masons, carvers, carpenters and even stained glass artists that within the same era to build a huge number of impressive temples. Of course, the Intercians and Benedictines were engaged in their training, and yet!
“How many architects! How many cutters! How many carpenters! exclaims Louis Charpentier. And everyone had to pay! Hence, there was a "sponsor". And of the possible sponsors, only one had the wealth to finance such projects - this is the Order of the Temple. Would the order do this if it were not for the mission entrusted to it? And the solution to this riddle again rests on the figure of St. Bernard - St. Bernard, who is believed to have been involved in the emergence of the Knights Templar, taught the Temple and entrusted him with a special mission. It should be said - three missions: to find the Ark of Moses; develop Western civilization; build the Temple.
As we remember, the knights-templars were prevented from completing such noble undertakings by circumstances beyond their control. But Gothic masterpieces continue to delight posterity.
In whatever city of Western Europe we find ourselves, if it has a Gothic cathedral, we will immediately feel that it is the center of the whole life of the city. So it was, is and will be - as long as the cathedral stands. We can safely say that the Gothic cathedral remains both the source of life aspirations and their goal, it accumulates centripetal forces and at the same time generates centrifugal forces, everything comes from it and everything returns to it. A Gothic cathedral is always a kind of model of the world. Indeed, large cathedrals were built in such a way that they could accommodate the entire population of the city at that time, in other words, they had to be of enormous size. AT gothic architecture a striking effect was achieved: the space of the Gothic cathedral inside seems larger than the cathedral itself when you examine it from the outside.
It has long been discovered a deep relationship between the principles of construction of the Gothic cathedral and the principles of construction of the largest theological concepts of that time. This parallelism is revealed and brilliantly explained by the eminent art historian Erwin Panofsky in his work Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism. “Like the “Sums” of high scholasticism,” the researcher writes, “the cathedral of high Gothic strove, first of all, for inclusiveness (“totality”). In its imagery, the High Gothic cathedral sought to embody all Christian knowledge - theological, natural-scientific and historical, where all elements should be in their place, and everything that has not yet found its definite place should be suppressed.
Comprehensiveness, articulation and interconnectedness - these are the categories in which the Universe was conceived. They are equally applicable both to theological treatises and to the monuments of Gothic art. The classical Gothic cathedral is the material embodiment of the Universe, which in a symbolic sense is expressed by the dominance of the trinity in its design, as a symbol of the Holy Trinity and the trinitarian doctrine, the main dogma of the Christian doctrine. At the heart of the Gothic cathedral is a three-row nave and a three-row transept (transverse nave). The rib vault forms a segmentation into adjacent triangles, the edges of which are specially emphasized so that when viewed from below their structure is clearly distinguishable (as well as when looking at the plans of Gothic cathedrals).
However, it would be wrong to consider Gothic cathedrals only the embodiment of scholasticism. Intellectual and spiritual life also found expression in this art. Cathedrals were encyclopedias of that era. They fully reflect the irrationalism of thinking, a holistic perception of the world, the desire to embrace in unity the essence of being, the cosmos, history and their projections in the spiritual world.
Starting from the 17th century, various researchers - Gobineau de Montluisan and Cambriel - and already in our century - Fulcanelli and Ambelain, more or less convincingly, revealed the secret meaning of the symbols of Gothic architecture. Fulcanelli, who wrote the famous book Mysteries of the Cathedrals, has already become an authority in this area (several horror films set in desecrated cathedrals where evil spirits appear, there are mandatory references to Fulcanelli).
Until now, legends continue to live that medieval alchemists encoded in the geometry of Gothic architecture the secret of the philosopher's stone.
Fulcanelli saw many alchemical symbols in the decoration of Notre Dame Cathedral. The world of sculpture of Notre Dame Cathedral in general occupies a special place in this alphabet of the spiritual. The bas-reliefs on the façade of the large portal, called the main entrance, or the entrance of Justice, are a series of allegorical representations of medieval knowledge. Alchemy is depicted as a woman whose head touches the clouds. She sits on a throne and holds in her left hand a scepter - a symbol of the monarch, and with her right hand she supports books: closed (esotericism) and open (exotericism). A ladder with nine steps is sandwiched between her knees and rests on her chest. This is the scala philosophorum, the symbol of patience which the alchemist must possess during the nine successive operations of hermetic work.
On the sides of the buttresses that limit the main entrance, we see two small bas-reliefs at eye level. The bas-relief on the left column depicts an alchemist opening the Mysterious Source, giving the matter of Making, one of the components of alchemical transmutation. On the adjacent buttress, the preparation of the philosophical composition is depicted.
Occult scenes are depicted in two rows, one above the other, to the right and left of the entrance. There, on the socles of the columns, is canonical for alchemy, since it contains its key moment, the image of the Raven.
Fulcanelli also wrote: “If, prompted by curiosity or simply for the sake of an idle walk on a fine summer day, you climb the winding stairs leading to the upper floors of the cathedral - then walk leisurely along the narrow passage of the gallery of the second tier. Having reached the corner formed by the column of the northern arch, you will see in the middle of the string of chimeras an amazing bas-relief of an old man carved from stone. He is the Alchemist of Notre Dame. On his head is a Phrygian cap, an attribute of an Adept. He doesn't think; he is watching. A sharp, sharp look. His whole posture expresses extreme tension.
An important detail of the Gothic cathedral is the image of the labyrinth. One of the most famous labyrinths is laid out on the floor of Chartres Cathedral, but similar images are found everywhere. The main idea of this symbol is to return to the spirit by walking along a tangled road to the center. The passage of the labyrinth also symbolizes spiritual evolution, the path of the adept, who as a result receives the Holy Grail, the philosopher's stone or the "hidden" Seal.
Some historians of esotericism, in particular P. D. Uspensky, believe that Gothic cathedrals were built by esoteric schools of builders. The cathedrals were the quintessence of their innermost philosophy and were intended to preserve and transmit knowledge. Everything in these structures was subject to a single plan, there was not a single superfluous or random detail. They are saturated with information on mathematics and astronomy; there are unusual ideas from biology (or "evolution"). According to Ouspensky, the chimeras and other figures of Notre Dame convey the psychological ideas of their builders, "mainly the idea of the complex nature of the soul." Finally, it is suggested that the purpose of the creators of Notre Dame "was not to teach all people, but only to transmit some ideas to a few through the space of time." Although this point of view is rather controversial, it is generally accepted that not only every detail of the Gothic cathedral serves as a symbol, but also proportions and configurations have a clear semantic meaning that has its origins in the Pythagorean school.
Any cathedral of the Middle Ages, regardless of whether it was built in the Romanesque or Gothic style, can be called a Bible for the illiterate. According to Abbot Suger mentioned above, sculptures, bas-reliefs and stained glass windows were intended to show ordinary people who could not read Holy Scripture what they should believe. In addition to compositions on biblical and gospel stories, individual figures of Christ, Mary, the apostles, episodes from legends about saints, images of historical events, and edifying parables were placed on them.
However, the content of the giant stone "comic book", which was and is each of the cathedrals, is not exhausted by biblical stories. Next to the illustrations to the Holy Scriptures, the masters placed scenes from the life of their contemporaries, intertwining both of them with bizarre, completely unbiblical, and sometimes frightening images of chimeras, demons, strange natives of unknown lands (after all, the idea of the geography of the earthly world of medieval man was very different from modern).
