Your favourite medieval window (and stone buildings general) - We're all grown-ups here.

[Overly Serious]

It's true - people do stop asking this when you grow up. Lets fix that - asking the important questions of our time. Feel free to explain why your favourite is the best and why everyone who disagrees is wrong. Post your favourite examples of stone architecture / windows if you've got 'em.

 

[Lord of the Goyim]

Oriel is the superior option for a standalone window.

 

[Almighty Space Duck]

Perpendicular bros line up.

 

[Otterly]

Always been very fond of the rose window in York minster myself.
The fan vaulted roof at Gloucester cathedral is stunning.

Roslin chapel is well worth a visit as well. But most church architecture is beautiful. Even a simple stone church that’s almost a thousand years old. The smell as well - divine. I do very much enjoy pottering around a good cathedral or church in good company.

 

[Jimmy Dean Bowl]

Always been very fond of the rose window in York minster myself.
The fan vaulted roof at Gloucester cathedral is stunning.
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Roslin chapel is well worth a visit as well. But most church architecture is beautiful. Even a simple stone church that’s almost a thousand years old. The smell as well - divine. I do very much enjoy pottering around a good cathedral or church in good company.

Came here to sperg about York Minster too! The place is divine in all the meanings of the word.

 

[Otterly]

Came here to sperg about York Minster too! The place is divine in all the meanings of the word.

Isn’t it gorgeous? I’m afraid this is a thread I am going to sperg on for a while…
I will save the miserichords for later, but let’s do some STONEWORK!
I give you the scissor arches at wells cathedral; made in the 1300s as an engineering response to the whole place being about to collapse:

Medieval engineers - all working with the tools and techniques or rhe era, stabilised goodness knows how many tonnes of building and in a way that’s so beautiful and still there today
Onwards! To Roslin/Rosslyn chapel, a favourite haunt of mine. An actual functional beehive carved into the roof. The apprentice pillar:

And the whole place is like a big puzzle/meme/riddle in stone. There’s a series of stone blocks called the Rossltn motet tha some think are a musical score, but which definitely seem to be a code of some kind:

And during modern restorations, people with great skill, who thankfully still exist, pit their own little jokes in: here’s the xenomorph gargoyle (o think it’s a gargoyle, correct me if it’s a grotesque) at paisley abbey

 

[Ventrue]

Basilique Cathédrale Saint-Denis has a beautiful rose window.



Rose (Rayonnant) looks like staring into a Kaleidoscope.

 

[Otterly]

Basilique Cathédrale Saint-Denis has a beautiful rose window.

The French cathedrals and their use of stained glass and light are just transcendental.
I have never been to Sainte-Chapelle but I would like to

 

[Ventrue]

The French cathedrals and their use of stained glass and light are just transcendental.
I have never been to Sainte-Chapelle but I would like to
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Absolutely, it's quite the experience. How I feel about being inside a cathedral is the same as I would if I was in an art museum.

I love gothic architecture. When I travel I would always look for old cathedrals to visit.

One of them was Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, which has the largest rose window in the United States and it is the third largest rose window in the world.

Spoiler: Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Outside:


Inside:





The Portal of Paradise



It was added by British sculptor Simon Verity between the years 1988 to 1997. The apocalyptic pillars ascribe the same tragic fate to New York as that of Babylon, illustrating the End of Days.

 

[KebabShopSauce]

Loving this thread. Humbly extending a favourite of mine, Basilique Sainte-Thérèse de Lisieux in France. Actually a rare example of new construction (it's a little under 75 years old) and has stunning decorated ceilings.

Spoiler: Photos

 

[Abbadon's Gate]

I like the Rose. It goes full circle. Much like poetry, it rhymes.

 

[Cherry Milk]

Bath Abbey is one of my favourite places to spend an hour or two. It's an absolutely gorgeous building.

I can't share images at the moment as I'm at work, but, give it a Google.

 

[Otterly]

One that’s hard to get into because it’s a private venue now, is the Mansfield Tranquair in Edinburgh. It’s covered in paintings by Phoebe Ann Traquair.
But if you have a spare 60k to drop on holding a wedding there (lol) it’s lovely.

They do open a couple of days a month for public visits, and it’s worth it. Seeing it all lot by candles in an evening is gorgeous. I’ve been to a wedding here and it was a really nice venue.

 

[LovisXVI]

Windows are fine and all, but you can't really appreciate a good stone building without recognizing the skill of the fundamentals, the literal bricks it is made of.

Show me some better-looking dryset ashlars, I bet you can't!

 

[AMHOLIO]

Finally, autism weaponized for good.

 

[SparklyFetuses]

The French cathedrals and their use of stained glass and light are just transcendental.
I have never been to Sainte-Chapelle but I would like to
Ver archivo adjunto 8895866

As someone who visited Paris before, I would suggest to buy the tickets earlier and have a lot of patience because of the long ass line of tourists (same thing about other touristic places* in Paris, but the Museum of Louvre's Mona Lisa's area was almost full). But the wait will be worth it.
That, and an umbrella if you visit there during certain months like May, June, October and December because of the rainfalls.

And speaking of stained glass, IIRC Seville's cathedral offers different kinds of tours, one of them about its stained glass windows

*= EDIT: Forgot to add that you might have to bring a backup SD card; mine got fucked while I was visiting the Dôme des Invalides (shortly after seeing Napoleon's tomb) and I lost almost all the pics I took there.

