@drjacameron.stainedglassattitudes.com
Freelance art and architectural historian with focus on English medieval churches but love poking around all buildings. www.stainedglassattitudes.com https://ko-fi.com/stainedglassattitudes
4 million is an insane amount of any currency in 1799. Even 4 million pennies in England then (Β£16,666 13s 4d?) could buy a bunch of manors and all their rents etc outright
Really interesting article that treads every nuance into disposal of the Bruges Cathedral site, but the purchase by meester-timmerman (lit. master carpenter, essentially city contractor) Dominique Maeyens for 4 M francs: that's hyperinflated fiat currency I assume??
www.dbnl.org/tekst/_bie00...
it is far, far from the most important thing, but it is still an important thing. An article that came out earlier this month
theconversation.com/gazas-cultur...
![The Great Omari Mosque [JΔmaΚΏ al-ΚΏUmarΔ« al-KabΔ«r] looking E from over the W porch. From this view only outer walls are standing, along with the main column of the 14thc Mamluk Sultanate-era minaret above its substructure replacing the Crusader-era apse. Of the interior one pier of the outer S aisle survives (leading to the mihrab at the end of the added aisle), but otherwise it's full of rubble and bits of thin sheet roof covering.
Taken by Jehad Alshrafi, 12 Feb 2025](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4dgydito7sq5a5vzdsro3ve4/bafkreibqhyvswtbdhsyamk63vuleslj4gygv2cn22t26xyitj74oenam4a@jpeg)
The Great Omari Mosque [JΔmaΚΏ al-ΚΏUmarΔ« al-KabΔ«r] looking E from over the W porch. From this view only outer walls are standing, along with the main column of the 14thc Mamluk Sultanate-era minaret above its substructure replacing the Crusader-era apse. Of the interior one pier of the outer S aisle survives (leading to the mihrab at the end of the added aisle), but otherwise it's full of rubble and bits of thin sheet roof covering. Taken by Jehad Alshrafi, 12 Feb 2025
Looking at my Crusader States Cathedrals I wrote in 2022 to link to a Holy Land diocese, and saw my Gaza entry still linked to a Twitter thread(!) to update on its near-destruction in Dec 2023. So I redid it with a few images.
stainedglassattitudes.wordpress.com/2022/01/25/s...
Oldhovetoren from east, undergoing survey work before the major restoration of 1910-3. Photographer: A.J. van der Wal. Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed
Photograph of Oldtoren from east dated October 2009. Wikimedia Commons/Flickr - larsjuh
although its wonkiness pales in comparison to the Oldehovetoren at Leeuwarden built 1529-32, intended to be the west tower of the long-demolished church of St Vitus, which has been through at least three major interventions in the twentieth century.
See if you can spot the differences 1906x2009!
View of the map showing all monasteries in the territory of the modern Netherlands in 1310. Notice you can change the language to English top right.
This kloosterkaart (monastery map, it alliterates in both Dutch and English!) for the Netherlands is fascinating (even if there aren't a lot of visible remains) and certainly very well done. Works on a time slider (e.g. watch all the Templars disappear in 1312)
geoplaza.vu.nl/projects/klo...
oh that's where I understand the terminology from: York's an incredible achievement. Meaning to post about it for years (it's complicated) but I got to explain it in person last year to a big tour group and I think I did well because a tourist who eavesdropped complimented me on it later.
two plans of the tower at different stories showing plumbed deviations from the vertical. Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed BT-007433
April 1933 plumbing report with two sections showing deviations from the vertical, if you're interested. and maybe wish to explain it to me. I mean I think I get the gist, but am afraid to make any assumptions. Because it is in Dutch.
Photograph of the N side of the tower with workman looking up at cast concrete collar. It goes up to the height of the stone plinth. There is also a transverse bracing arch in the centre. Photo undated but 1937-46 Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed
G-maps streetview of the W front dated July 2025.
View of the N side w the cast concrete collar on. You can just about see the long bits of red stone that mark the bottom of the brick facing on the L (under the two downpipes today)
The Martinitoren W front with the sandstone plinth removed. You can see some rebar on the left and a frame inside the central arch. Photo undated but 1937-46 Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed
G-maps streetview of the W front dated Sept 2017. The sculptures occupying the niches in the former window are the blind bard Bernlef, St Martin of Tours and humanist scholar Rudolf Agricola). There is a bus stop directly W of the church now.
A picture with the facing of the west front plinth sandstone facing off showing the brick underneath. The window was also removed for a new sculptural ensemble of figures from Groningen's history.
