Ely Cathedral and the man who died twice
Back in the summer, I visited a city called Ely in England. Cities aren't necessarily big busy places in England, they could be small towns like Ely. That's because any location that has a cathedral, has a city status in England. Ely is England's smallest city after Wells, and Ely Cathedral is synonymous with Ely, a must see for anyone visiting.
Ely Cathedral started off as a monastery in 673 and like all English religious buildings, parts were built and added on over the years. The current structure (not all of it) was built in 1083 and continued for the next few centuries. The architecture of the Cathedral is amazing, but I won't go walk you through the details as I'll just be repeating what's said on the internet. If you're interested to find out more, you can check out the official website. What I want to do is to show you inside, and my experience of the visit.
The Nave
The first thing I saw as I entered the cathedral was the nave that extended into the heart of the building. At 75m long, it's one of the longest naves in Britain. It is flanked by Norman arches on both sides, an incredible feat given that it was built in the 11th century, nearly a thousand years ago, and still standing!!! By comparison, the ceiling is relatively new. The ten panel painting were installed in the 19th century the depicts the story of Jesus. When there are so many amazing features to admire in the cathedral, I think the ceiling may be neglected by many as it's so high up and is quite difficult to see clearly. You could end up with a pain in the neck very quick, and I mean literally.
Octagon Tower
There is one overhead feature that is THE focal point of the cathedral. That is the Octagon Tower, ie the central tower of the cathedral and is located beyond the end of the nave. The Octagon Tower was built when the previous central tower collapsed in 1322. This is what it looks like from the ground up, and I'm sure you will agree with me, it is absolutely breathtaking.
Hailed as one of the wonders of the medieval world, the Octagon Tower is 23 meters wide and 43 meters tall. The sides are supported by stone pillars, but the vault is made of wood covered in lead. Bearing in mind, this was built 700 hundred years ago, the people didn't have the technology or even tools we have today, this was by no means an easy feat. Plus they installed the beautiful stain glass windows, adorned it with lead decor and hand painted the Risen Christ in the center. Even for me who is not religious at all, I was just in awe of this incredible piece of engineering and art work combined in one.
Here's another view of the Octogon Tower from the back end of the cathedral. This is the Choir, you can see the organ on the right.
And here you can see how tall the tower is compared to us human beings. It was quite difficult to get an good image of us beneath the Octogon Tower, and to show how majestic the stone structure is, but we got there in the end.
Lady Chapel
Towards the left back of the cathedral is the Lady Chapel. This was built is 1349 in gothic style and is dedicated to Virgin Mary. Apparently it was a popular thing during those times to have a chapel dedicated to Jesus's mother. Ely Cathedral not only built one, they also built the largest in the whole country.
Despite what the leaflets etc said about this chapel, it didn't feel that special to me. I mean it had the same majestic and peaceful feel, but I was wondering what was so remarkable about it. It turns out that when it was first built, it had beautiful stained glass windows, marble pillars, and over 100 carved sculptures of Virgin Mary. All this was destroyed during the Reformation in the mid 16th century. No wonder that Lady Chapel had a sense of allure lingering in the air.
Gaia
You may have noticed a massive globe in the nave when I entered the cathedral. During my visit to Ely Cathedral, I was fortunate enough to see the planet Earth installation. This is a 7m massive globe suspended from the ceiling and is created using images taken by NASA. This earth is 1.8 million times smaller than the real earth and the idea is that the artwork may provide the viewer with a new perspective of our place on the planet. Apparently, if you stand 211m away from it, it will look like you are seeing it from the moon. I didn't know that until I wrote this post, but luckily it's touring around the world, and I think I shall be able to see it again soon. Here's the touring schedule if you're interested, it might be coming to your city one day
OLIVER CROMWELL
Apart from the cathedral, Ely has a famous resident, a guy called Oliver Cromwell who lived in the city from 1636 to 1646. This is his house behind me and it is now a museum. So what is Oliver Cromwell famous for?
UK has a royal family that is pretty famous around the world. I think they are one of the, if not the most famous royal families around the world. The British royal family have been ruling for centuries - apart from 11 years in between 1649 - 1660.
Cromwell was born in 1599, and he was a parliamentarian, a fancy word for someone who believes a country should be ruled by a parliament. The King at the time, Charles I, was a dictator. He believed the King was chosen by God, and had absolute power to rule the country. To defy the king was to defy God.
In 1649, the Royalist lost one of the bloodiest battle in English history, and Charles I was executed. Cromwell was one of the people who signed his death warrant. The monarchy was abolished, England became a republican and Cromwell became the Lord Protector of England, a role that was like a king in every aspect but name. When Cromwell died of natural causes in 1658, the Royalist regained power and Charles II, son of Charles I regained the throne in 1660.
One of the first thing that Charles II did when he became King was to dig up Cromwell's body that was buried at Westminster Abbey in London. He and hung and executed Cromwell's corpse. Yup, that's how much Charles II hated Cromwell for killing his father. I'm gonna kill you even though you're dead!!
