Goths, Gargoyles, and God: The Building of Europe’s Magnificent Cathedrals, 1000 AD to 1500 AD, presented by Dr. Richard Benfield

In 1000 A.D., European churches were small, thick-walled, dark, and dreary. Under 200 years later, they were breathtaking architectural wonders, rising more than 200 feet and lit by stained glass windows the size of tennis courts. In an illustrated tour from the first Gothic Cathedral in St. Denis, Paris, to the glorious cathedrals of Ely, Durham, Chartres, and, Monet’s favorite, Rouen, Dr. Benfield will explain what happened to make this frenzy of church building so possible, so marked, and so spectacular.

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