Known formally as The Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln and informally as St. Mary's Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral, built between 1088 and 1092 AD, is located 141 miles (277 kilometers) due north of London in Lincolnshire. See the catheral grounds on Wikimapia here.
With a spire height of 160 metres (520 feet), people once considered Lincoln Cathedral the tallest building in the world -- a distinction it held for more 238 years (1311 to 1549). It certainly dominates the surrounding plain, and can be seen from many miles away.
To RAF bomber crews returning from raids over Germany and occupied Europe during World War II, it was an easily recognizable landmark and a very welcome sight. Lincoln Cathedral rising through the clouds is still emblazoned on the station badge for nearby RAF Waddington airfield.
The cathedral was originally constructed on Norman designs. After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror built nearby Lincoln Castle, and ordered the seat of the local bishopric to move to Lincoln. Remigius de Fecamp, the first Bishop of Lincoln, laid the foundations for the cathedral in 1088.
Lincoln Cathedral is called St. Mary's church because "it is well known," writes B. Winkles, "that Remigius appropriated the parish church of St Mary Magdalene in Lincoln, although it is not known what use he made of it."
Bishop Remigius lived to see the cathedral finished in 1092, but he died on May 9, two days before the cathedral's consecration.
Knights Templar returning from the First Crusade (1099) established several preceptories in Lincolnshire (notably Temple Bruer) and they apparently held Mary Magdalene and Lincoln Cathedral in special veneration.
Above: The remains of Temple Bruer Preceptory, nearby Lincoln Cathedral.
In fact, according to Dan Green, author of The Lincoln Da Vinci Code (2005), Templar knights may have secretly transported the holy relics and tomb of St. Mary Magdalene from France to the grounds of Lincoln Cathedral in the early 14th Century, before the local order was dissolved in 1308. Green's book finds many details linking the Priory of Sion and the mystery of Rennes le Chateau to local landmarks near Lincoln Cathedral.
For more, see The Murder of Mary Magdalene: Genocide of the Holy Bloodline, a documentary made by Philip Gardiner in 2010. This documentary is absolutely misnamed: The vast majority of the film centers on the strange history of Lincoln Cathedral and surrounding landmarks. It's really just a guided tour of Lincoln Cathedral given by Dan Green, who explains all of its hidden secrets and codes. A podcast interview with Dan Green may also be found on Rob McConnell's "X Zone Radio/TV Show" here.
Green's book was published August 15, 2005, the same day that shooting for the movie The Da Vinci Code began at Lincoln Cathedral. One need only watch the movie (starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou, released in 2006) to see Lincoln Cathedral's chapter house and cloisters. Some of the elaborate sets made for the film were left behind and may be seen here: The Chapter House Fresco Mystery (Paradox Place Website).
Much of Dan Brown's novel was set in Westminster Abbey, but the abbey denied the movie crew's request to film on location. Director Ron Howard therefore turned to the staff at Lincoln, and he was cautiously granted permission to film inside the cathedral on a closed set -- the cathedral very much needed the income to help with careful restoration of its Medieval rose windows (a project that cost more than $2 million)
As a direct consequence of this publicity, tourism at Lincoln Cathedral bumped up. Between 2006 and 2009, cathedral staff estimated that 200,000 to 208,000 people were visiting the cathedral annually.
Architects agree that Lincoln is certainly one the most beautiful and important Gothic cathedrals in all of Europe, and one of the three largest cathedrals in England. In the words of Victorian art critic John Ruskin: "I have always held... that the cathedral of Lincoln is out and out the most precious piece of architecture in the British Isles and roughly speaking worth any two other cathedrals we have."
The style is a bit mixed. In 1141, fire destroyed the timber roofing, and in 1185 an earthquake (measuring 5.0 in magnitude) nearly brought down the entire building, which was described as having "split from top to bottom." No Norman architecture survives today with the exceptions of the west end and its two attached towers.
The magnificant Gothic structure that exists today was built between 1192 and 1210, largely under the supervision of Hugh de Burgundy, who later became known as St. Hugh of Lincoln, one of the best known English saints after Thomas Beckett.
Above: St. Hugh of Lincoln, born in Avalon.
St. Hugh was born at the Chateau of Avalon, in France -- the son of Guillaume (William) Seigneur of Avalon. Connections to legends of the Holy Grail seem fairly obvious, and Dan Green, for one, claims that Hugh may have embedded strange Grail symbols throughout the Gothic architecture of Lincoln Cathedral.
Oddly, this cathedral features two major rose windows, facing north (the "Dean's Eye" rose window) and south (the "Bishop's Eye" rose window) -- highly uncommon features among medieval architecture in England. Most rose windows face east or west.
Above: The "Bishop's Eye" window at Lincoln.
While working on restoration of the tracery for the Dean's Eye window ("Conserving The Dean's Eye," Geoff Clifton, Ingenia Articles online, Issue 33, December 2007), specialists noted "The design of the window must have been conceived by a glazier or a cleric because, whilst the glass is magnificent, the structural tracery is daring in the extreme and clearly a mason could not have been involved in the design."
Did St. Hugh himself design the window? Construction of the Dean's Eye certainly does date from 1192, when St. Hugh began to rebuild the cathedral, and the design for the Dean's Eye window is strangely complex, containing four inner circles (in the shape of a cross) surrounded by 16 outer circles.
An early reference to the meaning of the names for these odd windows -- and an anwer to the question why they are facing north and south -- may be found in a biography of St. Hugh titled The Metrical Life of St. Hugh (written somewhere between 1220 and 1235):
"For north represents the devil, and south the Holy Spirit and it is in these directions that the two eyes look. The bishop faces the south in order to invite in and the dean the north in order to shun; the one takes care to be saved, the other takes care not to perish. With these Eyes the cathedral's face is on watch for the candelabra of Heaven and the darkness of Lethe (oblivion)."
Dan Green claims the sacred geometry within the design for this north window suggests it is a star map, centered on Arcturus (the North Star) -- with possible reference to the myths of King Arthur, who is associated with the star Arcturus.
