These Gothic Cathedrals Took 500+ Years to Build
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- Опубликовано: 18 июн 2024
- This video is about Gothic Cathedrals that were never finished in the Middle Ages. For various reasons these massive building projects dragged out, and were only completed in the 19th and even 20th centuries!
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Concerto grosso in F minor, Op.1 No.8 - Pietro Locatelli
By “The Modena Chamber Orchestra” (musopen.org/)
Mass for 4 Voices - IV. Sanctus - V. Benedictus - William Byrd
By “Ensemble Morales” (musopen.org/)
Lachrimae, or Seven Tears - 1. Lachrimae Antiquae - John Dowland
By “I Solipsisti” (musopen.org/)
Violin Concerto in Bb, Op. 4/1 RV 383a - 2. La Stravaganza, Largo - Antonio Vivaldi
By “Orchestra Gli Armonici” (musopen.org/)
Symphony in D minor Op.Posth - II. Andante a - Anton Bruckner
By “European Archive” (musopen.org/)
Astiterunt reges terræ - José Maria Xavier
By “Orquestra Sinfônica de Minas Gerais” (musopen.org/)
Missa para Quarta-feira de Cinzas - Immutemur habitu - Emerico Lobo de Mesquita
By “Vox Brasiliensis” (musopen.org/)
Missa para Quarta-feira de Cinzas - Sanctus - Emerico Lobo de Mesquita
By “Vox Brasiliensis” (musopen.org/)
Zelus domus tuae - José Maria Xavier
By “Orquestra Sinfônica de Minas Gerais” (musopen.org/)
Posuerunt super caput ejus - José Maria Xavier
By “Orquestra Sinfônica de Minas Gerais” (musopen.org/)
Ave verum corpus, K. 618 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
By “Orchestra Gli Armonici” (musopen.org/)
say what you want..
They did built a god damn sturdy crane in cologne lasting 400 years without collapsing..
Yeah, I was too impressed by seeing that photograph. I cannot think of a modern building being left unfinished with a crane and that staying there for centuries
Wonder if the dude who made it also made the ladder of the church of the nativity.
German engineering!
The city I live in only has all these "modern" houses from the 1400s since the old town burned down during an earthquake in 1348. But there are still houses from the 1200s (they usually have a date above the door, so you can see the age just by passing by).
But these old houses are very small (as in height and room size). People obviously were smaller back then. In some I feel almost claustrophobic and I am only 178cm (5ft10).
I once was in this museum in Stockholm with all those sailors bodys (the museum was about a sunk ship and the bodys still lay where they died) - they were all about 165cm-ish. That would be a good 10cm less than today's average. I guess we are pretty well fed to all grow so much 🤷
@@Kingcobra6699 Thats the VASA museum, right?
It's crazy that we used to be capable of building stuff over generations but now if something takes more than a decade it's considered to be overtime and likely overbudget.
We had faith back then.
Thats because we have better technology but cant use them due to bureaucracy or profit. So its an artificial problem
Its because churches were built with the help of the nobels money, it was all about flaunting their ego and how much money the have. That was also the reason french churches wanted to be taller: to compete with neighbours. Google the church of san pierre de beauvais
Not exactly true, we can just build things so much more efficiently the things we plan out super long term are just bigger than single buildings, like metro systems, rail networks ect which can have 50+ year plans
@@maddiekits I'm not sure I'd really count those since they're not really a single project in the same way that building a cathedral is a single project with a clear completed state. Imo the only modern equivalent of building a cathedral would be building a space elevator or similar impossible structure that'd take centuries to complete during which it would have little to no usefulness.
Since each additional rail, road, etc that's added to a transportation network is immediately useful, whereas when building a cathedral, it's not really all that useful until you've finished the roof a few decades after you've started on the project.
It is hard to fully wrap your head around one hundred years, nevermind 500. Personally I think these should be made wonders of the world, they are breathtaking
To me one hundred years is starting to feel kinda short. I'm kinda middle aged now I guess. And that time has flown by like nothing. It really puts it into perspective. 100 years really isn't that long. And yet the world has changed so much in that time.
That said, a crane just sitting there for 400 years kinda blows my mind.
The narratives are all made up. They aren't true.
