When it was built people saw it as a holy place, a place which promised blessing, hope and relief from the trials and tribulations of life.

At that time the faithful understood its message immediately, for them the cathedral was a picture book.

For people in the 20th century it is an over-dimensional edifice of stone, a closed book. They have to learn to decipher laboriously, letter by letter, what it has to say.

The vibrant pictorial language and the fascinating architecture of this church recreate a vivid portrait of an age which was named the Dark Middle Ages because, for such a long time, very few people had any knowledge or understanding of it.

No building is better able to cast light upon this darkness than this cathedral.