So, Cromwell was famous for two things. One, for the only person to rule England as a republican, and two for dying twice. Which do you think makes him more famous?
Hope you like my tour of Ely, see you next time!
You can checkout all my travel post on the Pinmapple here or click on Mr Pinmapple below
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The cathedral is stunning!! Loved especially the octagon tower looking it from the ground up. Haha, when I read the part of the title where you said: ...and the man who died twice, I thought it will be a misterious story connected to the history of the cathedral :))
My click bait worked!!! 😆
It did 😅
wow, this is an amazing place. Looking at the globe at the entrance of the Naive feels like you are above the earth. The exterior and interior design is interesting. the details and designs tell the hard work given by the people to this project. This is amazing.
Our predecessor built some pretty amazing buildings back in those and fortunately for us we are the beneficiaries today
What a beautiful Cathedral! And it's interesting to see the glowing earth inside, looks surreal.
It was absolutely mesmerizing inside, and very unique to see the world inside the old cathedral, definitely a great experience
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Wow. That is amazing. That's probably the most impressive church I've ever seen, and at this point I've seen a lot of impressive churches. The choir photo is incredible, well done on that one. The globe installation, "Gaia," that's so cool as well. Its a really interesting piece of art and in a way it really goes well inside a church. Very cool post.
Thanks @leaky20. I really enjoy visiting religious buildings despite not being religious at all. And I was lucky to be there for Gaia, timing couldn't have been more perfect
I agree and same for me. The architecture is so amazing. It's neat to imagine the buildings at the time that they were built too. They were often the tallest and obviously grandest buildings in the city, unless there was a king and castle in town. But they must have been 10 times or more larger than any other building in the area back then. It must have been impressive at a time when skyscrapers didn't exist.
The cathedral is extraordinary and the interior is marvellous.
From the outside it gives you a hint of what's to come inside, but I loved the spaciousness and the brilliantly crafted stained glass windows.
Thank you very much for sharing @livinguktaiwan , I think I'm looking forward to travelling to so many places thanks to this community that I would have to ask for a sabbatical year.😅
Best Regards and have great week :)
Absolutely true, we get to see so many great travel posts here that inspires us want to go to see all of the places. Thanks for dropping by!
Lol dying twice now this was interesting, there are no limits for human ego and anger , especially in politics. I loved the architecture, it is stunning. I can't imagine how a building can stand so well after so many years....it amazes me
Imagine holding that rage for so many years, I wonder how Charles II felt afterwards 🤔
We're really spoilt in UK with these magnificent ancient structures, I feel lucky often
Rage and anger is never good. I watched just the other day a video with inspirational quotes. One of them said: if you plan revenge you better dig two graves....
I am amazed by early architecture. There were no computers and no programs. And somehow these magnificent buildings came alive.
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Astonishing piece of ancient architecture, you took some very impressive shots of it. Cannot believe this "city" is only home to 20,000 people. With such an epic architectural landmark to be found there, I would expect the city to be much bigger... I guess it only illustrates how abundant these magnificent medieval cathedrals in the UK actually are :)
City had a different meaning in those days, a place was deemed pretty important if they had a cathedral, hence we do have quite a lot of them in England. As time went by, many of these places didn't develop and remained quaint little towns with an important past. Good for us today!!
Good old England ... Very beautiful and interesting. Thanks!
Impressive, I wish I could lay down on a skateboard to see the whole ceiling and go rolling without hurting my neck hahaha
Thank goodness health and safety laws never existed back then, otherwise structures like this simply wouldn’t be 🤪
Unbelievable to hear it was built in the 11th century! Well some of it at least. Nonetheless it’s mind blowing.
Great post and thoroughly enjoyed, thank you @livinguktaiwan
beautiful place, impressive architecture
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I have to say that I LOVE photos! Those Cathedrals and Chapels are so stunning! 😍😍
Thanks! There's something about cathedral and churches that are very comforting even for non religious people I think
Spectacular images of Ely Cathedral! I'm simply mesmerized by the visual angles and perspectives you have portrayed with your photos of that building's interior architecture. That globe looks surreal and appears like a massive orb hovering in space. Breathtaking!
Wow this is amazing. I am going to put it on my places to visit list when I go to England. Such a amazing architecture! Interesting story about Cromwell too.
Its incredible to think that even in medieval times we had systems of governance and and law and the means to operate them. I know a lot about Oliver Cromwell through the history of Pontefract Castle and it boggles the mind to think about methods of communication and logistics all those years ago.
Lovely pictures and great history lesson!
As a Christian I was stunned by this post. I have never even heard of this masterpiece cathedral. Thank you for doing a wonderful job showing it to us. We just don't see this kind of beauty in the US. I'm really at a loss for words of how magnificent it is.
It's probably down to history as US isn't that old by comparison, I think anything that is a couple of hundred years old is considered old by US standards? Whereas here, they're considered young. We have a lot of these really old cathedrals and churches all over the county, so we're pretty lucky I guess