@@PiousMoltar Is that feeling just from a quick hindsight? I've found that if I just briefly look back, time appeared to have flown by. But if I dive deep into all of my memories, I feel like I've lived forever. So I think perception of time really comes down to how much we're willing to gloss over, due to our natural desire to stay alive
I agree, yet they have nothing to do with God, we were told to only build an alter of un hewn stone.
These are magnificent, glorious, edifices dedicated to doing things man's way.
They are simply temporal!
Jesus Loves You! 👨🌾
The main reason why the cathedrals were taking so long to build was usually due to 'communal' nature of the project. Churches at the time were used as representative public spaces (where everybody went to socialize and do business), and main city churches were usually procured and financed by the city council and depended on donations from the city's merchant families or other city-related benefactors. As long as there was enough cashflow, the project could go on unhindered.
Another issue was that the 'contractor' for such big project was usually restricted to a city's
egional mason guild. They operated as a kind of a 'union' that had agreements made with the local governments that made sure that no one else was allowed to work on such projects. And they were a sort of a monopoly on a skilled labor (both craftsmen and engineers\architects, which were often one of the same job title in the guild). If there was a labor dispute, or if the local guild was busy on other, more lucrative projects, the project could stall.
Finally, especially if it was a main church, you couldn't just close it right away, demolish and build. The building often had to remain in use for the entire duration of the project. Usually, the construction would go from the west to east, so that people could still use side (south and north) entrances and the altar was usable for service. However the sequence could also go from the east to west. Also, main construction work could co relatively fast, but various decorations, special sculptures and elements (such as internal chapels, entrance portals etc) might require a special contract, which meant separate negotiations on design and financing with different artists and their guild administrators.
When there was no delay, the construction could take surprisingly short amount of time. Bourges Cathedral was built in less than 35 years (most of the nave done under 10 years). Similarly, Chartres Cathedral was rebuilt in around 30 years, with 30 more for all the interiors to be fitted. Smaller or other than main churches could be built even faster.
Thanks for the info! Never knew it was a single guild project!
That's the story you're going to go with? You'll have to pardon me but that's ridiculous!
Imagine being the guy who discovered that drawing after the Napoleonic Wars -- that must have been such a unique feeling of wonder and sheer hope that such a long-standing incomplete work could potentially reach its full beauty.
Yes! It was found in a town 2 hour drive away from cologne in an attic and was used to dry nuts
@@Nutzername42 Whenever an old 100-200 year old building gets demolished nowadays in Europe I always wonder did they check the attic. So much good stuff people find there, old photo, old documents, books and art.
Imagine building a cathedral for half a millennium, making it the tallest building in the world, only for it to be topped by a friggin pillar a few years later.
Imagine building a cathedral for its own sake and not to make it into the Guiness Book of World Records
@@busTedOaS Oh I know they built it just for its own sake. The point was that they built an extremely elaborate building, put in masterful artisanship and dedication, took half a millennium to complete it, and when finished, it happened to be the tallest man-made object on earth. And a rather beautiful one, too.
Then a few short years later someone erects a friggin column that looks like nothing, but it's taller than the cathedral.
Let's take a more recent example: had you rather the Burj Kalifa, or a radio antenna twice its height?
@@dorderre Exactly, it takes a dedication and pride to do that. I think we lost this mentality. Going with the Burj Khalifa example, if they get "trumped" by some other structure they might just stack another 200m antenna on top. It's kind of stupid but I honestly can see it happen
It didn't take 500 years to build these cathedrals, that's what they want you to think. We were much more advanced as a civilization in the past. History is a lie...
No cathedral was ever the tallest building in the world. The title of tallest building in the world belonged to the great pyramid of kheops in Egypt. And it held that title for nearly five thousand years until it was finally surpassed by the eiffel tower in 1887.
For all you music buffs: composer Robert Schumann visited the still-unfinished Cologne cathedral in the fall of 1850, and was so moved that he depicted it musically in the fourth movement of his "Rhenish" symphony. If romantic nationalism and medievalism are your thing, you'll find plenty. (I recommend Bernstein's New York recording btw.)
A fantastic and informative video. I have passed through Köln many times and had no idea of the cathedral's complicated history. I am very grateful indeed that it survived the Second World War.
Mostly thanks to the steel parts iirc.
Manchester planned a vast gothic cathedral in the 1870s but it was never built. You can find some of the plans online, and maybe the Town Hall gives you an idea of what it might have looked like. The architect, R.H. Carpenter, also unsuccessfully submitted plans for Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC... which actually reminds of Cologne in a way as it's sat unfinished for well over a century now.
