Lincoln Cathedral
The Lincoln Cathedral ( Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln , official: The Cathedral Church of St. Mary ) is one of the most important works of the English Gothic . The oldest parts still show the Norman architectural style . It is the cathedral church of the Anglican Bishop of Lincoln .
On the now flat end of the crossing tower was a wooden spire, which, according to an unsecured tradition, gave the cathedral a total height of approx. 160 meters (525 feet). Thus, for more than 200 years (approx. 1311–1549), Lincoln Cathedral was probably the tallest building in the world and the first building to hold this title after the Great Pyramid of Cheops . It is known for its angel choir and the so-called "crazy vaults" and is considered one of the schools of English Gothic.
location
The construction is located at Minster Yard in Upper Lincoln City . It is located in the southeast of the old town opposite Lincoln Castle .
Structure
Today Lincoln Cathedral is a huge, complicated structure, composed of components from various eras, which are reflected in the structure, the vault formation and the ornamentation. Black Purbeck marble in various designs was used primarily for service staff , capitals and base panels. No European church can match it in terms of splendor and effort in detail.
In its present form, Lincoln is a three-aisled gallery basilica with wide bays, two transepts in the middle (the western one is longer and has a crossing tower ). While the English cathedral monasteries are usually free in the landscape in their own district, Lincoln, like the cathedrals of continental Europe, is part of the city. It is visible from far and wide as a landmark .
prehistory
William the Conqueror took the opportunity in 1067, a year after the conquest of England, to bring one of his old companions to an important position of power. At that time the seat of the diocese was not in Lincoln, but in Dorchester Abbey in Dorchester-on-Thames in Oxfordshire . The Anglo-Saxon Bishop Wulfwig there died in 1067. Wilhelm then brought Remigius from the Fécamp Abbey in Normandy to England (Rémy de Fécamp). In the vicinity of the royal fortress, protected by old Roman walls and in a dominant position on the hill of Lindum, the rise of the abbey began before 1075, when the decision was made to build bishops only in larger cities.
Construction began in 1072 and was completed in 1092. Remigius died two days before the cathedral was consecrated on May 9th. Central parts of the west facade and the lower part of the west tower have been preserved from this approx. 100 meter long structure.
There was a great fire in 1137 or 1139.
The reconstruction took place under Bishop Alexander (1123-48), called "the Magnificent" because of its extravagant and expensive taste. He is responsible for the figurative design of the Romanesque west facade. Above the portals of the west facade there is still a relief frieze from this period with scenes from the Old and New Testament alongside the Majestas Domini (around 1141–50). This shows the earliest influence of the Ile de France ( Basilica Saint-Denis ) in England.
This facade from the 2nd quarter of the 12th century shows three niches, the size and width of which increase towards the middle. Above its arched end, rows of blinds fill the area, a motif that is very popular in the interior and exterior construction of English churches. The towers rise above it. The relief band above the Romanesque central portal is of a later date. It was added later in the 14th century. The large central window is from the 15th century Perpendicular Style .
The Romanesque west portal shows Norman demon and zigzag ornamentation on its column shafts. Models for the ornamental design of many motifs can be found in the illumination of the “School of Winchester” of the 11th century. Another source of motifs is ivory carving .
Alexander the Magnificent also made sure that the central nave was finally given a stone vault so that a possible next fire could not encompass the entire church. But then there was an earthquake on April 15, 1185. The cathedral was badly damaged. The chronicler Roger von Hoveden reports that the church has been divided from top to bottom.
New building 1192–1235
The west facade was preserved, but the rest of the cathedral was completely renovated after the earthquake under the new Bishop Hugo of Lincoln . Born in Avalon in France, Hugo von Avalon was bishop from 1186 until his death in 1200 and was canonized as early as 1220. During his tenure, architect Geoffrey de Noiers began a new large-scale stone structure in 1192, which was completed in 1235.
Basic stylistic features
The elevation system of the 12th century was loosened up. The main nave was the defining structure for the churches of the Early English Style . The new, very slender service bundles of the multi-part ribbed vault rely on consoles above the arcade capitals; the spandrels of the gallery are broken through by rosettes. Neither the horizontal nor the vertical dominate the wall surface. In the transept, a longitudinal rib (crown rib) connects the vertices of the vault for the first time around 1200 (approximately at the same time as Ely ). The star vault heralds the complexity of the late Gothic vault. Some of the vault ribs disappear into the wall before the “supporting” capital is reached - an early example of an “intersection” that otherwise only appeared in the late Gothic period.
The triforium floor is located between the upper clad windows and the lower row of arcades, but it also has the character of a gallery, ie the room behind the columns can be entered but is dark.
