A Comparison of Many Great Cathedrals

Throughout the duration of my journey I have had the opportunity to view many great Cathedrals. I thought it was interesting to see the similarities and differences between the churches throughout Europe. The very first cathedral that we viewed was the St. Stephen's cathedral in Vienna; I was amazed at the Gothic architecture both inside and outside. The church was filled with ornate details wherever the eye could see. Our guide explained to us that St. Stephan's was more about power than religion; having such a large, grand church was a way of showing a powerful status. I thought that this was very interesting, and after touring the interior of the church we climbed 343 steps to the top of one of the spires. From there we had an incredible view of Vienna, and I was once again overwhelmed by St. Stephen's.

It was difficult to capture a great picture of St. Stephen's due to its enormous size, however this picture displays some of the ornate Gothic details of the church.

These are the tall spires of St. Stephen's; we climbed 343 steps of one of the spires to see a fantastic view.

This was just one of the views from the top of the spire.

Next on our trip was Prague, where we saw St. Vitus and St. George. I think that St. Vitus was my favorite church that we toured on our trip, primarily because of the beautiful stained glass windows that lined the walls. St. Vitus was similar in size to St. Stephens with an exception to the size of its spires. St. Vitus had a very interesting architectural detail however: the flying buttress. These were a method of supporting the spires of the church and keeping its structure. I thought that they were a very unique, and definitely Gothic, detail. Directly across from St. Vitus was St. George; the two churches were a night and day difference. St. George was not a cathedral, instead it was a Roman style basilica. St. George was a low, partially underground structure which is a sharp contrast to the tall, reaching structure of St. Vitus. The feelings that I received while in each church was notably different; in St. Vitus I felt like the interior was open and large. It gave me the feeling that I was small in the face of this building. St. George on the other hand was small and close to the ground. It seemed like a comfortable, safe place. 

Here is a view of the front of St. Vitus

I absolutely loved the stained glass windows inside of St. Vitus

To the right of the picture there are structures that appear to be bridges, these are the flying buttresses.

The last of the Cathedrals in this post will be St. Wulfrum's in Grantham, our home away from home. I really enjoyed my visit to St. Wulfrum's; the outside of the cathedral shares many of the Gothic architectural themes with many of the other churches in this post. While it was not nearly as large as St. Stephen's or St. Vitus, it still had the impressive spires. The inside of St. Vitus was not as grand as some of the previous churches discussed, but it was still very open inside and I would consider it to be Gothic. I thought that the most interesting part of St. Wulfrum's was the chained book library; the oldest book that we viewed was from the mid 1400s (1452 I believe). It was an amazing experience to see such an important piece of history. Though all of the churches had similar Gothic aspects they were each unique in their own ways.