They will likely sell the plans off to another firm
Course it did.
When a thousand year old cathedral is 'unfinished' it just means somethign was removed from it. It'll; never be 'finished'
God bless Europe and Europeans
I don't think he'd bless us now.
And Americans too!
@@TheOneWhoSometimesSaysOk Why?
@@TheOneWhoSometimesSaysOkjust remembered Jan sobeiski, skanderbeg, Maurice of Nassau and more...
Take your countries back
the photograph of the crane on top of the Kölner Dom is crazy to me. Actually seeing how the majority of people saw the Dom and that we are the lucky century where the finished building is the normal to us, is mindblowing to me.
Also I knew that it was finished in 1880 but didn't know that it just took them 38 years to finish a huge part of it.
the milan cathedral is so special. Although the front feels always a bit odd to me, the roof top id basically the predecessor of anor londo from Dark souls (a game where you can walk around on said roof)
As an atheist i consider gothic cathedrals the best work of men on earth.
There are similar things in India and Cambodia, but I agree.
@@lowersaxongoths were early Europe with Vikings
I doubt they travelled there
It's different architecture same in Iran, Japan,Mexico , Iraq , Guatemala etc
The Cologne Cathedral is the most beautiful building ive ever seen with my own eyes
The first stones of what would become the Nidaros Cathedral in Norway was laid around 1070, and the Cathedral was finally finished in 2009.
This channel is amazing.
I currently live in Ulm. :) The minster is absolutely breathtaking, especially when you stand infront of it looking up. It's basically a medieval skyskraper (or at least was planned to be one).
Fun Fact: It's also the largest protestant church in the world and this has been given the nickname "protestant St. Peters".
The Ulmer Münster is majestic.
I grew up there and moved to Switzerland years ago but when I came back for the first time it really struck me how freaking impressive this monument really is
Mark Twain was spot on with the Duomo of Milan. It really is perfect.
If only I get to see Sagrada Familia finished I’ll be happy.
commenting on the video so the algorithm knows to serve more of these. perfect video, in subject, pacing, choice of background music, abundance of imagery... very happy I found it after a hectic day before heading to sleep
It is always a fine day when King and Things upload a classical architectural video. It is awe inspiring, calming, and majestic.
Totally fantastic work. Thank you. Your choice of key educational point of each building--avoiding irrelevancies and trivia, is unique. I have written to criticized other works on RUclips on the topic, telling them to watch your work and learn. Excellent
I know I keep saying this but watching your channel truly is another experience. It helps put me into a mood of creative greatness and this video inspired me to continue an art project which I hadn't worked on for 2 months. Thanks so much!
This is definitely my favorite channel. I love architecture and the history of architecture. I think that's what I'm going to major in.
@@Bobithan_Bobby_Bob_XXVII_JrNah man you got this, your gonna graduate high school, major in architecture and have an awesome time in college and do something that would make your dog proud. There’s nothing YOU can’t do when you put your mind to it.
Good luck bro, being a teenager seems like it's gonna last forever, but it won't, you'll be an architect one day I'm sure
wow, thank you so much for this video, there arent a lot of actually true and interesting videos on cathedrals, most are over the top tv documentaries, I really enjoy your architecture Videos in general!
A time where not only did people plant trees in whose shade they would never sit, but lay stones for buildings even their whole lineage would never see completed.
Wonderful presentation, thank you.
I am so excited to watch this!
I much love European 🏰 history.Love from Nepal 🇳🇵.
I havent learned any nepalese history I should probably learn some seems like an interesting place
Thank you. It's nice to know that these great cathedrals took generations, but the results were outstanding, especially Milano.
This video is a true masterpiece as well!
Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm for this topic in this great way
I've been absolutely fascinated by this subject for many years. I love imagining the lives of people building the Gothic cathedrals over so much time, it's just incredible!
Absolutely superb video, well done.
Another amazing video, thank you so much.
Another great masterpiece of a video!
Beautiful video. Really, great work
Wow I love your videos!
Been living in Ulm for 6 years and now outside of ulm. The Ulmer Münster is still beautiful and imposing.
We have been blessed with another video
One thing I pull from old architecture is that the people that were responsible for designing and building them seemed to have real love for their communities. They wanted to make something beautiful and enduring as a gift to their people. Very different from the feeling I get from that of today.
