Details of Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire.
#for all that Ely wasn’t too terribly damaged in 1539 #the brutal treatment of the carvings in the Lady Chapel has always put such a strangely human face on this particular pocket of history for me #because the walls in there are devastated #with all the delicate detail pounded to powder #and the faces and vignettes knocked away in chunks #but none of the carvings above eye level have been touched #so at some point during the furious destruction #a bunch of people with hammers looked at the walls #looked at one another #and then decided to just let the rest of that shit go #because they didn’t want to have to find a ladder #history: people are people
Such a place—I think I might go back down that way this summer and visit.
I literally knew as much about Ely Cathedral as the tour guides when I was about 8, because it and Orford Castle were the places we always took family when they visited, besides just going ourselves a lot when we felt like it because they were free and nearby. But if I knew that about the carvings, I’ve forgotten.
1920 vs 2008: intersection of Clark and Foster, looking at NE corner. The buildings still exist~
This divine neo-gothic bookstore, opened in 1906, contains what we consider to be the ultimate definition of a stairway to heaven. Livraria Lello, Porto, Portugal.
Saint Jean, the largest underground church in Europe, was hewn out of solid rock in the 12th Century. It is massive – 27 meters long, 16 meters wide, and 20 meters high. It is important to understand that this was not just a giant cave that was converted into a church. It is actually carved in the form of a contemporary church – from the great columns to the vaulted nave.
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