Wells Cathedral II

Outside the church, the "Penniless Porch" for

beggars; indeed there were some the day we

were there

Inside, from the original Saxon cathedral, the

baptismal font, made to celebrate 1000AD

Fashion statement: on the side of the font, hundreds of years

later, someone has tried to re-shape the Romanesque arch

into a Gothic arch

On one of the pillars, a very famous depiction

of a medieval toothache

In the 14th century, the southwest pier of the

crossing had subsided four inches, threatening

the whole building; between 1338 and 1348,

this amazing structure, a sort of Gothic figure

eight (alpha and omega?) was added, a sort of

interior buttressing; looking at it for the first

time, one thinks this can't be medieval, it must

be a Victorian or even 20th century addition;

but no, it was completed in the year of the

Black Death, 1348; it worked; and it is strikingly

beautiful, and huge, apart from being completely

different from anthing we have ever seen in a

medieval cathedral

The buttressing seen from the nave; there are

three of the buttressing figures, the nave, and

both transepts, humongous

The oldest still functioning cope chest, 1120

A figure in the chapter house, sticking his

tongue out at the bishop

Wells Cathedral clock--the oldest complete still-functioning

clock in the world, 1390 (Salisbury's is a bit older, but has no 
face and does not do minutes...a clock precursor)

It still powers a variety of cathedral bells and

whistles

As well as, every fifteen minutes (for 600+ years), these

jousting knights, which whirl around for a minute or so

until the third from the left gets un-horsed; it's a hoot to

watch. As I said, if a cathedral can be fun, Wells definitely

is fun.