In general, the variety of plots in Gothic architecture is striking. There is practically everything here: everyday scenes, images of saints, monarchs, knights, gospel episodes, scenes of the Last Judgment, mythical and fantastic animals. Saints here coexist with unknown, outlandish creatures, mysterious signs of antiquity with Christian symbols. From the exquisite stone lace that envelops the cathedral, here and there protrude out how ugly, so bizarre figures and muzzles of gargoyles and other beasts, mockingly looking at the endless stream of pilgrims and tourists flocking to the cathedral square.
Where did the custom of decorating Gothic temples with grotesque sculptures of people, monsters and monsters come from? Even in our time, such a close proximity of the divine and the base is somewhat puzzling. Apparently, there is no exact answer to this question. It is known, however, that the attitude of the medieval church to this phenomenon was very ambiguous.
Not all the fathers of the church liked that the temples of God serve as a refuge for whole crowds of various evil spirits, albeit petrified. Debate around the grotesques has arisen repeatedly. Thus, in 1125, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux lamented: “What is the use of the brethren, who read piously in a monastery, from these strange monsters, miracles of perverted beauty or beautiful ugliness? Here, several heads can grow from one body, a four-legged body can have a snake's head, and a four-legged head can rest on the body of a fish... Almighty God! If we are not ashamed of all these evil spirits, we should at least feel sorry for the money spent on them. His fiery diatribe is especially penetrating in the context of his fundamental significance as a person standing at the origins of European Gothic architecture.
A real controversy flared up between the monks of the Cistercian order of St. Bernard and the Benedictines of Cluny. One of the most witty arguments of the latter was as follows: “God is incomprehensible, he is beyond the possibilities of any description and image; grotesque sculptures, pushing our imagination to the extreme, remind us of this.” Apparently, the Benedictines were of the opinion that the building of the Gothic cathedral is the Universe in miniature, and therefore it can contain images of not only everything that exists on earth, but also everything that can only be presented to the human imagination. The opponents of St. Bernard also believed that the rude and humorous symbolism of stone grotesques is the best suited for educating the flock, the bulk of which were simple and illiterate people. The main task of these stone monsters, according to the monks, was to remind of sins and retribution. And by popular belief, gargoyles had to be considered. At the same time, they take away all diseases from people, and most importantly, they take away all the bad human qualities - pride, greed, laziness, envy.
While the churchmen were arguing, unknown masons were erecting temples, and what they themselves thought of their creations, we do not know. They clothed their thoughts and feelings in stone. Apparently, not only Christian, but also more ancient pagan beliefs of people in good and evil spirits inhabiting heaven and earth were embodied in their creations. Grotesque images were perceived by ordinary people as a kind of amulets protecting temples and parishioners from evil forces. Kolpakidi Alexander Ivanovich
Soviet intelligence and Japanese ciphers Much has been written about the battle for Moscow in the autumn of 1941. It seems that all the heroes were named, from the soldiers who fought on the front lines to the generals who commanded the troops. There are monographs devoted to the participation of Chekists (scouts, saboteurs and
author From the book Ciphers of Soviet Intelligence author Sinelnikov Andrei Vladimirovich From the book of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ministers of Foreign Affairs. Secret diplomacy of the Kremlin author Mlechin Leonid MikhailovichCiphers and Encryptors As hopes for the rapid advent of the world revolution faded, the need for a foreign policy, for a more prominent role of the diplomatic department and its arrangement with everything necessary, became clear. If the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council Trotsky
From the book Russian saboteurs against the "cuckoos" author Stepakov Viktor NikolaevichFinnish ciphers Finnish paratrooper agents used ciphers to transmit information by radio. Letter ciphers were used by most agents of the Finnish military intelligence. Sometimes, during the accelerated training of radio operators, digital ciphers were used, which allowed
author Soboleva Tatiana ANew ciphers Now it is difficult to establish what caused the appearance in the early 30s of the XVIII century. in Russia, completely new secret writing systems: whether they were the fruit of domestic analytical thought or following foreign models. It is important for us to note that in any
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From the book History of encryption business in Russia author Soboleva Tatiana A From the book History of encryption business in Russia author Soboleva Tatiana ACiphers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other departments. Undercover ciphers The ciphers of the Police Department, the gendarmerie, civil departments were significantly inferior to the ciphers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Military Ministry in terms of their cryptographic qualities. So, for example, the "secret telegraph key of the chief of gendarmes" in 1907.
From the book History of encryption business in Russia author Soboleva Tatiana AChapter twelve. Underground ciphers Conspiracy first of all In the revolutionary underground, the experience of using ciphers was passed down from generation to generation. Already members of the organization "Narodnaya Volya" used the so-called "prison cipher" - a variant of the "Polybius cipher", -
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From the book Legacy of the Templars author Olsen OddwarRosslyn stone ciphers Mary Magdalene is believed to have been the patron saint of the Knights Templar and numerous traces of her presence can be found in Scotland. There is evidence indicating that Magdalene became the ancestor of one Celtic clan!
From the book Book 2. Development of America by Russia-Horde [Biblical Russia. The Beginning of American Civilizations. Biblical Noah and medieval Columbus. Revolt of the Reformation. dilapidated author Nosovsky Gleb Vladimirovich7.7. Cathar = Scythian crosses in the Gothic churches of France It is significant that to this day in some Gothic cathedrals of France images of Cathar = Scythian crosses have been preserved. That is, wide Orthodox crosses inscribed in a circle. They are depicted on stone
From the book Yard Russian emperors. Encyclopedia of life and life. In 2 vols. Volume 2 author Zimin Igor ViktorovichAddress: Germany, Cologne
Start of construction: 1248
Completion of construction: 1880
Architect: Gerhard von Riehl
Height: 157 m
Shrines: Chest of the Three Wise Men, miraculous sculpture of the Madonna of Milan, Hero's Cross
Coordinates: 50°56"28.7"N 6°57"29.2"E
Brief Description
The famous Cologne Cathedral, built in the Gothic style, is undoubtedly the most recognizable and most famous temple in the whole world. To look at this majestic building, which in its height occupies the third place among all the temples on our planet, all tourists who arrived in Germany consider it their duty.
Cathedral from a bird's eye view
Cologne Cathedral can be called a monument to all mankind, because its construction, which began back in 1248, continues in our time, and, probably, will not be completed soon, if it is completed at all. There is an ancient legend associated with the Cologne Cathedral, which says that when the cathedral is finally erected, the end of the world will come. It is up to everyone to believe in this legend, or consider it an implausible myth, but the construction and reconstruction of the Cologne Cathedral is carried out in the 21st century, the century of technological progress, in which there is no place for speculation, riddles, hoaxes and legends.
The height of the Cologne Cathedral is capable of introducing a tourist who has visited Cologne for the first time into a state of dumb shock. 157 meters - this is the height of the architectural structure, which at first glance seems airy and "weightless", despite its huge area. Near the Cologne Cathedral, almost at any time of the day, you can meet crowds of tourists with cameras who want to capture in the pictures the building described by UNESCO as "one of the majestic creations of human genius." Cologne Cathedral is also a place of pilgrimage for Catholics from all over the world, because it contains not only priceless relics of the faith, but also the remains of numerous archbishops who are considered saints.
View of the cathedral from the opposite bank of the river Rhine
A large number of legends and secrets that envelop not only the Cologne Cathedral, but also the area adjacent to it, attract tens of thousands of researchers of paranormal phenomena and esotericists to the city. An architectural structure made in the Gothic style quite often appears on wide screens in films shot in the genre of mysticism and horror. Naturally, there is nothing wrong with the elements of the Cologne Cathedral, most likely, it attracts directors and screenwriters with its gothic atmosphere and the legend of the devil himself. This legend deserves more detailed consideration, therefore, about it, a little lower ...
