Winchester Cathedral - Continuing to Look Up

The brick laid out on the ground to one side of the cathedral shows the outline of the Anglo-Saxon church that was here before the Normans began building the impressive cathedral you see today.



Some sections of the ceiling look delicate even though it is all tightly fitted and mortared stone.

The section of the ceiling above the main altar and part of the quire is especially delicate in appearance.

In the midsts of the crossing sets the quire and above it is a stone ceiling with a wooden frame showing the ribbed design.

I'm sure the bosses at the intersections of the ribs above the altar must have religious significance but I can make it from the floor.

At the crossing, above the quire we can see the pipe organ on one side and the Norman section on the other. Although we can't see the ceiling above the section behind the organ, there are four distinct construction methods and styles used in the parts we can see. I've never seen a church with such diversity in construction.

But the ceiling over the nave is gothic in all its glory.

This view of the ceiling looking up one of the large gothic pillars makes the ribbing appear to have been through a photoshop mesh warp process. Everything gives the impression of being just a little out of kilter. I reckon that after 1000 years, I'd look a little out of whack, too.

One of the longest naves in Europe does indeed appear immense in this view. The support columns are large because they are simply built around the older Norman ones.

I know that you just saw this view up above, but I want to leave this as the message of these last two posts. The symmetry, the apparently unending pattern of the ceiling with the light entering from the sky at the top, supported by tenuously small seeming columns. All part of a complex metaphor of the religion preached here. All part of the message.