There has been a church at the site of York Minster as early as 625 AD. It was enlarged and rebuilt and enlarged again, with the current church being constructed between 1220 and 1472. Much of this time was spent on actual construction of this second-largest church in the UK, but some of the delay was caused, as was typical of cathedral construction, by running out of money.
Officially, this church is the "Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St Peter in York," and it is certainly a cathedral, but it is referred to as a "Minster" because of its importance and also because it is run by an archbishop, instead of a bishop. In addition, calling it a minster reflects this Anglo-Saxon term for important churches.
In my travels, I have visited a lot of churches and cathedrals, but I can tell you that THIS church is a "Wow!" experience because of its size and the artistry in its construction and decoration! Don't miss it if you ever find yourself in or near the City of York!
First, the most frustrating part of taking photos of this place is that everything is much too large to fit into your screen!
So this is the bottom of the front. Note how small the people look on the steps.
And the top of the front!
This is the main name, but it only goes down about halfway the length of the minster. Way in the distance you can see the organ and the "curtain" that separates this main part of the church from the quire or choir area.
This photo is taken part way to the curtain and the organ pipes. No pews, by the way, just chairs in this ancient church!
As you approach the curtain, you find yourself in the center of the cross design of this church. To your left is a large transept area with a very impressive Medieval stained glass window. In fact, this minster has more stained glass than any other church in the UK. And would you believe they took all of it down to protect it during WWII???
To your right is a matching transept with similar stained glass windows at the end undergoing restoration. To get an eye for the size of this area, take note of the tiny people walking about.
As I was listening to the volunteer giving a tour, I heard some clanging from this memorial clock. As the clock struck the hour, the two black figures who are holding rods in their hands, starting using the rods to strike the two fixed pieces of metal!
More stained glass circling the Chapter House, where meetings among the clergy were held.
The ceiling of the Chapter House after restoration after a 1984 fire.
A dizzying view up to the top of the central tower!!
I am not sure why there is this large structure to separate the choir from the parishioners, but it seems to be an important part of many Medieval churches. This one has statues depicting 14 kings of England, in spite of the fact that no one has any ideas what most of these kings looked like.
This is some of the detail between the kings, above.
Hard to get a good view of it, but way up here are some of the 5,400 pipes of this organ!
And one of the several pulpits in this church. The funny thing is that while I was there, I heard a priest giving a sermon, and he was standing in front of and close to his audience in the moveable chairs.
But the best part of this service was that we got a full organ recital. This is the choir or quire area and the back of the organ.
And some of the biggest of the organ pipes. You can tell the size by looking at the handrail protecting them from tourists.
And incredibly, one small man playing this huge organ. It was wonderful how much the sound filled this huge building!
I went down into the crypt and will be posting photos from that tomorrow night.
No comments:
Post a Comment