Salisbury Cathedral Window Detail

Detail of one of the Stained Glass windows at the Salisbury Cathedral. The clarity and crispness of this window suggests it is not as old as some of the other windows in the cathedral.

The Cathedral at Salisbury was started (1220) 5 years after the Magna Carta (1215) was written. One of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta is now on display at the Cathedral. An amazing document, quite well preserved.

When one thinks that, by U.S. standards, 100 years is old for a building, the 775 years of the Salisbury Cathedral is really quite a miracle. The logistics of building the soaring ceilings and towers seven centuries ago boggles the mind. It is in some ways easy to imagine the lives of the people who worshipped and were buried right in the building and in other ways it seems so remote and foreign to modern life. This was a journey well worth the train fare.