The Ely Lantern
My favourite piece of architecture


The interior of the lantern at Ely cathedral

This photograph is of the interior of the lantern of Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire, England. If you were standing in the crossing (the physical centre of the cathedral) and looked upwards, this is what you would see. It's sort of an enormous skylight.

It was installed in the Medieval era. Originally the cathedral had a central stone tower over the crossing, but it fell, and the monastic community who ran the cathedral at the time couldn't afford to replace it.

They came up with this octagonal confection of glass and painted oak to fill the massive hole in the roof of the cathedral. The lantern also allows more light to enter than the original tower did.

I think it's incredibly beautiful, although photographs don't do it justice because it's partly the setting that makes it so breathtaking. It's my favourite way of getting neck strain, easily my favourite piece of architecture, and I like it even more because it's a fix for a practical problem.


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