The side aisles have two windows per yoke as in Salisbury , but with a richer vault designation. Above all, the plinth panels under the aisle windows appear in a wide variety of shapes. In the choir even two layers of such panels are interlaced with one another.
The blinds are also continued in the lower parts of the extensions, with small corner towers on the sides. This creates a display wall that is blinded in front of the towers.
Construction progress
One began at the eastern end of the church with an apse and five small radial chapels. Then the main nave was renewed. Around 1200, the Dean's Eye , a round window, was built into the outside of the north arm of the large transept. From 1220 the cloister with the decagonal chapter house (earliest Gothic) - exceptionally on the north side - was built. The chapter house has been supported by an outer strut ring since the 14th century. The 20 ribs of the star vault radiate from the inner central pillar.
Under Master Geoffrey de Noiers, an east transept was added with two semicircular east chapels, four choir bays (front choir) and a west transept with side aisles on the east side of both wings, each containing three chapels - but now just closed. Then in 1220–1230 the western facade was extended in a Gothic style, which is also responsible for today's extreme width. It is strange that the Norman niche motif was retained for the design of the entrance zone on this west facade. The Gothic frieze with the kings from the 14th century lies above the central portal. The waffle pattern cladding of the surfaces in the large niche of the central portal is called gauffrure in English . It may have been inspired by Islamic wall coverings.
Seven bays were vaulted from the nave in 1233, whereby a first attempt was made to enrich the vault with ribs, namely with crown and braid ribs. Here began the process of the gradual fanning of the bundle of ribs, to which there was no parallel on the mainland. The new French invention of the buttress was tried out. This also made it possible to install larger windows.
In 1235 Robert Grosseteste , a famous theologian and scientist, became a bishop. In its first years, a richly decorated side portal with a vestibule was built on the west side of the south transept, which is referred to as "Galilee" (see narthex ). In 1239, the recently completed crossing tower collapsed.
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After the collapse of the first crossing tower
1256 to 1320 followed the components east of the small transept, the presbytery and the retro choir, which is also called "angel choir" because of its figurative decoration and represents an early work of the decorated style with tracery forms up to 18 meters high. Because of this eastward expansion of the cathedral, the city fortifications had to be broken through.
After reinforcing the crossing piers, the crossing tower was rebuilt. In the years 1307-11 it received its current upper floor and on top of it a tower spire, which was supposedly 525 feet (approx. 160 meters) high, so that it would have been the tallest building in the world until the collapse in 1549.
1300–1320 the interior received the famous choir screen in an extremely enhanced decorated style. The waffled rosette pattern is called diaper-work. It is believed that Islamic tile coverings were translated into stone work here. In French-English book illumination, such patterns appear at the same time as “damascene” in the background of figure scenes.
In 1330 the round window called B ishop’s Eye was installed in the front of the southern arm of the large transept from 1325. It was originally created at the same time as the Dean's Eye and has now been reconstructed. In the second half of the 14th century, under John of Welbourne (d. 1380), the west towers were raised over, more precisely behind the old Norman west facade
In 1484 (or 1494) a chapel called Flaming's Chantry was added to the north side of the choir , later Russel's Chantry (1494) and Longland's Chantry (1521-30) on the south side . The old choir portal from 1270 with its Last Judgment in the upper arch field remained between them . In 1549 a storm destroyed the helm of the crossing tower, which has had its current flat top ever since.
Vault
The beginning of Gothic architecture in England is generally assumed with the east end of Canterbury Cathedral in 1175, but the actual English Gothic, the Early English , began with the new construction of Wells Cathedral in 1180 and Lincoln in 1192. England is now going its own way, especially in vaulting. Although it inherited its own invention of the ribbed vault from France, it hardly ever used it in its simple, original form, instead developing forms that were either not imitated on the mainland or only later imitated (end of the 14th century).
The first variation of the original rib scheme took place in the east transept here in Lincoln (1192–1200), where vertex and transverse vertex ribs were recorded, but not combined in the same vault area (with a certain, strange exception on the north shield wall, where two "half “The vertex ribs form a right angle). In the main transept (1200-20) crown ribs were then completely executed, from the shield wall to the crossing.
Another early and at the same time the strangest change in the cross rib system was made by the master builder of the central nave in the front choir around 1200, the so-called crazy vaults, whose figuration is difficult to describe with words. Franz Hart speaks of a “split in the diagonal rib”, which is certainly not enough as a description. The top view shows the image of a parallel roof viewed obliquely from the top right - but as a tilting figure, so that the same can also be described as a bottom view from the left. The apex lines of the stitch caps are not perpendicular to the apex line of the choir, but those of the southern ones face more to the east, those of the northern ones to the west. Each yoke has two keystones.
