In some parts of Europe, there were many tall straight trees that were good for making very large roofs. But in England, by the 1400s, the long straight trees were running out. Many of the trees were used for building ships. The architects had to think of a new way to make a wide roof from short pieces of timber. That is how they invented the hammer-beam roofs which are one of the beautiful features seen in many old English churches.
French cathedrals, and those in Germany and Belgium are often very high, both inside and outside. "The transepts" do not stick out far. The "facades" in France nearly always have three doors, a rose window and two towers. There are often "facades" with doors on the transepts as well as the front.
The thing that makes English cathedrals different from the others is that they are long, and look horizontal, like big ocean liners.
English cathedrals nearly all took hundreds of years to build, and every part is in a style that is quite different to the next part. (Only Salisbury Cathedral was not built in lots of styles.)
The West window is very large and is never a rose window. The west front may have two towers like a French Cathedral, or none. There is nearly always a tower at the middle of the building, which may have a big spire.
In Germany the towers and spires are often enormously large. Sometimes they are so big that it was impossible to finish them until modern times. The spires are quite different to English spires because they are made of lacy "openwork".
There are also many "hallenkirke" (or hall-churches) which have no "clerestorey" windows. The nave and the aisles are about the same height.
Like an English Cathedral, a Spanish or Portuguese Gothic Cathedral is often built in many different styles. They are often wide. Spanish cathedrals often have chapels all around them. The roof often has many different types of towers and spires. Often the central towers are polygonal.
Italian Gothic cathedrals use lots of colour, both outside and inside. On the outside, the "facade" is often decorated with marble. On the inside, the walls are often painted plaster. The columns and arches are often decorated with bright coloured paint. There are also mosaics with gold backgrounds and beautifully tiled floors is geometric patterns.
The facades often have an open porch with a wheel windows above it. There is often a dome at the centre of the building. The bell tower is hardly ever attached to the building, because Italy has quite a few earthquakes. The windows are not as large as in northern Europe and, although stained glass windows are often found, the favorite way of decorating the churches is fresco (wall painting).
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that is the seat of a Bishop. As cathedrals are the seat of a bishop, they are central church of a diocese. Only those Christian denominations that have bishops have cathedrals. Cathedrals can be found in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican as well as some Lutheran churches.
In the Greek Orthodox Church, the terms "kathedrikos naos" (literally: "cathedral shrine") and "metropolis" (literally "mother city") are both used to describe the same thing. "Metropolis" is more common, but both terms are officially used.
There are variations on the use of the term "cathedral"; for example, some pre-Reformation cathedrals in Scotland now within the Church of Scotland still retain the term cathedral, despite the Church's Presbyterian polity which does not have bishops. As cathedrals are often particularly impressive buildings, the term is often used incorrectly to refer to any large important church. Some diocese, however, have other churches that are bigger than the cathedral.
Several cathedrals in Europe, such as Strasbourg, and in England at York, Lincoln and Southwell, are referred to as "Minster" (German: "Münster") churches, from Latin "monasterium", because the establishments were served by canons living in community or may have been an abbey, prior to the Reformation. The other kind of great church in Western Europe is the abbey.
The word cathedral is derived from the Latin noun "cathedra" ("seat" or "chair"), and refers to the presence of the bishop's or archbishop's chair or throne. In the ancient world, the chair was the symbol of a teacher and thus of the bishop's role as teacher, and also of an official presiding as a magistrate and thus of the bishop's role in governing a diocese.
The word cathedral, though now grammatically used as a noun, is originally the adjective in the phrase "cathedral church", from the Latin "ecclesia cathedralis". The seat marks the place set aside in the prominent church of the diocese for the head of that diocese and is therefore a major symbol of authority.
Many cathedrals are very old.
Some churches are called "cathedral", but they are not the seat of a bishop. This may be because the way the church is organised changed over time. This is the case for Our Lady of Sorrows Church, Poprad, in Slovakia, for example. In Slovak language, this church is called "cathedral". It is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Spiš. This diocese was re-organised several times. Currently, the cathedral of the diocese is St. Martin's Cathedral (Spišská Kapitula). Churches that formerly were a diocesan seat may be called concathedral, co-cathedral, or pro-cathedral.
Patron saint
A patron saint is someone who has devoted their whole life to something greater than themselves. They are someone who worked hard to make the world a better place. Catholics traditionally take a name of a patron saint to help them throughout their life.
Here is a list of patron saints and the things that they are the patron saint of:
Saint David
Saint David (c. 512 - 587) is the patron saint of Wales. He was a Welsh bishop in the 6th century.
Saint George
Saint George (c. 275/280 – April 23, 303) is the patron saint of England and some other countries. There is no reliable history about St. George yet. On St George's day some people in England wear a red rose, or put an English flag in their window. The Saint George's Cross is the flag of England: white with a red cross.
According to a legend, Saint George of Lydda killed a dragon and saved the lives of many people.
A city called Silene had a large lake, where a plague-bearing dragon who breathed fire and disease lived. The dragon poisoned all the countryside. To please the dragon, the people of Silene gave it a sheep every day, for food, and when there were no more sheep, they gave their children to the dragon. The children were chosen by a lottery.
One year the lottery chose the King's daughter. The King, sad and desperate, asked the people to take all his gold and silver, and half of his empire - but only if his daughter could be saved. The people refused. The daughter was sent out to the lake, dressed in white as a bride, to be a fine meal for the dragon.
Not knowing this, Saint George was riding past the lake on the same day. The princess, terrified and trembling, tried to send him away, but George said he would stay and protect her.
The dragon came suddenly out of the lake while they were speaking. George made the Sign of the Cross gesture, jumped on his horse and advanced toward the dragon. He used his long spear to hurt the dragon badly. Then he asked the princess to throw her long pretty belt to him. He put the silk belt around the dragon's neck.
Now, the dragon followed the girl like a humble pet follows its master.
The Princess and Saint George took the dragon back to the city of Silene, where the people were terrified to see the dragon enter. But Saint George told them not to be scared. He said that if the people became Christians and went to Church to be baptized, he would kill the dragon immediately.
The king and the people of Silene converted to Christianity, George killed the dragon with his sword, 'Ascalon', and its body was taken out of the city on carts.