My daughter Gabby and I got lucky enough to visit France this summer, and found this jewel of a Gothic cathedral — Saint-Etienne Cathedral of Bourges — to be stunning. Work started on it in the last years of the 12th century and mostly finished in 1230, making Saint-Etienne highly unusual in its architecture. The designers had a unified plan, unlike the hodgepodge artistic display of most Medieval cathedrals.
Some of the designs I most enjoyed were the renditions of the punishments of the damned you can see in a close-up of the apse. Naked and tormented bodies are being shoved into a pot. The exterior also had carvings reflecting the destruction of the world and Noah’s survival. The designers really drummed up the divine wrath for their audience. Gargoyles and Flying buttresses were also part of the architecture.