Cologne Cathedral - holy place
If you approach the Cologne Cathedral, you can see that constant archaeological research is being carried out on the territory adjacent to it. Experts have proven that the place on which the Cologne Cathedral was built was considered holy 600 years before the Savior came to our world. As a result of excavations, the ruins of ancient temples were found, which were built in honor of pagan gods. However, even after the arrival of Christians in Cologne, various churches were constantly built on the site of the Cologne Cathedral, many of which were subsequently destroyed or burned.
View of the cathedral from Roncalliplatz
There is evidence that in the year 500, a tomb was erected on the territory that is currently adjacent to the cathedral, in which archaeologists managed to find two bodies during excavations: a woman and a boy. Surprisingly, even after a huge period of time and constant construction work, the grave was not looted. Priceless exhibits made of gold, silver and precious stones were found in it. Naturally, this suggests that the people buried near the Cologne Cathedral belonged to one of the ruling dynasties. According to some historians, the Merovingian dynasty. As mentioned above, churches on this site were built with enviable regularity. Apparently, the place on which the Cologne Cathedral currently stands has always been considered sacred.
Cologne Cathedral - construction and long history
If you look closely at history, The construction of the Cologne Cathedral can be divided into two stages. The first stage began in 1248. The idea of building a majestic cathedral, which, with its size and architectural forms, was supposed to surpass the legendary French cathedrals, came to Archbishop Konrad von Hochstaden.
Cathedral facade
True, the history of Cologne Cathedral begins even earlier. It would be more correct to say that the Gothic architectural miracle dates back to 1164. Then no one thought about the construction of a giant building. In 1164, the remains of the three Holy Magi were brought to Cologne. They were a kind of trophy obtained from the conquest of the Italian city of Milan. It was then that the Archbishop of Cologne thought about the fact that the holy relics should be in a place worthy of them. Initially, in ten years, a sarcophagus was made for them, which is still available for review in the Cologne Cathedral. Ancient craftsmen made a reliquary for the most precious shrine of Christianity from pure gold and noble silver, and a huge number of precious stones only emphasize the significance of the relics of the three Magi for believers. By the way, in many tourist brochures the relics of the three Magi can be called the relics of the three Kings.
In 1248, the foundation stone of the Cologne Cathedral was laid. By the way, the architect Gerhard did not develop his form on his own, but borrowed it from one of the temples of France. According to the project, the interior of the building was supposed to be illuminated by natural light, which is why now, thanks to the slender pilasters, a feeling of airiness of the building is being created.
South portal of the cathedral
It was decided to make the arches of the Cologne Cathedral pointed, which distinguished them from the arches of almost all French churches. In addition, pointed arches symbolize a person's aspiration upwards - to God. The eastern part of Cologne Cathedral was built first. The construction lasted, according to the documents that have survived to this day, a little over 70 years. During this time, an altar was erected, internal choirs surrounded by a gallery. As soon as the construction of the choir was completed, the construction of the northern part of the Cologne Cathedral began. For this, the Old Temple had to be demolished, in which worship services continued during construction.
From the 14th to the 15th century, the naves on the southern part of the cathedral were completed and the three floors of the South Tower were built in turn. By the way, bells were installed on this tower in 1449, each of which had its own name "Speciosa" and "Pretitosa". In addition, at the beginning of the 15th century Northern part the cathedral was covered with a roof. Oddly enough, the first stage of construction was completed at this point, and the cathedral, at the same time, stood unfinished until the 18th century.
West facade of the cathedral
Cologne Cathedral - the legend of the architect
From the foregoing, we can conclude that the architect who developed the plan for the Cologne Cathedral required knowledge, endurance, and patience. By and large, he was supposed to be a genius. There is a legend that says that the architect was never able to develop a plan for the majestic cathedral. He was constantly confused in the calculations and did not know what to do next with the drawings. He called himself to help…. devil. He turned to Satan with a request to help him plan the Cologne Cathedral. The devil replied that he would not help him, but would already bring ready-made drawings of the building, which in the future would become the most magnificent in the world. For this, he asked for only one thing - the soul of Gerhard. The exchange of the drawing for the soul was to take place at the moment when the first rooster crowed.
Gerhard's wife found out about this black deal, she could not allow her husband to exchange his soul for the blueprints of the cathedral. The architect's wife, still dark, crowed instead of a rooster, Satan immediately appeared and handed over the drawings. When a real rooster crowed, Gerhard already had the drawings and he could not give his soul to the devil. This is the legend that goes around the main and first architect of the Cologne Cathedral. By the way, it still has a sequel. Deceived Satan put a curse on the cathedral. He said that once the cathedral was completed, the world would end.
View of the towers of the cathedral
Cologne Cathedral - ongoing construction
Until the 18th century, the magnificent Cologne Cathedral, which many architects of that time called the wonder of the world, stood unfinished. Moreover, the erected choirs were already in need of repair. The second grandiose construction of the cathedral started in 1842. It was personally started by Friedrich Wilhelm IV. The original design, developed by Gerhard, was recognized as correct and worthy for the cathedral in Cologne. As a result, it was decided to continue work according to the first drawings. Already in 1880, the construction of the towers, whose height reached 157 meters, was “completed”. However, the Cologne Cathedral continued to be constantly completed and restored: glass was changed, decorations were added, gates were installed, and the interior was updated. In addition, in 1906, one of the decorative towers had to be restored, which suddenly collapsed.
World War II - inviolable cathedral
Many are surprised by the fact that the legendary Cologne Cathedral was practically not damaged during the Second World War. Modern military strategists are trying to explain this: they claim that Soviet, British, American and French pilots did not drop bombs on the cathedral in order to use its high towers as landmarks. Everything around was in ruins, among them, as if emerging from another world, towered the Cologne Cathedral.
Central portal of the western facade of the cathedral
If the strategy of the pilots is easy to explain, then how to explain the fact that numerous shells fired from long-range guns fell anywhere but on a Gothic cathedral? Apparently, he was still guarded higher power. Naturally, on the walls of the Cologne Cathedral in 1945 one could find a few traces of shrapnel and bullets, but they were more of an "exception to the rule." These "damages" became the reason for new restoration work. Interestingly, the company responsible for the restoration of the Gothic temple is still working near its walls. Tourists today can see a small office space of this company not far from the cathedral.
Cologne Cathedral in the 21st century
Cologne Cathedral is now not only an architectural landmark, but also a place where one of the main shrines of Christianity is kept. The aforementioned shrine with the relics of the three Magi, numerous burial places of archbishops, the restored Milan Madonna are just a small part of the priceless treasures of the Cologne Cathedral. The most important shrines, which cannot be valued in monetary terms, are exhibited in the treasury built on the basis of the building.
View of the cathedral from the east
It is called the "Holy Chamber". All valuable Christian relics - the staff of St. Peter, the chest of the Three Magi, the monstrance of St. Peter, wands and swords made of precious metals and inlaid with precious stones are under bulletproof glass and illuminated by special spotlights. In addition, the treasury of the Cologne Cathedral is famous for its huge collection of ancient manuscripts, which tell about the numerous exploits of the saints. In the Cologne Cathedral, you can also see exhibits dating back to 500 AD. It exhibits objects made of gold, silver, rubies, diamonds and marble found in the "grave of a woman and a boy."
