Cathedral
Topic: Medieval Europe: Feudalism and the Three Orders · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 4 "The Three Orders"
Meaning
A cathedral was a large stone church. In France, cathedrals were built from the twelfth century. Rich merchants paid for many of them. Whole communities helped by giving labour, building materials or money. Cathedrals took many years to build. They were designed so that the priest's voice and the monks' singing carried well, and they had stained-glass windows that told Bible stories to people who could not read. Pilgrims came to visit them, and towns grew up around them, called cathedral-towns.
Example
Abbot Suger (1081–1151) of St Denis in France described how he enlarged his church and filled it with stained glass.
Don't confuse with
- Parish church: a small village church under one priest. A cathedral was a large church that drew pilgrims and helped a whole town grow around it.