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12 Medieval Cathedrals: How Long Did They Take to Build?

Twelve real cathedrals, from Chartres and Notre-Dame to Cologne, Milan and Seville. Each page gives the building period from a named source, an estimate of the stone, where the stone came from, a photo with its license, and a legend or two. Then you can rebuild it yourself in the calculator.

• Notre-Dame de Paris · France · 97 years (1163 to 1260)
  The blacksmith Biscornet is said to have made a pact with the devil for the ironwork of the doors, which opened only after holy water was sprinkled on them.
• Chartres Cathedral · France · 26 years (1194 to 1220)
  Its great relic is the tunic of the Virgin Mary, said to be a gift from Charlemagne. Historians doubt it.
• Amiens Cathedral · France · 50 years (1220 to 1270)
  It keeps what is said to be the head of John the Baptist, brought from Constantinople in 1206. Several places claim the same.
• Reims Cathedral · France · 89 years (1211 to 1300)
  A white dove is said to have brought the holy oil for the baptism of Clovis. Kings of France were later anointed with it here.
• Strasbourg Cathedral · France · 263 years (1176 to 1439)
  The first stone was laid in 1015 and the spire was finished in 1439, more than 420 years later.
• Cologne Cathedral · Germany · 632 years (1248 to 1880)
  Master Gerhard is said to have bet the devil he would finish the cathedral before the devil could pipe water from Trier. He lost.
• Canterbury Cathedral · England · 335 years (1070 to 1405)
  Pilgrims bought flasks of St Thomas's water, said to hold Becket's blood, until the shrine was destroyed in 1538.
• Salisbury Cathedral · England · 38 years (1220 to 1258)
  Bishop Poore is said to have picked the site by shooting an arrow from Old Sarum. It hit a deer, which ran on and died where the cathedral stands. Old Sarum is over 3 km away.
• York Minster · England · 247 years (1225 to 1472)
  It rises above the Roman fortress headquarters in York, where Constantine was proclaimed emperor in 306.
• Milan Cathedral · Italy · 579 years (1386 to 1965)
  Forty meters above the altar hangs a nail said to come from the Cross. Each September the archbishop is lifted up to it on a cloud-shaped lift.
• Burgos Cathedral · Spain · 346 years (1221 to 1567)
  A Gothic Christ figure with real hair and nails of horn, said by tradition to have been carved by Nicodemus himself.
• Seville Cathedral · Spain · 116 years (1403 to 1519)
  In 1401 the chapter is said to have vowed to build a church so grand that people would take them for mad.