Photograph dated Nov 1937 showing the dug-out footings of the Martinitoren, of stepped spread footings of brick courses, with three serious spreading cracks. Some upright piles have been placed outside. Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed
View looking across the W front, obliquely at the NW corner, showing a collar of rebar building around the base of the tower Photo undated but 1937-46 Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed
The mostly-grey sandstone faced Martinitoren of the otherwise brick-faced Martinikerk, Groningen, from the SW from the marketplace, photographed in September 2006. Wikicommons: Ra-smit
Fascinating photographic record of the rescuing the leaning Martinitoren of Groningen, 1933-46. Seems they cast a steel reinforced concrete collar around the cracking foundations and underneath the sandstone facing of the 78-metre masonry tower, which had been built 1468-81.
Heckington church from NE. The chancel was built by rector Richard de Potesgrave, chaplain to Kings Edward I-II, with co-sponsoring from the lords of the manor, the Beaumonts.
Heckington chancel looking E. notice the kite-like units between the three subarcuations and how they aren't quite as wonky as Hawton. Also the major oculus is more successful in its design as well as the reverse curves against the jambs.
this is the best I could do from SE angle. i tried, I really tried.
Heckington, a building job from about a decade previous that Hawton is basically a small-scale replica of is also impossible to get a direct shot of the (much more successful) 7-lighter E window. but yeah, despite being more than twice the size it stays up a lot better
Hawton chancel from SE. The chancel is of good quality joined ashlar while the nave and aisles is coursed rubble. The S aisle E window is an ogival reticulated window related to the chancel build, while the S chancel windows are three-lighters of encircled quatrefoils with an quatrefoil with an ogival top in the head.
Interior view, looking E. Exposure compromise between the window and interior. The interior suite of mural furnishings (sedilia, Sacrament Shrine/Tomb of Christ, tomb niche most likely commissioned by John de Swine, rector of the church 1331-44, canon of Beverley from 1343.
View from NE, showing rubble walling where the sacristy attached. Another 2nd quarter 14thc flowing window at the end of the aisle, semi-reticulated with units of two opposite mouchettes over the lights, with a quatrefoil with ogival top and bottom in the head.
That photo is a un-foreshortened fix from underneath the window. it's impossible to get a shot of it dead-on from the east but here are some other angles (I actually used my own ladder for the first, SE angle)
Hawton, Notts, E window tracery, late 1330s or early 40s. It has three subarcuations below, but unlike the Lincs Heckington school is it is based off, the central subarcuation has three lights while the outer subarcuations have two (Lincs school windows are six-lighters with an equal unit in the middle). this makes the reverse curves of the two kite-like units divided into four converging soufflets uneven which has probably led to the misalignment of the tracery.
the obvious slips in the alignment between masonry units circled
thinking about 2nd quarter 14thc flowing tracery today and recalling how incredibly out of whack Hawton, Nottinghamshire is. the rather ambitious and little bit wayward east window tracery seems to have slipped within the arch to the north
view of my Bsky account in "British academic historians" between "Ukraine Support & NAFO Community" and "British Left Wing Politics" via https://bluesky-map.theo.io/
has this thing been milkshake-ducked yet? well here I am in the outer rim under the squashed-dog people
E end of Newcastle Cathedral. Basically last quarter or so 14thc? E window is essentially Perp but with Dec elements, especially the radiating soufflets in the second tier of the subarcuations. The aisle windows are identical set in low segmental arches, look a bit dodgy really. oh... i need to read up about this boring ass church
The biggest chancel (33.5 m) is Newcastle, St Nicolas (now the cathedral), fully aisled. But one does wonder if they had a Lady chapel at the end under a full-height roof like York and really the category of chancel doesn't quite work for the whole thing. But man, it's such a boring building
Boston church from SE, showing the chancel, begun 1309, extended by two bays in the 15thc. E window by G.G. Place, 1851- I measured it internally as 24.55 m
Calculating volume still beyond me but I am working on it. I do hope eventually to work out volumes both with and without towers above the nave roof plate. Boston is interesting as while the nave is massive, the chancel is beaten in length by 7 other buildings, and it's got no flanking chapels
3D models of large English parish churches ranked by area with measuring platform at the end. here they are: Great Yarmouth Manchester Boston Hull Coventry, St Michael Newcastle Cirencester Grantham Bristol, St Mary Redcliffe Newark Warwick Bury St Edmunds, St Mary Beverley, St Mary Faversham Coventry, Holy Trinity Nantwich Luton Winchelsea (including archaeology of site of nave and SW tower) Rye Ashbourne Shrewsbury, St Mary Bakewell Eccleshall Leicester, St Mary de Castro Tideswell Dronfield
bulked out my big parish church collection with bunch of newcomers today, and also found good solution how to calculate their areas: making a top-down orthographic shot, select by alpha, and counting pixels in a histogram.
