Goths, Gargoyles, & God: Building the Magnificent Cathedrals of Europe

At the turn of the 1000 AD millennium in Europe, churches were small, dark, thick-walled, and dingy. Less than two hundred years later,​ churches were large, spectacular architectural wonders, rising over two hundred feet in the nave, airy and lit by glorious colored glass windows the size of tennis courts. Today, a thousand years later, these glorious medieval cathedrals and churches soar above the European cities for which they are the center of the community and the focus of tourism, architectural renown, and Christian worship.

What happened to make this frenzy of church building so marked and spectacular? Dr. Richard Benfield, Professor Emeritus of Geography, Central Connecticut State University, will show attendees the early antecedents of medieval church building. Join us to travel to Great Britain and France to examine how these churches were built to such grandeur, see the finest examples of these Cathedrals in Wells, Salisbury and Gloucester in England and in France, Paris, Amiens, Rouen and Chartres (and even look at one that collapsed!). We will conclude with a revelation of a Catholic Church secret, hidden in plain sight for one thousand years, but that has governed church life for two thousand years!