Of particular interest to the guests of the Cologne Cathedral is the Gero Cross made from oak. It was one of the first crucifixes in the entire Old World. Archbishop Hero, who returned in 976 from Byzantium, decided to make a two-meter cross from a strong “eternal” tree. A huge number of believers come to this cross every day to offer their prayers to the Savior. The popularity of this sacred exhibit is not at all in the size of the crucifix, but in the way Jesus Christ is depicted on the cross.
Roof fragment
According to modern experts, it was almost impossible to reproduce the human body in such detail in those distant times. Jesus Christ is depicted on the crucifix at the moment when his body dies, all the muscles, protruding bones and even tendons are reproduced with the utmost accuracy. About anatomical structure very few people knew a man in the first millennium. This is another of the many mysteries that the Cologne Cathedral keeps.
Alas, hundreds of materials are not enough to describe the beauty of an architectural structure, to list all its treasures and shrines. Most tourists who have visited the Cologne Cathedral say that they don’t want to leave the temple, and in order to at least partially familiarize themselves with its interior decoration, it will take at least a week. Even more time is needed to feel the atmosphere that permeates everything even outside the building. It is no secret that any person, once inside the Cologne Cathedral, experiences a sense of awe that makes him freeze in front of all the splendor that the third largest temple on our planet is famous for.
Fragment of the stained glass window of the cathedral
The Cologne Cathedral is still under construction, restoration is underway in many rooms, so it’s too early to talk about the end of the world these days. By the way, some sources say that when the cathedral is completed, it will not be the end of the world, but Cologne will sink into oblivion. Probably, the Roman Catholic Church and numerous construction companies are in no hurry to check the veracity of the legend associated with the Cologne Cathedral and its first architect Gerhard.
Gothic cathedrals have legends. Large Gothic cathedrals have many legends. But only one is always the main driving force for attracting parishioners to this building. chief actor in such stories the Devil appears. Why, it would seem, such a pure and holy thing to choose such an ambiguous figure is incomprehensible. At first sight. I will not accuse the churchmen of almost black PR, because it would be too ignorant on my part.
I will not go into the details of the theosophy of those Dark years. The connection between the unclean and the construction of cathedrals has several reasons:
- PR. The victory of the divine over the devil for the umpteenth time.
- Theosophical statement of the question: God - creator, "creator", the devil - inventor or author- "inventor", "culprit". Moreover, more often artifex mirabilis, that is " amazing master". The cosmetics were created by Azazel, and the weapons were created by Beelzebub.
- Unusual architectural structure in general. The Gothic cathedral is so complex in its structure that ordinary people had no choice but to call it either barbaric or diabolical.
Perhaps it was the new phenomenon of the cathedral that became the main force of such legends.
And I only want to collect the most popular legends about the most famous cathedrals.
Abbey of Mont Saint Michel
on the northwest coast of France.
There are a lot of legends with this place in general. From the location of the Holy Grail to the prototype of the fortress of Minas Tirith in the film-trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" directed by Peter Jackson.
According to legend, Archangel Michael appeared in a dream to Bishop Ober of Avranches, commanding him to begin construction on the island.
Other versions: The biblical battle of the Archangel Michael with Satan in the form of a dragon ended, according to legend, right here.
Others said that a dispute broke out between Michael and the devil: who will build a more perfect temple? Michael won, but his project turned out to be so perfect that it was taken to heaven (How can one not remember the game of the demon Azzi with the archangel Gabriel, who built the temple, in the book "Bring me the head handsome prince Sheckley and Zelazny).
And people were left with the idea of the most evil one turned into stone.
Cologne Cathedral. Germany.
The architect of the cathedral, Gerhard, unable to complete the drawings of the future cathedral, decided to invite the devil to help. Satan immediately appeared and offered an exchange: the architect receives the long-awaited drawings, but in return gives his soul. The deal had to be made after the first crowing of the roosters. The architect was in a stalemate and agreed. But the architect's wife overheard the conversation and decided to save her husband's soul and get the drawings of the building. She got up early in the morning and crowed instead of a rooster. The devil immediately appeared, handed over the cherished drawings. The deception was then revealed, but it was too late.
There is a continuation of the first legend: when the devil found out about the deception, he said: "May the end of the world come with the last stone on this cathedral!" Since then, the cathedral has not ceased to be built and completed: the construction will end - the Apocalypse promised by the devil will come.
There is another version, at the very last moment the architect snatched the drawings from the hands of the Devil, but only a small piece with the most important fragment remained in the paws of the dark spirit, which is why they believe that the cathedral could not be completed.
Do people always deceive the unclean? A striking example of the opposite is the story of Olaf the Holy King and Baptist of Norway.
The king asked the demon to help build the cathedral in exchange for a soul. The devil agreed. At first, he did not agree to crown his creation with a cross, but then he relented. One day, Olaf climbed onto the roof of the cathedral and was horrified to find that what seemed to be a cross from below was actually the figure of a kite with outstretched wings.
Aachen Cathedral Germany
Germany and the devil seem to be quite inseparable. Here you have Mephistopheles and a little stupid demon. A certain weakness for this character sometimes passes among the masses and people. More precisely rulers
See what charms live on the cathedral
It is clear that here, too, it could not have done without a horned one and on hooves.
Here is the text of the legend:
As the legend goes, the money for the cathedral was given by the devil. But he gave it for a reason, but on the condition that the townspeople give him the soul of the one who first crosses the threshold of the cathedral. The most beautiful temple already stood in the middle of the square, but no one dared to enter it, and the devil demanded the promised living soul. And then the townspeople caught a wolf in the surrounding forests and dragged him to the entrance to the temple. There the beast was released and the bells were loudly struck, so that the frightened wolf rushed straight into the open gates of the temple. The devil pounced on the poor beast, and from fear - and the spirit is out. Only then did the devil see that he got a useless little soul. Beside himself with rage, he rushed out of the temple with a wild roar, but first he kicked the iron gates of the cathedral. From such a blow, the gates cracked, and the crack on them is still visible. The city authorities ordered in memory of the martyr wolf to cast the beast in bronze, and separately - his poor soul. Although it looks like a large fir cone, it still adorns the temple, where the marble throne of Charlemagne is kept, and a forged chandelier hangs from the ceiling - a gift from Frederick Barbarossa.
that dog)
The cathedral was really worth it (drawing): 
Notre Dame Cathedral (Notre Dame) France
The devil is also a blacksmith.
The gates of Notre Dame are decorated with a wonderful pattern of wrought iron with equally amazing iron locks. Forging them was entrusted to a blacksmith named Biskorn. When the blacksmith heard that he would need to forge curly locks and patterns for the gates of the most beautiful cathedral in Paris, he was seriously scared. Thinking that he would never be able to cope with this, he tried to call on the help of the devil. The next day, when the canon of Notre Dame came to look at the work, he found the blacksmith unconscious, but in the forge a real masterpiece appeared to his eyes: curly locks, overhead forged patterns, which were openwork intertwining leaves - in a word, the canon was satisfied. On the day when the gate decoration was finished and the locks were cut in, the gate was impossible to open! I had to sprinkle them with holy water. In 1724, the historian of Paris, Henri Sauval, already expressed some thoughts about the mysterious origin of the patterns on the gates of Notre Dame. No one knew how they were made - whether it was casting, or they were forged - Biskorn remained mute, the secret was lost with his death, and Sauval adds: "Biskorn, stung by remorse, became sad, became silent and in he died soon. He took his secret with him, never revealing it - either out of fear that the secret would be stolen, or fearing that, in the end, it would turn out that no one saw how he forged the gates of Notre Dame " ....
Frauenkirche. Munich. Germany.
Of course, it's not gothic. But the devil also passed by. 
