Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury, England, begun 1220. Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris

[@marigeobrien]

I've been reading Edward Rutherfurd's novel "Sarum" and have just finished the section that describes in detail the building of this church. It's quite an amazing building, more so because it survives to this day.

[@davidfinch7407]

Osmund the Mason should be proud.

[@Sasha0927]

The repainting of the molding is lovely, but the roundrels... 😍 And then it was immediately like, "Oh, you think those are nice? Check out these windows." Got me again. So much (divine) beauty in one place.

[@texleeger8973]

Thank you so very much. Salisbury is my envisionment of an English cathedral thanks to Constable who I encountered more than five decades ago. Just a divine "simplicity" of Early English Gothic.

[@carmiertree5213]

❤❤❤my local only,it was my first experience of big beautiful church,so amazed by all the beautiful artwork

[@filipkralj2618]

There is a famous 123 metre spire, and a famous clock. It is the oldest working clock.

[@flyby2300]

Thank you for this awesome video. I bookmarked your Y/tube-page & I will be visiting your website as well.

[@KorKhan89]

I've been there; it's a lovely exemplar of English Gothic. As it turned out, the measures taken to support the newly heightened tower almost weren't sufficient: Standing underneath, you can see the piers in the crossing bending under the weight of the tower! Quite disconcerting, but considering that they've survived for eight centuries, we shouldn't be too worried. From an engineering point of view, it's also interesting that the ground water level is only about three metres below the cathedral floor!

[@sams6306]

I was going to say the same thing! I also wanted to mention a wonderful feature in Salisbury Cathedral that survived the iconoclasm of the English Reformation: a small ring of sculpted pomegranates in the North East part of the cathedral, symbol of Catherine of Aragon's Spanish birthplace. The reformers missed that one!

[@KorKhan89]

cloudtoground It was the tour guide who pointed it out to us, so it's not exactly news. Indeed, the structural issues of the cathedral are well known, at least since the 13th Century, when they added the strainer arches, and from the 17th Century when Christopher Wren added new internal supports for the spire. Seeing as Salisbury Cathedral is one of Southern England's most valued monuments, I'm pretty sure that it has had some extremely thorough risk assessments in more recent years as well.

[@doristheslug9609]

A shorter nave allows a crossing tower to be built, and in the case of Salisbury, a giant, lofty spire.

[@jasminespencer3992]

@freddysherman did an amazing behind the scenes video of the cathedral

[@matthewhysell7599]

It would be interesting to know (1) why English Gothic churches tended to have lantern towers and (2) why they have rood screens. I can't think of any French Gothic churches that have either, though there might be.

[@smarthistory-art-history]

Both Italian and French churches had tremezzo and choir screens. There are a few left, see for example Albi Cathedral and Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice.

[@RiC_David]

I'm so glad you're still using that intro/outtro music because I _really_ want to know what that piece of jazz piano music is. I've never explored that genre of music mainly because I've never known what any of it's called or even what particular era it's from. It's more upbeat and vivacious than the more classic songs like As Time Goes By but it feels like it's not much younger than that. Every time I heard Frasier's end credits as a kid I'd want to hear more of that sort of piano music. So can anybody help me here? Thanks.

[@smarthistory-art-history]

It's called Buddy

[@eltfell]

I would devide English Gothic into 4 periods: Early Englisch, Decorated Style, Tudor Style, Perpendicular Style. Ort: Perpendicular Style is sort of Tudor de Luxe.

[@midwesternexplorer9339]

What is the technical name for the statues that are built into the outer walls? I really love that style.

[@queendevaux8424]

Just wow

[@MrFuzzydumplings]

Didn't Turner do a few studies of this cathedral?

[@TimSlee1]

What is the difference between the gallery and triforium?

[@smarthistory-art-history]

Excellent question. The distinction between a gallery and a triforium is confusing as the words are often used interchangeably and the etymological distinction seems to be fairly recent. Further confusing the issue is the fact that individual churches may use one or the other words carrying on a local tradition. These are of course all correct usages. We try to use the term that the given church uses. That said, it may help to think of it this way, in a three-part elevation, the triforium is the often decorative wall above the nave arcade and below the clerestory. It might contain a blind arcade with indented references to interior "windows" often between arches that don't open onto a space behind (since there isn't always room for one). Or, they might not be blind and thus do actually open onto a gallery or passageway behind. If there is one, that gallery is a sort of balcony behind arched interior windows of the triforium wall. So that if you were standing in the gallery, you could look down, through the triforium arcade, onto the nave below. If may be easier to think of a four-part elevation: at the bottom is the nave arcade, the 2nd story is the gallery, the third is a blind triforium, and at the top, the clerestory.

[@TimSlee1]

@@smarthistory-art-history Thank you for your answer! I will be taking this new found knowledge to my architectural history studies.

[@namelessone3339]

That was my question, too.

[@boop_jules3609]

nice, I appreciate ya'll;)

[@davetremaine9688]

2:20 - 2:28 Why was I surprised by "very quickly" being 38 years lol

[@smarthistory-art-history]

Ha! It may seem long to us, but cathedrals could take a century or more to build.

[@monicacall7532]

I would’ve loved to have heard the choir sing through the holes in the front facade! It would’ve probably felt like an angelic choir from on high was singing. In the days of both very deep faith and the use of architecture and decor designed to teach and appeal to the illiterate people who worshipped at the cathedral it must’ve felt like the heavens had opened. Did they use trumpets along with the singers? Angels are often depicted with them, so they would’ve fit perfectly with the choir’s singing.

[@smarthistory-art-history]

In the Cathedral at Wells, there are holes for singers and then higher up are holes for trumpets. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpScZ3yHoqqCf7s