How Medieval Builders Made Churches That Last 1,000 Years Modern Architects Could Never Replicate

From Medieval Way

Spring, 1220. In a water meadow south of Old Sarum, in the county of Wiltshire, a bishop named Richard Poore kneels in the wet grass and lays a single block of limestone into a shallow trench. The trench is barely 4 feet (1.2 meters) deep. The ground under it is saturated gravel and chalk sitting directly on the water table. Every experienced mason for miles around tells him the same thing — this is not ground you build a cathedral on. On 28 April 1220, Richard Poore does it anyway. The cathedral he starts that morning is still standing today. Salisbury Cathedral has not shifted in 806 years. Its central tower and spire, added a century later, rise 404 feet (123 meters) into the sky and weigh thousands of tons more than the original foundation was ever meant to carry. And Salisbury is not the only one. Durham Cathedral has stood since 1093. Winchester Cathedral held its ground for 827 years on a raft of diagonally stacked beech trunks laid over peat bog. Chartres rose from its own ashes after the 1194 fire and has not been rebuilt since.