Turns out Great Yarmouth is the biggest by that metric: surprise surprise
was only nominated archbishop a couple of weeks ago too. off to a great start accepting a guy who I saw screenshotted posting some holocaust denial the other day
Since in G-Earth the tower is covered in scaffolding and pretty useless for illustrating the W tower, but I uploaded a comp of Utrecht the other day, that also shows the plan of the nave, which collapsed in a tremendously powerful storm in 1674.
skfb.ly/pGn8H
still. cool pic. he's what you can see through his legs
Best view I can get. Notice the clustered spirelets around the top of the newel stair. The finial in the background is one of those that pierces through the balustrades.
alas like so many high-level work photos, this one is a bit of a cheat. he is not on the high roof of the church, he's on the top of the W tower, where the public can climb today, and he's got his foot on the stair turret on the SW corner so he can shoot over the balustrade. He can't fall anywhere.
A man in a long overcoat holding a mid-century Rolleiflex camera, with motorised winder and film magazine, has one foot in a leaded gutter, rests his foot on a spirelet with a pinnacle behind him while the city of Utrecht stretches away far below to the east behind him. Taken by press agency 't Sticht and titled "Een onzer fotografen aan 't werk op 't nokje van de Dom" ("One of our photographers at work on the ridge of the Cathedral") De Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, OF-05812
dudes rock
So following the proportions of Aachen Dom, here's the massing of the long-lost Carolingian rotunda of the Burges Burg, destroyed 1184 and replaced with a standard Romanesque basilica. It is basically marked out on the pavement today (the successor church isn't)
(trees off)
Collection of centrally-planned churches in Belgium following Aachen (in French Aix-la-Chapelle). Aachen, Liège Groningen, Brugge (Bruges - Sint-Donaaskerk, demolished for a basilican nave c.1184) Ottmarsheim, Nijmegen, Muizen From J. Mertens, "Quelques édifices religieux à plan central découvertes récemment en Belgique" Genava: revue d'histoire de l'art et d'archéologie, 1963
yes, there is also a 10thc emulation of the Palatine Chapel of Aachen excavated under the square pavement, in which Count Charles "the Good" was murdered 2 March 1127 by knights acting on behalf of the embittered Erembald family he was feuding with.
i may also have a crack at rebuilding this
screenshot of page translated from Dutch to English. Three men in suits standing in front of wall core (not sure what it is, I'm trying to understand the ruins with very limited info). Text translated: "From now on, you will only discover these βhidden pearlβ in Bruges with a recognized guide: βSome visitors even stole stones from the wallβ From now on, you can only visit the ruins of the St. Donaas Church in Bruges, under the Crowne Plaza hotel on the Burg, with one of the three recognized guide associations. Until recently, interested parties walked into and outside the hotel to discover this hidden pearl. βBut things were really going well, says hotel manager Lucas Bakx. Bart Huysentruyt 20-04-23, 18:28 Last update: 4/20/23, 6:42 PM"
seems you used to be able to just go to the new-build hotel and see the remains of the both the Carolingian rotunda and cathedral E arm from the 1955-6 and 1987-9 excavations respectively, but they cracked down on it and you can only go in with official city guides. boo
archive.md/yxebZ
View of the Grote Markt with the Burg in the background, here I have the trees of Burg Square and the Crowne Plaza Hotel turned on, and the massing of the Sint-Donaaskerk is transparent
Early 20thc postcard. same angle. you can see an electric tram and horse-drawn carriages
over the east arm of the former Cathedral is now the Crowne Plaza Hotel, built 1991-2. Not really sure what was there before. Not much comparing to this early 20thc postcard?
View with Sint-Donaaskerk bottom left, Belfort and Grote Mark middle, top the Church of Our Lady (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk) and right the current cathedral of St Salvator - the tower was heightened in the 1840s and 70s
Sint-Donaaskerk (Cathedral) from N in 1641 (nave, L; Romanesque east arm, R), 18thc hand-coloured print
does seem tbh it wasn't that big even compared to the other churches in Bruges, including the current church that serves as cathedral, St Salvator, since the diocese was revived in 1834.
Ripped G-Earth geometry of Bruges, showing the Belfort (R) and the Burg (former fortified castle of the Counts of Flanders) (L) with the lost church of St Donatian blocked out (Cathedral from 1599 to 1801 - the last bishop was 1794 and it seems even though the church was gone Bruges diocese wasn't abolished under the Napoleonic reforms until 1801)
View of the Burg and Grote Markt, print after an isometric map made 1561 by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder.
took me ages but finally got a plan of the archaeology of the Burg in Bruges to find the exact spot of the Sint-Donaaskerk, raised to a cathedral in 1559 and demolished for materials 1799-1800.
Now I've got a bit ambitious and have tried to rebuild it
View of the North-West Midlands with G-Earth's 3D imagery indicator level on. the new stuff is basically filling in a gap between Manchester and Birmingham, centred in Ashbourne. Shrewsbury off to the west is also mostly new today.
Huge drop of new G-Earth 3D in the UK today... basically the Peak District, and Shrewsbury (the latter not surprising since there's been a sliver over the hospital area for a while, but very welcome)
However, the "Lichfield gap" looks more ridiculous than ever now. c'mon! really??
