As previously mentioned, this continues our travel journal for Wednesday March 11 when we took a short train ride from Cambridge to Ely to visit the cathedral. These photos are numerous and are from the inside of Ely Cathedral.
The entrance was through those amazing doors!
Ely Cathedral has origins dating back to AD 673 when St Etheldreda built an Abbey Church. The present building dates back to 1083, and was granted Cathedral status in 1109.
Installed as part of the Victorian restoration, the incredible Nave Ceiling was the work of two artists.
Henry Styleman Le Strange painted the first six panels (counting from the west), and Thomas Gambier Parry painted the last six – you can observe a change of style between the sixth and seventh panels.
The ceiling tells the story of the ancestry of Jesus, beginning with Adam (panel 1) and continuing through Abraham (panel 4), David (panel 8) and Mary (panels 9 and 10).
It is almost impossible not to look up when you visit a cathedral. I liked this ceiling section with all the angels looking down. Reminded me of 1 Peter 1:12
“It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”
Looking into the Quire.
These ornate organ pipes were fascinating to me.
The jewel of Ely’s Crown and acknowledged as one of the wonders of the Medieval world is the Octagan.
You can read more about the Octagon here.
That is not a missing panel but a door opening.
Our guide gave us important details about this doorway and I found more information here. They call this the Prior’s door (c.1135). A Romanesque carved doorway.
The Christ figure is contained within a mandorla – an almond shape traditionally used to frame images of the transcendent. Here Christ’s feet cross the boundary of the mandorla, stepping towards mankind.
Two human heads with pronounced eyes just below the tympanum watch those passing through the door into the church and symbolically entering heaven.
From the link; Like the rest of the building, the deeply carved doorway is sculpted in extremely hard Barnack limestone. It has a tympanum – a half-moon shape at the top – which would originally have been brightly painted. It shows an unusual clean-shaven Christ sitting in judgement on the peoples of the earth. One hand is raised in blessing, the other holds the Book of Judgement from Revelation.
Processional Way (below) was built to join the Cathedral and the Lady Chapel.
We were now entering the Lady Chapel, the largest Lady Chapel attached to any British Cathedral. I copied the following from Ely Cathedral’s Website.
The thirteenth and fourteenth centuries saw the rise of the cult of the Virgin Mary, and chapels in her honour were added to many churches and cathedrals, including Ely.
All this was destroyed in the sixteenth century during the Reformation, which, in keeping with Puritan convictions, rejected all forms of religious decoration. The scars of this deformation are highly visible today. Traces of coloured paint can still be seen, and fragments of the glass survive in the central window on the south side. The exquisite figures in the lower niches have been defaced and above are the empty pedestals where the statues stood.
Walking back into the main sections of the Cathedral.
This narrow spiraling stone staircase leads to the organ. Hopefully the organist was slim.
The Quire
So much history and so much to see and take in. I’ve shared enough or maybe too much here today and it would take a few more visits to absorb more.
This was a very long photo journal of the interior of Ely Cathedral. I will save the stained glass museum housed in an upper section of the cathedral for another day.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 