cathedral

cathedral (Gk. kathedra, ‘throne’ or ‘seat’) Main church of a bishop's province, the church containing his throne. In the Romanesque period, cathedrals started to become very large and many Gothic cathedrals are gigantic structures. The prototype of the true Gothic cathedral is the Abbey Church of St.Denis near Paris. Suger, the abbot, enlarged the existing Romanesque building in the 12th century, adding a chapel and pointed groin vault. Bigger windows and slender arches gave it a sense of lightness very different from the static solidity of the Romanesque. Among the most remarkable of the great cathedrals of western Europe that followed are Notre-Dame, Paris (begun 1163), and Chartres (begun 1194) in France, Cologne Cathedral in Germany, and Milan Cathedral (begun 1386) in Italy. Some of the finest English examples, such as Canterbury and York, combine Romanesque and Gothic features. St Mark's, Venice, is a magnificent Byzantine example. Central and Eastern European cathedrals often amalgamate Byzantine and western features, while many Spanish cathedrals combine Romanesque, French, German and Moorish features. In Latin America, cathedrals are often of Portuguese or Spanish Renaissance and Baroque origin. The Episcopal Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York is the world's largest Gothic cathedral. See also Byzantine art and architecture; Gothic art and architecture