And again, the architect, sorry, impotent makes a deal with the devil. The spirit has a condition: no windows in the cathedral. And the architect built the building in such a way that they are completely invisible from the entrance. When the devil saw that he had been deceived, it was too late for the cathedral to be consecrated. He stamped his foot with anger and indignation, leaving an indelible mark, but he could not go inside. They say the trail is still visible.
Well, lastly. About hometown. It's not here in question about building something monumental.
In Vysehrad, behind the Church of Peter and Paul, in the winter garden of the residence of the chapter, there are three fragments of a pillar called the Devil's:
The legend about the abbot of the Vyshegrad temple and the devil who entered his service in order to get a soul. When the time came for the abbot to go to hell, he asked the devil to bring him a marble pillar from Rome while he was serving Mass. The devil decided to fulfill the last wish of the priest. The devil rushed to Rome, and the rector began to pray to St. Peter to save his soul. The saint heeded his prayers and three times knocked the pillar out of the devil's paws. Three times the impure raised the promise from the waves of the Adriatic. And when he flew to Prague, he saw that the mass was over, before he had time, he could now get a soul. Angrily, he threw the pillar on the ground, it split into three parts, which still lie where they were left.
This is how legends are made. Similar in general plot, but not at all vulgarizing the beauty of eternal buildings.
Well, I'll shut up for now. The collection of legends about a stupid devil and a smart person will soon be replenished, then I will continue this post.
The first master of construction and crafts, according to Christian ideas, is God the Great Architect of the universe. But sometimes the devil was not averse to keeping him company. In any case, one can come to a similar conclusion if one reads Vera Begicheva's book "Mysteries of Ancient Technologies" (Veche publishing house). “Satan's technical abilities are limitless ... the historian of culture A.V. Amfiteatrov testifies in his work “The Devil in Life, Legend and Literature of the Middle Ages”. He knows all the arts, crafts and crafts, but, of course, he does not exchange them for trifles in their field and undertakes only work worthy of his dexterity and strength. In Western Europe, where people have lived on stone since ancient times, Satan got a passion for architecture and construction. A great many bridges, towers, walls, aqueducts, and similar structures are attributed to this strange architect and engineer. Devil's Bridges It was Satan who allegedly laid down the famous wall on the border between England and Scotland, a Roman military-defensive structure erected by order of Emperor Hadrian. He also threw a bridge across the Rhone River in Avignon and other so-called devil's bridges, including the Devil's bridge in the Alps, which in 1799, under enemy fire, the great A.V. Suvorov and his miraculous heroes passed over a terrible abyss. There the bridge across the abyss leaned in a brave arc From rock to rock; He was not set by a mortal hand. Who would a mortal touch him? Friedrich Schiller wrote about the Alpine Devil's Bridge in the ballad "Mountain Road". Two statues from the 12th century in Regensburg (Austria) tell about the history of the construction of another "devil's bridge". “One statue is placed under the roof of the cathedral between other figures for draining water in the form of a man leaning down with his whole body, the other on the bridge in the form of a naked young man sitting astride a stone with the inscription “How hot!” and with a face turned towards the cathedral. The legend connected these two figures with the construction of a bridge across the Danube in the 12th century. The builder of the bridge seemed to be fighting for a treasure with the architect of the cathedral, who would finish his work sooner, and with the help of the Devil, he got ahead of his opponent, who, out of chagrin, rushed from the roof of the cathedral and killed himself to death,” writes art critic V.P. Zubov in the article “Architect during the Middle Ages." The exclamation "How hot!" indicates not only the extraordinary drought that broke out in the summer of 1135, but also the hellish flames, the heat of which is already felt by the sinner who sold his soul to Satan in payment for the bridge built on time. Uncleanness in the church “The strangest thing is that the devil sometimes used his architectural talents also for the construction of churches and monasteries, notes A. V. Amfiteatrov. But, of course, in this case, he either pursued his secret goals, or was compelled by a Will that was stronger than him. So, they say, he made plans and other drawings for the Cologne and Aachen cathedrals, and the latter was even partly, if not all, built by him. Aachen Cathedral was founded in 798 on the site of the destroyed Roman thermae (baths ed.) The very place for evil spirits! Within its walls, a poltergeist was repeatedly observed, the appearance of ghosts, from the hands of a priest during the liturgy, often someone seemed to pull out a cup with wine turned into the blood of Christ, throwing it under the feet of the most unworthy of the parishioners. And in the construction of the Cologne Cathedral (founded in 1248), Albert von Bolstedt, nicknamed Albert the Great (1193-1280), professor of theology in Cologne and Paris, the head of scholasticism of his time, who became famous for his extensive works on theology, philosophy and natural sciences, took part in the construction of the Cologne Cathedral. ukam. After his death, Albert the Great was revered as a saint by the Dominican monks, in whose order he was. In posterity behind him, however, remained the glory of the great astrologer and alchemist, black scribe and magician. He is one of the prototypes of Goethe's Faust. “The legend tells that when receiving King Wilhelm and his guests in Cologne in 1248, Albert conjured a magic garden with flowering trees and songbirds in his palace on Christmas Eve, academician V.M. Zhirmunsky notes in his History of the Legend about Faust. To feed his guests with oysters, he knocked on the window, and an invisible hand held out the desired dish to him. In England, Crowland Abbey in Lincolnshire is considered the building of the devil. The mischievous little devils endlessly annoyed the monks, frightened them, and unexpectedly spoke to them. Daniel Defoe, in his Travels in Great Britain (1724-1726), speaks ironically of these rumors. And in his time, two hundred years after the closing of the abbey, the area was still filled with evil spirits. Black Madonnas Chartres Cathedral in France is the greatest masterpiece of Gothic architecture. And at the same time, it is the only French cathedral that has never been visited by kings, cardinals or bishops. There were persistent rumors that the foundation of the temple was laid by Satan. At first, historians associated these legends with the fact that in ancient times there was a Druid sanctuary here. However, in 1904, in the depths of the hill that now lies at the base of the cathedral, they discovered the so-called black Madonna figure of the Mother of God with a black face and sexually accentuated body shapes, which the clergy, of course, could not regard as evidence of Satan's "copyright". It must be said that the "black Madonnas" were found in many churches in France, and sometimes the Catholic hierarchs discovered with horror that the people had devoutly worshiped them for centuries. So, in the oldest Parisian temple of Saint-Germain des Pres, built in 542 on the site of the sanctuary of the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis, the “black Madonna” was revered as the Mother of God until her solemn burning in 1514. Together with her, the whole clergy of the church went to the fire. In Toulouse, the church of La Dorade was a kind of troubadour center at the time of the most rapid spread of the Cathar heresy (XII century). The initiates worshiped in it under the guise of the Mother of God the “Queen with goose feet”, again the “black Madonna”, with the features of a bird. Naturally, she was also burned along with the Cathars. Apparently, in all these cases, the image of the pagan Mother Goddess was venerated as the Mother of God. And although more than four hundred "black Madonnas" are known in the Christian world today, the church still prefers to hush up their existence. Infernal rush “The miraculousness of the devil's buildings was not only in their perfection, emphasizes A.V. Amfiteatrov, but also in the speed with which they were built. Often the devil was given a deadline for them no more than one night, and he was in time, unless people cheated on him, which, in relation to the devil, it seems, no one has ever considered a sin. Obliging to build a church in one night, the devil transferred to the construction site from the most distant places whole granite rocks, blocks and slabs of colored marble, sometimes even columns stolen from some ancient pagan temple, centuries-old oaks and fir trees, metal beams and beams. Tirelessly, he and his associates