York Minster -- Exterior

York calls its cathedral the Minster (a word derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for monastery).  The largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe, the Minster dominates York's northern skyline.  Below is the recently restored west front, typically the grand entrance to a cathedral (but in York the main entrance is on the southern side to put the building at the end of the axis road which most take into the city and progress from south to north).  Hence the somewhat small double doors we see here for the west entrance.

Seventy years in the building (1280-1350), the west exterior is in the Decorated Gothic style.  (The twin towers were capped off about 120 years later)  Dead center is the "Heart of York" at the top of the massive 1338 West window which we'll discuss from the inside of the nave a little later.  Note the thin masonry that outlines the heart.  That's called bar tracery (left) and is one of the characteristics of the Decorated style along with the mullions, those thin masonry shafts that separate the lower part of the window into lancelets.  Also note the two lower windows on each side of the large central window.  These contain the four leaved "Quatrefoil" shapes (right).

If the tracery looks good, it should.  The stonework for the entire window was replaced in 1989-90 and the original buried nearby!  The Minster supports the glaziers' trust which trains today's workers in restoration techniques for glass and mortar. 

Below is a view of the Minster poking above Bootham Bar, the west gate of the city.  The 14th century west end is about 250 feet across, making the nave inside the largest medieval hall in England.  (Typically the naves of the cathedrals would be used for secular purposes including markets and assembly areas.  For that reason, the choir would be reserved for worship and set off from the nave by gates and other elaborately decorated constructions as we shall see in a few pictures.)

Below is another view of the West end taken near the Boer War memorial.  It shows the central transept tower at right hiding behind trees, still leafless in mid March.  We're looking at the second transept tower -- the first fell down in 1407.  The "new" tower nearly collapsed itself but was saved by some spectacular engineering in the early 1970s.  More on that later.

 

Note the symmetry of York Minster's western front (above) vs. that of another great cathedral renowned (like the Minster) for its stained glass, the French icon Chartres, on the left.  This west end of Chartres was built about 200 years before York's Minster.  (I'm not sure if the towers are that old, however). To visit our Chartres pages, click here.

Today, the Minster is well integrated with the city.  During medieval times, it had its own enclosure.  Here's a view of the north side of the Minster taken from the North wall.  (Click here to see our York city walls pages.)

And finally, this photo, taken from the city walls to the south (note the Oise River bridge in the foreground) shows the three towers.  The central tower (to the left) allows visitors to climb to the top to see the city.   The front (West) towers contain 36 bells.  The left (northwest) tower was the last component added to the Minster and was completed in 1471.  This tower contains six bells (replaced to honor the Queen Mum in the year 2K, her 100th birthday) that ring out the quarter hour and the ten-ton Great Peter that produces an E flat hourly.  This tower is connected by an exterior balcony to the Southwest tower which contains manual bells used to augment the cathedral's worship program.  The ringers practice every Tuesday and perform on Sundays.   If listening to these bells appeals to you, click here.

The green scaffolding at the far right supports the refurbishing of the east end which contains the Great East Window, larger than a tennis court and arguably the finest stained glass in England.  Unfortunately, we found it unphotographable.  Maybe next trip!  Plenty of others have photographed it before the reconstruction began.  Click here for an interior picture.

Need to see more exterior shots of the Minster?  Then try this page.