The Beauvais Cathedral in France is an interesting case: building started in the 13th century but was never finished as they stopped in around the 17th century.
In Beauvais, the limits of gothic architecture were reached. The nave collapsed twice, so finally they stopped. The choir and transept are now still held by steel reinforcements and wooden buttresses on the inside. The roofs reach a staggering 45 m.
Beautiful!
Thank you, I especially found the history of the Milanese duomo very illuminating.
so beautiful and grand. glad they were completed
Thanks for this one. 🙏🏼💖✨
Another interesting thing is that Renaissance artists did not necessarily despise Gothic, and even if they didn't like it, they often still thought that it would be unnatural to finish Gothic building with Classic features, and vice versa. A story of Milan's Cathedral facade has been especially interesting due to the fact that we have documented heated discussions and arguments by the leading Italian architects of the time on how to proceed with the building. For more than a hundred years there was a constant back and forth, when the "pro-Gothic" factions had their way only to be sabotaged by "pro-Classic" architects, and then other way around. Pro-Gothic proponents could include some serious Classic heavyweights, such as for example Giacomo da Vignola, who even made a couple of proposals with his interpretations of Gothic. Even Bernini, of all people, was known to favor a harmonious Gothic design over a Classic facade. There is a great book on the subject, called *"Gothic vs . Classic" by Rudolf Wittkover, who has quite a bit of these debates over several Italian cathedrals summarized in a readable story.
I believe, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelone would have earned a spot here, as it began construction in 1882 and is still in active construction ...
On another note, I spent my childhood at the feet of Kölner Dom and as a child, it was a given for me that this building was there since eternity ... ;)
This has to be my new favorite channel
Visited all of them. Real masterpieces of engineering and design. You can stay and look at them for hours ...
These masterworks are seriously underrated imo.
The cathedral in Calonge Germany took 632 years, the Millan Cathedral took about the same...
Well done. Informative and engaging. Appreciated the historic prints and photos. I had no idea that these cathedrals weren’t completed until the 19th and 20th centuries. Thank you. MF
God bless the architects who designed these buildings and the workers who built them. What you all have built is truly beautiful. Let Him reunite our churches and lead us into a new age ☦️
Very informative video, I suggest seeing this video before visiting these cathedrals.
5:33 that’s the most realistic antique portrait I’ve ever seen
it's 19th century, not antique
I enjoyed your video.
Thankyou for it.
1:06 I just turn my head and see its towers, well, towering over the skyline. Can't quite get used to it even after decades, such a magnificent view :D EDIT 8:51 is actually quite close to the look out of my window. Great video in and by itself, thanks Kings and Things
Beautiful. I doubt we'll build something like this again, not for a long time.
I was in the Cologne Cathedral about 15 years ago. I believe that it was the spark that led to my conversion of the Catholic faith. I knew that my knees should be on the ground when I entered, but I had no clue why.
I love your architecture videos. Could you please do a video on the Bologna Towers?
Excellent video
Love this!
I am in love with your content
An example of an unfinished gothic cathedral is S. Petronio in Bologna. According to the original project it would have been the biggest church in Italy (Vatican City included). The pope managed to stop the construction beacause he saw the project as an insult to his power. Eaven thoug it's unfinished i think is the second largest church in the country
Great video 👍🏾
If you’re interested at all at covering more examples of “architectural lost media” I humbly suggest you do a video on the non-extant papal tombs
It amazes me the builders could work off of the drawings of the time. No power tools, no computer aided drafting, and no OSHA
Nah that's not complicated at all in comparison with fast battleships, ww2 carriers, type 21 german subs and planes like b 29, all that with rulers and mateeial science of that era, basically no polimers in use bar bakelite and the likes, that's impressive, building churches in stone in comparison not so much, it's more a patience and organisation and finances, but no big technology breakthrougs, few dome building techniques found, but domes existed already in antiquity.
Mind boggling brilliance.
Hope the modernists don’t abuse these buildings
About the Münster in Ulm: Foundations were unstable and issues arose right from the beginning, so it was on the brink of being abandoned for some time. It is also somehow disproportionate with the extra-long section added to the steeple.
Merci pour la très haute qualité (historique, iconographique, musicale) de ce remarquable documentaire !
I was born in Compiègne, between the cathedrals of Senlis, Noyon, Soissons, Beauvais, and Laon...And, then, I lived in Reims where deux exceptional gothic buildings existed before the Revolution : Notre Dame, the cathedral ,and St- Nicaise abbey, destroyed about 1810...