chopped, planed, bored, hewn, forged, poured, polished, dug, folded, plastered, painted, drew, painted, sculpted, so that with the onset of morning the first ray of the sun was already lighting apples from excellent polished gold and reflected in the artistic painting of the huge lancet windows. And for such a building there was nothing to be afraid of, that in a year or two the ceiling would collapse in it or the wall plaster would collapse. Satan built his kingdom for centuries. Thus, it is known that the church of St. Barbara in Brittany was built literally in a week. Many volunteers took part in the construction local residents , and it is documented that each new shift, coming to work, was amazed at what an incredible amount of work the predecessors managed to do. Nevertheless, the pace of work increased day by day, and it all ended with the fact that a mysterious epidemic broke out among the volunteer builders, accompanied by seizures, which brought most of them to the grave. The only thing the devil systematically avoided was to crown his building with a cross. And even then, once the infernal architect managed to build the highest cathedral with a cross for the Swedish king Olaf the Holy. But the king, having risen to the roof of the cathedral, saw with horror that what seemed to people from below a cross was in reality the golden figure of a kite with outstretched wings. Evidence of writers People of creativity often mysteriously feel what a person without imagination cannot see. No wonder it is believed that talented writers at the moment of inspiration come into contact with higher spheres. Describing in his novel “Our Heart” the famous 12th-century abbey of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, erected on a rock surrounded by the sea at high tide, the French writer Guy de Maupassant unobtrusively emphasizes in it a certain otherworldly, diabolical beginning: “High the building rose up in the blue sky, where its details now clearly loomed: a dome with bell towers and turrets, a roof bristling with drains in the form of grinning chimeras and shaggy monsters ... ”Maupassant’s heroes,“ amazed at the striking structure, ”come closer to him sandy spit that came out of the water at low tide. “Above them, in the sky, rose a bizarre chaos of arrows, granite flowers, arches thrown from tower to tower, implausible, huge and light architectural lace, as if embroidered from the azure, from which it emerged, pulled out, as if to take off, fabulous and a terrible pack of gutters with animal muzzles ... "There is something surreal in the building of the abbey. If you go around and look at it from the sea, it turns out that it is able to change its appearance, like the ghostly castle of the evil sorceress Fata Morgana:" From this side of the abbey, suddenly losing the look of a Gothic cathedral, which is so striking when you look at it from the shore, it acquired, as if in a threat to the ocean, the militant appearance of a feudal castle with a high battlemented wall cut through by picturesque loopholes and supported by giant buttresses, the cyclopean masonry of which has grown into under the seam of this bizarre mountain. A native of Normandy, Maupassant knew from childhood the legend of how this architectural marvel was created. “The devil was so proud of his architectural talent that he once challenged the Archangel Michael, his old friend, to a competition who would build a more beautiful church on Mount Saint-Michel. The archangel, as expected, won, but the devil did not lose his face; Moreover, the Church of the Archangel was taken to heaven for its beauty, so that the sinful world cannot judge it, but the one erected by the devil remained on earth, and tourists still admire it as a Gothic masterpiece,” writes A.V. Amfiteatrov. According to legend, the devil also took part in the construction of the Notre Dame Cathedral and even depicted himself in the form of one of the chimeras of the famous devil-thinker. In Mark Aldanov's historical novel The Thinker (1927) there is a spectacular scene: a mysterious stranger, who has carved the Devil Thinker of Notre Dame, leads the heroes to look at his work, and they wonder why he did not carve his name on the statue, because posterity will ask what was the name of the master. "No," said the sculptor with vivacity. Whoever sees my statue will not ask this.” Those who have read the novel by Victor Hugo, or at least are familiar with the musical based on it, will understand that the feelings of the famous cathedral were often nurtured by no means Christian...
Unfinished Gothic cathedrals stand from England to Italy and from Germany to Spain. Most often, construction was stopped due to lack of funds. But in any case, not from a lack of love for God. On the contrary, he was loved so much that there was not enough money for this love.
ALEXANDER BELENKII
sword and cross
Thirty kilometers from the incredible Siena is another Tuscan miracle. This dilapidated Gothic abbey of San Galgano is a mesmerizing place even by high Italian standards.
It was built in honor of Saint Galgano (1148-1181). In the world he was called Galgano Guidotti, and for most of his life he was far from being a saint - an ordinary knight who took an inspired part in the local internecine massacre. Then he had two visions in which the Archangel Michael was present, and in the second Galgano also saw Christ with the twelve apostles, and repented.
Galgano Guidotti is one of those whom Pavel Muratov, the author of Images of Italy, called ardent gothic souls. The knight thrust his sword into the stone with all his might. It was stuck - a miracle happened: the sword went deep into the stone, forming a single whole with it, and took on the form of a cross. Galgano saw this as a sign and spent the rest of his life in prayer at this very sword-cross. Here he was once found dead.
Galgano was canonized already in 1185, just four years after his death, and then an abbey was erected in his honor in an early Gothic style unusual for Italy. Over time, it collapsed, but did not cease to be a place of worship. In the chapel on the hill above the abbey is kept the same sword stuck in a stone. Radiocarbon analysis confirmed that it belongs to the XII century.
Soul of the Gothic
This is the most mysterious European style, at least in its main, architectural component. It's not entirely clear where it came from. At one time, the idea was popular that the crusaders brought the lancet arch, its foundation, from the East. This theory does not stand up to criticism or analysis. First, the Gothic lancet arch bears little resemblance to its Muslim counterparts. Second, First crusade began in 1096, and the second - in 1147, while the first Gothic building, the Abbey of Saint-Denis on the outskirts of Paris, was built around 1137-1144 (more precisely, during these years the abbey acquired a truly Gothic appearance as a result of serious rebuilding ).
It is hard to imagine that some secret intellectual among the Crusaders kept the idea of a pointed arch in his head for more than thirty years.
Borrowing would be realized faster. In addition, the first vault that can be considered Gothic appeared in England even a little earlier than in France, in the years 1130-1133 in the cathedral in Durham. Probably, we are still dealing with some kind of objective process, since at two points remote from each other, the same tendency appeared almost simultaneously. The Romanesque style, which dominated Europe for several centuries, was eventually to result in Gothic.
This is confirmed by the fact that the transition to the Gothic coincided with a great invention in architecture. Builders, who at that time even called themselves masons, learned how to unload a load-bearing wall using a system of buttresses and flying buttresses. Actually, this invention gave rise to Gothic, and the lancet arch became its logical development. The wall became lighter and rushed up, and with it the arch rushed up. Thus, in European architecture, a single style appeared, for the most part not having ancient roots. On the contrary, in Gothic painting and sculpture, especially in France, these roots are seen quite clearly.
However, it would be an oversimplification to reduce Gothic to engineering breakthroughs. These achievements were the result of the desire of medieval man for God, which for him meant - to heaven. People then violently sinned and sincerely repented, like the same Galgano Guidotti. Their life, which took place on the streets flooded with sewage, was also dirty, their deeds were often monstrous, death was waiting around every corner, either in the form of a thug, or in the form of a plague, but in their souls there remained faith in God, to which they aspired, and this desire Gothic cathedrals embodied most fully.
God in Strasbourg
There is a city in which even today you can feel what a medieval person felt when he saw a large Gothic cathedral. This is Strasbourg.
If you approach it by train, you will see the bulk of the cathedral from afar. The cathedral is completely disproportionate to the city. The height of its tower, completed in 1439, is 142 meters. It is eight or ten times taller than most houses, and with such a multiplicity, the sense of proportions is violated, and the city looks almost like grass in front of it.
