The towers and the glory: Simon Jenkins? favourite cathedrals in Europe

Europe’s cathedrals are its wonders of the world. From Salisbury to Seville, Moscow to Palermo, Trondheim to Istanbul, they tower over its cities, masterpieces of art and architecture whose popularity increases by the generation. Even as religious worship continues to decline, attendance at cathedral services has risen by a third in 20 years.

What is it that still draws people to these places? To me the answer transcends faith. It lies in a quest for spiritual and emotional meaning that is found, quite simply, in the beauty of buildings and their decoration. The medieval imagination has an undying appeal today. Everyone should see Europe’s 100 greatest cathedrals before they die. I offer 11 easily reachable ones.

Notre Dame rivals St Peter’s in Rome among the most celebrated of Europe’s churches. When a fire broke out in its nave in April 2019, not just France but the world looked on aghast. More than just a building seemed to face obliteration. The famous site on the Île de la Cité has had a church since King Clovis founded Paris in the sixth century, but its rebuilding in 1163 rivalled Chartres in France’s transition to the new gothic style. The 35-metre nave vault was the highest ever built, and the west front was to be dubbed “the tomb of the Romanesque and the cradle of gothic”.

Today Notre Dame’s west front is so familiar people hardly notice its conservative line and formal statuary. It is a formal, rather severe facade that seems to look down at lighthearted Paris with mild disapproval. More of a riot is to be found at the east end, where a giant rose window and parade of flying buttresses are like a galleon trapped on the banks of the Seine.

The grim towers of Germany’s most magnificent cathedral rise across the North Rhine plain like warnings of impending doom. Closer to, grimness turns to awe. The west front was not completed until the 19th century and much of the exterior is thus neo-gothic. The towers are like waterfalls of black masonry.

Cologne was a site of Roman Christian worship. Its buried baptistery has been dated to the seventh century, its walls still visible in the basement car park. The present cathedral was begun in 1248 in a self-consciously French style, the choir exterior a pack of flying buttresses. Work on the cathedral followed a familiar path, starting at the east end and working west, but ground to a halt in the 16th century. It was not resumed until it served as a symbol of Prussian imperialism under Bismarck.

Architects luckily discovered 14th-century designs for the towers, which became the tallest manmade structure in the world until overtaken in 1884 by the Washington Monument. The cathedral survived 18 direct hits by British and American bombs in the second world war.