Stained glass windows | Anotherdayinparadise2's Blog

What a breathtaking sight is this Gothic masterpiece! The construction of Cologne Cathedral was begun in 1248, and wasn’t completed until 1880. In 1530, work on the church stopped, but the crane stood on top of the building for 300 years, as a symbol of hope that it would one day be completed. When it was finished in 1880, it was the tallest building in the world. The foundations were 50 feet deep and there were 10,000 sq metres of glass in the windows. In 1996, the cathedral was added to the Unesco World Heritage list of culturally important sites.

On entering this magnificent building, I was absolutely amazed at the height of the ceilings and the light streaming in through the windows behind the altar, which seemed to bathe everything in a celestial glow.

There are countless stained glass windows, each one very beautiful and quite different from the other.

As you can imagine, it’s impossible to do the windows justice with photos. We were told that coloured glass was thought to be the nearest thing to Heaven’s light, and thus captured the imagination of the people of the Middle Ages. The faithful who were mostly illiterate, received the message of the Gospel verbally, and their faith was encouraged by such reinforcing visual images, created by light reflected from these windows.

Most of the windows are original, as they were taken out and put in a place of safety before the bombings of the two world wars. Much of the church was damaged during the bombings, but the windows were luckily unscathed.

The most recent window in the cathedral was unveiled in 2007. It was designed by the famous German artist, Gerhard Richter, and is made up of 11,200 identically sized squares of glass. This very modern window is a veritable kaleidoscope of colours, and some people don’t like it at all. What do you think?

I hope you’ve enjoyed my windows for the Thursday theme. To see more of this week’s interpretations of the challenge, just click here.

I saw another photo theme last week at Sandra Conner’s blog. It’s a Thursday challenge, but I’m sure I can sneak in a day late, and she won’t complain. It’s really easy challenge, simply titled, “Thursday’s windows,” so I thought I’d have a go at it. Looking out of my window today, all I can see is grey sea and sky with a generous amount of rain, so I’m staying put.

Last year whilst in England, visiting my mom-in-law, who will turn 100 next year, we took her and my sister-in-law, to the 11th century Chichester Cathedral. I put this next photo in, just to show you what a 99-year old looks like. 🙂

This beautiful cathedral has both Norman and Gothic architecture and has been called “the most typical English Cathedral”.

It has a really majestic free-standing medieval bell tower

The inside architecture has such beauty and grace.

The choir was practising the music for Evensong, and it was just heavenly to sit and listen. Those young boys’ pure, clear voices, transported me to another world.

Now I’ll get to the windows for the challenge.

Here are the ones which most enthralled me. I’m a real sucker for old stained glass windows. Craftsmen of the Middle Ages raised the practice of creating stained glass windows to a high art in the era of Gothic cathedral building, and developed techniques still used today.