Another wall is applied to the load-bearing wall of the western facade of the Strasbourg Cathedral, which is often compared with an openwork sieve.
When you get closer, this impression of grandiosity only intensifies. The décor of the cathedral is fantastically rich; in fact, another decorative wall is applied to the load-bearing wall of the western facade, which is often compared to an openwork sieve.
Goethe compared the Strasbourg Cathedral to an orchestra of a thousand musicians, flawlessly and harmoniously playing a divine melody.
I don't know what kind of genius you have to be to be able to put all these details together. Any of them - a window, a curl of a pattern, a column, a pinnacle - is beautiful in itself, but put together, they enhance the effect a thousand times. The bulk of the cathedral does not press, but floats in the air. At some point, you yourself turn into this lace, rush along with the tower somewhere up and stay there. And not on earth, and not in heaven. As one very educated lady said, looking at the Strasbourg Cathedral: "Of course, I do not believe in God, but ..."
It is difficult to imagine what an ordinary medieval city dweller felt when he saw the Strasbourg Cathedral, but this sight is impressive even now.
If this spectacle so penetrates a prepared person now, then what did an ordinary medieval city dweller feel when he came to the cathedral through a dirty street, and even more so a pilgrim?
Riddles for a reason
The "ardent gothic souls" were neither particularly knowledgeable nor particularly calculating. Often, having decided to build a cathedral, they did not know how to do it, or with any means. Engineering training left much to be desired. Their creations were fragile and often crumbled. For example, the huge cathedral in Beauvais collapsed several times, and in 1573, having stood for only four years, its main tower collapsed, which was even higher than the Strasbourg one - 153 meters, and there are many such examples.
The aforementioned Strasbourg Cathedral, as well as the relatively nearby Freiburg Cathedral (they were most likely designed by the same master - Erwin Steinbach), was built of pink Vosges sandstone, an incredibly beautiful material, but not strong enough. You are amazed: the Strasbourg tower has been standing for almost 600 years, and the 116-meter-high one in Freiburg, which with good reason is called the most beautiful Christian tower in the world, is almost seven hundred. True, they have to be constantly strengthened and restored. So, the Freiburg tower lived ten recent years in the forests, and only now it is gradually being freed from them.
Incidentally, we are here touching on another mysterious feature of Gothic cathedrals - invulnerability, and this despite the already noted fragility. Both world wars spared them. True, in the First World War, almost all the priceless stained-glass windows of the Reims Cathedral were broken, but he still remained intact. During World War II, the allies ruthlessly bombed Cologne and Freiburg, but the cathedrals remained intact both there and there. Some commentators, who have little idea of the accuracy of bombing at that time, argue that the cathedrals were left on purpose as landmarks for further bombing. Well, yes. Bombs fell very close to them. Such accuracy, if it were intentional, would be impossible to achieve even now, with modern smart bombs, and even then ...
But we will not try to solve this riddle, especially since it is still unlikely to succeed. It is better to finally try to figure out how and on what these miracles were built. However, this is also not easy.
Time and money
Now there are no construction projects with which the construction of a Gothic cathedral in the Middle Ages could be compared. Take, for example, Chartres Cathedral. In 1194 it burned down. It kept sacred relics, including the shroud, which, according to legend, was on the Virgin Mary on Christmas night. This item is truly priceless. For example,
each French queen was given a shirt to facilitate pregnancy, which for some time rested on the reliquary where the sacred shroud was kept.
The cathedral burned for three days, and everyone believed that the shroud was lost forever, but then it was found along with the rest of the relics and three priests, who had been in the undamaged crypt all this time. The joy was immeasurable. The townspeople were already inclined to believe that the cathedral should not be restored, but now they considered that a sign had been received to begin this work immediately.
The main building was completed by 1260. The famous northern tower of the western facade, 113 meters high, considered an architectural masterpiece, was completed only in the 16th century in the late, so-called Flaming Gothic style.
Australian architectural historian John James in the early 1970s set out to calculate how much the construction of Chartres Cathedral cost. The figure he received was corrected many times in connection with dollar inflation. The latest published data refer to 2011. In the prices of that year, the construction cost almost $543 million. Note that the population of Chartres was only 9 thousand people. It turns out more than $ 60 thousand for each, including babies and beggars.
At that time in France cathedrals were built everywhere, and for many of them, based on the calculations of John James, the approximate cost of construction was determined. Notre Dame de Paris - $282 million, Reims Cathedral - $213 million, Amiens - $564 million, Lansky - $388 million, and these are just the most famous. Huge cathedrals were built at the same time and later in Bourges, Rouen, Albi, Coutances, Beauvais...
Amiens Cathedral was built mainly at the expense of the inhabitants of the city. Bishop Geoffroy d'Oes sold a significant part of his own properties in order to donate all the proceeds to this construction
However, even these figures do not give an idea of the scale of investments. Money in those distant times, in principle, was much less than now.
For example,
£45,000 was spent on the construction of Westminster Abbey in London under King Henry III (1207-1272) over 25 years, and the entire income of the kingdom was then about £35,000 per year.
It turns out that the royal treasury, which financed the project, spent 5% of all proceeds on the construction of this facility. At the same time, colossal cathedrals were also built in Salisbury, York, Canterbury, Lincoln, Wales, Peterborough, Or ...
Fragmented Germany and Austria were also not far behind. Huge buildings were erected in Strasbourg, Cologne, Ulm, Regensburg, Vienna.
Funding sources varied. In the capitals, the main expenses were usually borne by the state. It is believed that in the localities the church made the biggest contribution, but there were difficulties here, since the church fund was not unified. The money came from the bishop and from the cathedral chapter, the episcopal council. The last organization, which seemed to be directly related to the bishop, usually established the so-called building council (bona fabricae), where funds were accumulated directly for the construction of a particular cathedral - and the bishop did not control this structure. Needless to say, not all bishops liked it.
The church collected a lot of money from pilgrims. Some shrines, for example from the same Chartres Cathedral, were taken out "on tour". It also brought a serious income, and representatives of the then Catholic Church, which has an ambiguous reputation, did not always pocket it.
Large sums for the construction of cathedrals were donated by bishops from wealthy aristocratic families. For example, Bishop Simon Matiffas de Bussy donated 3,000 livres ($15 million today) for the construction of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Amiens Cathedral was built mainly at the expense of the inhabitants of the city. In turn, Bishop Geoffroy d "E sold a significant part of his own possessions in order to donate all the proceeds to this construction.
Citizens often created funds for the construction of cathedrals. In addition to Amiens, this was the case, for example, in Strasbourg. There, the Virgin Mary Foundation, controlled by the municipality, was established to raise funds. The Fund basically financed the construction of this famous cathedral already in the Middle Ages. Here, however, some rather ugly history took place.
From plague to sum
In the middle of the XIV century, the world was covered by a plague pandemic. In Europe, the main wave of the "Black Death" took place in 1346-1353, and, as often happened in such cases, it was accompanied by a wave of Jewish pogroms. Of course, the Jews were accused of spreading the plague - who else could be to blame? The fact that Jews also fell ill and died did not convince anyone of anything. More attention was paid to something else: they still died in slightly smaller quantities. It was said that, unlike Christians, Jews in the Middle Ages did not forget about hygiene.
In 1349 the butcher shop in Strasbourg owed Jewish usurers a large sum and, of course, immediately remembered that it was the Jews who were spreading the plague.
