This blog is about things I find interesting: mostly exhibitions but also places. The cathedral of Notre Dame de Strasbourg is one such place. Sites of worship fascinate me as they are such repositories of positive energy; I can feel it as soon as I enter.
At my first visit to the city I was overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the cathedral as well as the intricacy of the stone carving.
Imagine how it must have felt back in the 14th century when the experience of scale and sound were so different from today. This was the tallest building in Europe till the late 19th Century and remains the tallest existing structure of the Middle Ages.
In High Gothic everything thrusts upwards – the eye is drawn away from the earth to what is beyond with saints and stories along the way.
More tales and figures are carved into the facade – way too many to take in at any one time but plenty to look at if you have time to do so.
My father loved architecture and both parents encouraged us to feel the wonder of these incredible monuments to faith, whether or not we were believers.
The manipulation of space, colour, light and sound for the glory of an entity isn’t only in churches – it is there in mosques, synagogues and temples.