 

[femboy fart huffer]

From what I have learnt over the past day since the brit news stone talk. My favourites are ones with lots of little corners and where there are several differently angled slopes in the same block of stone and that need to be undercut.

 

[Perfect Day]

The French cathedrals and their use of stained glass and light are just transcendental.
I have never been to Sainte-Chapelle but I would like to
Ver archivo adjunto 8895866

I was about to post the Conciergerie St Chappelle as well. Bonus pictures

 

[Commander Suzdal]

The French cathedrals and their use of stained glass and light are just transcendental.
I have never been to Sainte-Chapelle but I would like to
Ver archivo adjunto 8895866

Sainte-Chapelle is spectacular. Amazing to think that this was built in the 1200s. Inside, the whole building seems to glow from the size of the stained-glass panels. It is an amazing piece of architecture.

 

[Overly Serious]

Bit of a block of replies because I finished work and can finally do this, but here goes:

Oriel is the superior option for a standalone window.

They're certainly beautiful and one of the most ornate styles. I am glad to see at least a few people voted Tudor alongside me. I personally feel the Oriel is a little shadowed on the inside. They look best from the exterior. And I feel one of the best things about a church or cathedral window is the effect from within when all that light shines through, creating the coloured warmth inside. That's one reason I went for Tudor - the width makes it very suitable for this effect within. I'm not surprised to see the Decorative Gothic get some votes but I am surprised to see it have such a strong lead over everything else. Perhaps one of the Decorated Gothic gang can explain to me what makes it so superior.

None of this is a rebuttal of your love of the Oriel, btw. It's just a good leaping off point for my own views. I'm kind of surprised Anglo Saxon even got two votes. I guess it has a rough and solid charm to it, though. Or else some people are just really proud of their heritage and hate the French.

Perpendicular bros line up.

I see what you did there.

Isn’t it gorgeous? I’m afraid this is a thread I am going to sperg on for a while…
I will save the miserichords for later, but let’s do some STONEWORK!
I give you the scissor arches at wells cathedral; made in the 1300s as an engineering response to the whole place being about to collapse:
Ver archivo adjunto 8895798
Medieval engineers - all working with the tools and techniques or rhe era, stabilised goodness knows how many tonnes of building and in a way that’s so beautiful and still there today
Onwards! To Roslin/Rosslyn chapel, a favourite haunt of mine. An actual functional beehive carved into the roof. The apprentice pillar:
Ver archivo adjunto 8895800
And the whole place is like a big puzzle/meme/riddle in stone. There’s a series of stone blocks called the Rossltn motet tha some think are a musical score, but which definitely seem to be a code of some kind:
Ver archivo adjunto 8895809
And during modern restorations, people with great skill, who thankfully still exist, pit their own little jokes in: here’s the xenomorph gargoyle (o think it’s a gargoyle, correct me if it’s a grotesque) at paisley abbey

Ver archivo adjunto 8895814

Those are all great. Really beautiful. I would love to see Rosslyn chapel myself. But functional beehive? Bees in the cathedral? THERE ARE BEES IN THE CATHEDRAL!

Loving this thread. Humbly extending a favourite of mine, Basilique Sainte-Thérèse de Lisieux in France. Actually a rare example of new construction (it's a little under 75 years old) and has stunning decorated ceilings.

Spoiler: Photos

Ver archivo adjunto 8896139Ver archivo adjunto 8896140

WOW! I was not familiar with that. That is gorgeous. Another I would love to visit. I was saying to someone only the other day that it pains me that with all the progress in materials science, wealth and construction technology, the buildings we make today are so much uglier than many in the past. I don't even mean that they have to ape old styles. I just wish that people still cared about beauty. Well, actually people do. It's the people in charge who hate it.

Anecdote but there was a study done showing various modernist buildings to people and they were predominantly disliked by every selection group except one - architecture students. And the worst thing, it happened progressively, is that iirc, it was the older architecture students and graduates who most liked the Brutalist and similar buildings. Universities are literally teaching people to hate beauty.

Again, I'm not even saying this because I think things have to be some past and Western style. I think the Oblisco Capitale in Egypt will look beautiful if it's built as planned, even competitive middle-finger to the Burj Khalifa that it is. But we have so many more tools and wealth and knowledge at our disposal today than the people building these churches and cathedrals did and yet we rarely make anything that approaches them. One is tempted to wonder if it's the inspiration of the divine that we have lost.

One that’s hard to get into because it’s a private venue now, is the Mansfield Tranquair in Edinburgh. It’s covered in paintings by Phoebe Ann Traquair.
But if you have a spare 60k to drop on holding a wedding there (lol) it’s lovely.
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They do open a couple of days a month for public visits, and it’s worth it. Seeing it all lot by candles in an evening is gorgeous. I’ve been to a wedding here and it was a really nice venue.

Windows are fine and all, but you can't really appreciate a good stone building without recognizing the skill of the fundamentals, the literal bricks it is made of.
Ver archivo adjunto 8897246
Show me some better-looking dryset ashlars, I bet you can't!

I'm not taking that bet. That is impeccable stonework. I can only imagine how long and with what care the stonemasons worked on that!