The successor to this builder in Lincoln was not quite as eager to experiment. He returned to symmetry and in 1233 created the first star and fan vault, also called ray or palm vault, in the nave vault with the combination of crown rib and several braided ribs at the same time; This form of the fan vault is to be distinguished from the so-called "mature form of the fan vault", which later appeared in the Perpendicular style.
Another unusual example is an early example of a principle that was first applied in the late Gothic period, that of the intersection, where a part of the ribs disappears into the wall before reaching the vaulting service, or optically dissolves into the other ribs. The Lincoln Cathedral was a field of experimentation for several architectural directions, which led to a magnificence and wealth of detail as in hardly any continental church.
organ
The organ on the Chorlettner was built between 1893 and 1898 by the organ builder Henry Father Willis . It replaced an instrument that had been built in 1826 by the organ builder William Allen in a case by the architect EJ Wilson. Pipe material from the Allen organ was reused in the organ. Henry Willis had already presented the plans for the new instrument in 1885. In view of the larger disposition , the organ case from 1826 was enlarged. Parts of the organ, u. a. the swell , the wind turbine and the largest pedal registers had to be outside, u. a. be housed in the northern triforium . When it was completed in 1898, the new organ was the first cathedral organ in England to have an electric wind turbine. It is the last instrument personally built by Henry Willis.
In 1960 the organ was reorganized by the organ builders Harrison & Harrison. However, the pipe inventory from 1898 remained untouched and, in particular, its historical intonation was preserved. The wind tunnels, the mechanics and the gaming table were renewed. In addition, the instrument was expanded by 6 registers. Today the instrument has 64 registers on four manuals and a pedal . The actions are electro-pneumatic.
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present
The cathedral, which was restored in 2000 at a cost of around three million euros, is the seat of the Diocese of Lincoln of the Church of England. The public library in it, the Lincoln Cathedral Library , houses, among other things, one of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta from 1215 as well as an 11th century Bible , the Lincoln Chapter Bible .
In 2005 the church was the location for some scenes from the movie The Da Vinci Code . Scenes from the film Young Victoria were also filmed here. In both cases the church served as a replacement for Westminster Abbey . The film productions brought high income to the church and increased the number of visitors.
Individual evidence
- ^ Harry Batsford, Charles Fry: The Cathedrals of England , p. 55
- ↑ The tower was destroyed in 1549. The date 1311 refers to the completion of the stone crossing tower, which is 271 feet high. It is unclear when the spire, which was destroyed in 1549, was built. AF Kendrick: The Cathedral Church of Lincoln: A History and Description of its Fabric and a List of the Bishops. George Bell & Sons, London, ISBN 978-1-178-03666-4 , p. 60 gives a height of 525 feet , which he apparently took from an older source, but he doubts this statement: “ The tall spire of timber, covered with lead, which originally crowned this tower reached an altitude, it is said, of 525 feet; but this is doubtful. This spire was blown down during a tempest in January 1547-8. ”
- ↑ Hürlimann 1948, p. 36
- ↑ Hürlimann 1948, p. 38
- ↑ More information on the organ ( Memento of the original from September 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the cathedral website
literature
- Harry Batsford, Charles Fry: The Cathedrals of England , 7th Edition, BT Batsford Ltd., London 1948
- Bock, Henning: The Decorated Style. Investigations into the English cathedral architecture of the first half of the 14th century. Heidelberg 1962
- Bony, Jean: The English Decorated Style. Gothic Architecture Transformed 1250-1350. New York 1979
- Coldstream, Nicola: The Decorated Style. Architecture and Ornament, 1240-1360. British Museum Press 1999. ISBN 978-0-7141-2734-7
- Alain Erlande-Brandenburg : Gothic Art. Herder, Freiburg-Basel-Vienna 1984, fig. 355, 798 ff.
- Hart, Franz: Art and technology of the vault. Munich 1965
- Hürlimann, Martin: English Cathedrals. Zurich 1948
- Kowa, Günter: Architecture of the English Gothic. Cologne 1990
- Werner Schäfke : English cathedrals. A journey through the highlights of English architecture from 1066 to the present day. Cologne 1983. (DuMont Art Travel Guide), pp. 93–116, Figs. 28–32; Color plate 7, 21
- Swaan, Wim: The great cathedrals. Cologne 1969, p. 183, fig. 197, 206–215, 257
- Toman, Rolf (ed.): The art of the Romanesque. Architecture - sculpture - painting. Cologne 1996, p. 221
Web links
- www.lincolncathedral.com - Official Cathedral website (English)
| before | Tallest building in the world | after that |
| Cheops pyramid | (approx. 160 m (?)) 1311 (?) - 1549 (storm damage) |
Marienkirche in Stralsund |
Coordinates: 53 ° 14 ′ 4 " N , 0 ° 32 ′ 10" W.