La Beauté est un pressentiment du Ciel ( saint Odon, abbé de Cluny).
Angoulême, France
They are timeless, beautiful, graceful structures never surpassed. Art is to inspire. All else is something else. We think of ourselves as modern, progressive. We look at only the bad, in a vacuum of the quick answer. We lack patience and virtue, therefore vision. They immortalize Grace. They remind us.
I love it!
On mark twain tho, has he BEEN to Saint Peters? It is, maybe ironically, impressive as hell.
Good doku..thanks
That was very interesting
Very good video
Which architecture movement or style you admire the most
0:28 Where did you get that drawing of the cathedral of Beauvais with its now defunct spire?? Is it a modern representation? If not, how did they get that point of view at the time?
I want more of that man, somebody please make him make sense of his papers in some storry's like this
Some buildings aren't even designed to last decades these days.
The same was true back then.
This is survivor bias, far more buildings have collapsed over time than have survived.
Which gives hope they will be replaced by more beautiful designs very soon.
No it wasn't because half the buildings were already there, and the claims we built them don't stack up to scrutiny due to so many illogicality's which people have started noticing @@jathbr4113
When was the last time your gvmt or a private business said they were going to undertake a construction expected to take 200 years to complete? The Burj Khalifa was built in 6 years. If we can build something in a few months that lasts a few decades it did pretty well.
Let’s see what Notre Dame looks like when they’re finished with the repair work. I would bet they found some interesting history during the work there
The Colgone Cathedral (Kölner Dom) belongs to the city, not the catholic church. Even the pope has to formally ask for permission to enter, let alone a mere archbishop. Cologne and its bishops wasn't exactly a love story throughout the centuries ...
The city "coat of arms" shows three crowns to honor (the bones of) the "Three Wise Men".
I would love to see the Fleche of Cologne Cathedral more ornate and taller like in Notre Dame de Paris.
your alive lol keep up the good work
2:34- are these drawings from the period? or were they drawn later? fascinated by that crane.
They look like baroque drawings from the 16th or 17th century.
I think it was made in the 19th century. The one just after it is from the 1500s.
@@kingsandthings Thanks, Cheers!
These are engravings made for Sulpitz Boisseree's "Domwerk" published in 1823 to promote the completion of the Dom.
Music-flow my tears by Dowland
It's easy to make walls vertical. But how did they make the floors so flat?
PRAGUE
Do you guys know the name of the music starting at 16:17 ?
Mozart's "Ave verum corpus"
@@dromeiro Thank you very much
Not one stone will my Father leave unbroken 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Read Sarum , about Salisbury Cathedral !
The sense of grandiose these generations had is much different from modern day
Cologne cathedral... now they built train station near buy and shoved opera under the ground near by. What a genius of modern day.
Wait ??? What kind of cranes did they have that long ago?
even for non religious folk, these buildings are architectural masterpieces..amen
The culmination of this entire episode was with the Tank Battle at Cologne Cathedral in 1945
Even Westminster Abbey in London was completed long after the Gothic style had gone out of fashion in the 18th Century.
Here is the calculation you really need to make; days with workers on site working -minus by days without workers on site not working = the real time it took to build, excluding the likely high number of days each of these construction sites sat idle without any resources or workers... My best amateur guess would be that each of the cathedrals took less than 100 years to build but many more years where they just idle without anyone working on them...
il duomo di Milano non è mai finito. Ha bisogno di continui restauri per il marmo che si usura a causa dell' inquinamento. Un marmo, marmo di Candoglia, molto fragile, che deve essere continuamente sostituito. Io personalmente non ho mai visto il mio Duomo senza impalcature, ed è davvero un peccato. Ecco perché a lato c'è una grande baracca utilizzata dagli scalpellini, molto brutta a vedersi ma necessaria. A Milano , per questo motivo, abbiamo un detto: è come la fabbrica del Duomo. Lo si usa quando una cosa non finisce più. E pure la parola "uffa" che adesso usano in tutta Italia, che deriva dall' acronimo AUF, Ad Usum Fabricae
the ancient Egyptians would be most awestruck, as would the builders of the
Greek temples on the acropolis and the Hagia Sophia...
Interesting how some thought these designs were rooted in nature. They're more like scabbed, poorly healed bullet wounds