During the brutal pogrom, according to various estimates, from 800 to 2 thousand local Jews were burned.
The city and surrounding areas were deserted. The population, expecting death at any moment, sinning with fright more than usual and fearing retribution in the afterlife, donated more than ever to the Virgin Mary Foundation. And he began to buy real estate that had fallen sharply in price - houses, land for the purpose of resale, when everything returned to normal.
This operation continued for many years and was close to a triumphant conclusion, when in 1399 the local bishop accused the foundation and the municipality of embezzling a large part of the funds. Most likely, the accusations were not groundless - the reputation of this organization, to put it mildly, was not brilliant.
As a result, the composition of the municipality was changed, the foundation lost its former independence, and the church strengthened its position. Well, the cathedral only won: during the conflict, the most unsuccessful construction manager in its entire history, Klaus von Lore, was also removed. He was replaced by the outstanding masters Ulrich von Ensingen (Ensinger) and Johannes (Hans) Hultz, who worked on the site for 20 years each, and by 1439 the cathedral was completed in its unfinished form. So, the western facade is decorated with only one tower, and according to the plan there should have been two.
Later they said that the second tower was not built, because the surveys showed that the ground would not withstand such a load. It is unlikely that this was true. Rather, there was simply no money.
End of an era
In general, the construction of giant cathedrals for the most part was coming to an end. For example, in 1433, the 136-meter south tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna was completed. The north tower was never built.
Cologne Cathedral stopped building even earlier. At the very least, something was being completed somehow - we can mention the magnificent, highest in the world brick 130-meter tower of the Marienkirche Cathedral in Landshut, but the "large construction" was curtailed.
They did not finish building the towers of the Notre Dame Cathedral, Amiens, Reims Cathedrals. The towers of the latter rose only 80 meters instead of 120. And so it is throughout Europe. Even in the wealthy areas of present-day Belgium, they could not complete the tower of the cathedral in Mechelen, and in Antwerp, as in many other places, they mastered the construction of only one of the proposed two towers.
No, they did not begin to love God less, there was simply not enough money for this love. Life became more complicated, the reformation was brewing. And the spirit of the great architectural era has dried up. The orchestra fell apart. What was united in the Strasbourg Cathedral, in the late Gothic buildings began to disintegrate into elements that exist on their own. Gothic was leaving, pressed by the Renaissance.
High style
Europe and the world managed to change beyond recognition several times when, somewhere at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, interest in Gothic returned. By that time, the momentum in the development of architecture, once communicated by the Renaissance, had just begun to dry up. The baroque he had generated had already firmly died, classicism in the form of Empire, also leading a pedigree from the Renaissance, was breathing its last.
Before art moved to fundamentally new forms, it seemed to look back, which was facilitated by the romanticism of the early 19th century.
Various neo-styles appeared: neo-romanticism, neo-gothic, neoclassicism ... Among the "fakes", as Auguste Renoir called them, many pseudo-Gothic buildings appeared.
At the same time, it is curious that the completion of Gothic cathedrals was not discussed for a long time. No, in the middle of the 19th century, the restorer-destroyer Eugene Viollet-le-Duc was already rampant in France, who played tricks, including in the Sainte-Chapelle chapel in Paris and the Amiens Cathedral, but he was not really allowed to turn around. For example, they were not allowed to complete the seven towers of Reims Cathedral as he wanted. Most likely, there was not enough money again. For once, fortunately, because
Viollet-le-Duc, to put it mildly, did not have impeccable taste and allowed himself too many liberties, he sincerely believed that he knew better than medieval architects how their buildings should have looked.
But one Gothic tower in France was completed after all. It happened in Rouen. A giant neo-Gothic spire was erected on the central tower of the cathedral, about one and a half times the height of the tower itself. These were pure show-offs. Someone in Rouen just really wanted to have the tallest tower in the world in his city. It was completed in its new form in 1876. Now her height was 151 meters, and she held the palm right up to 1880.
German perestroika
There was one country where the completion of Gothic cathedrals was taken very seriously and no expense was spared. In Germany in the 19th century, three huge cathedrals were completed - in Regensburg, Cologne and Ulm. In the first case, people with good artistic taste, not inclined to go to extremes, and even rid their cathedral of Baroque layers that disfigured it, took up the matter. And they built the towers as if they had been completed centuries ago. But in Cologne and Ulm we are dealing with something fundamentally different.
Among the large Gothic buildings there are not only cathedrals and churches, but also public buildings, like this town hall in Leuven
Photo: Alexander Belenky, Kommersant
Germany, tired of the position of a European province, was rapidly moving towards unification and wanted to create a great past for itself, a kind of bridge to the mythological times of Siegfried and other Nibelungs. The architectural embodiment of these ideas was not the fantasy of some Viollet-le-Duc, but quite a "state order" for which they were not going to spare money.
First of all, they remembered the grandiose Cologne Cathedral, which was then a rather strange object. It consisted of two parts: a magnificent choir, which served as a cathedral, and the lower part of the western, "tower" facade, between which there was a large gap.
The picture was complemented by a crane that had been protruding for 400 years (!) from unfinished towers.
Russia had not yet fully sorted out its relationship with the Golden Horde when it was installed, and in that distant country they had already defeated Napoleon long ago, and the crane was still standing.
But now the work is in full swing. We got the old drawings and got down to business. It didn't work out very well. Many are able to reproduce the forms of time, but the spirit is another matter. The architects of the 19th century, who knew the strength of materials well, erected a building that was perfect from an engineering point of view, capable, unlike genuine Gothic cathedrals, of standing for centuries without any “props”, but rough in details, from which the very rational 19th century was born. However, the goal was achieved. Towers soared to 157 meters, Rouen Cathedral was put to shame. Moreover, if only the spire was built in Rouen, then the entire grandiose cathedral was completed in Cologne.
However, not all of the past has yet been rebuilt. In the 15th century, the Gothic masters who built the Strasbourg Cathedral were worried that the tower in Ulm would grow higher than the Strasbourg one. But then the construction of Ulm Cathedral was abandoned and remembered only in the middle of the 19th century. Bavaria wouldn't be Bavaria if it were resigned to the fact that the tallest towers are in Cologne. In addition, the task was easier. Firstly, Ulm Cathedral, like Freiburg, belonged, in contrast to Cologne, to the single-tower type common in southern Germany. Secondly, the tower had already been built somewhere in half and finished in many details.
The object was completed in 1890, the height of the tower was 161 meters, but it gives the same impression of a crude fake as the towers of Cologne Cathedral. Nevertheless, these two great German construction projects completed their task: the great past was built.
Gothic forever
Gothic has not only a truly great past, but also a great future. Aesthetically magnificent, but not very durable at first glance, Gothic cathedrals and churches will stand indefinitely thanks to new technologies.
As for the rest of the Gothic, the wonderful late Gothic painting, mostly Netherlandish, is increasingly in demand. Usually this direction is called the Northern Renaissance,
although it is not entirely clear what exactly these artists such as Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hugo van der Goes or Hans Memling were resurrecting.
Not the ancient tradition, about which, unlike their Italian colleagues, they had no idea. They simply developed the Gothic tradition. True, they did it in such a way that in their creations the Gothic eventually became something completely new.
Waiting in the wings (and, it seems, is about to wait) Dutch and German late Gothic sculpture. French, which mainly belongs to an earlier period, has been known and loved for a long time, but Dutch (Flemish) and German remain somewhat in the shadows. It will be all the more joyful to discover such wonderful masters as Klaus Sluter, Veit Stoss, Adam Kraft, Tilman Riemenschneider.
