Cathedrals from Different Countries

Although all Gothic cathedrals are classified under one architectural group, each country has its own style within that group. France perfected the flying buttress and high vaults, Germany and England reached for the sky with spires, and Spain tried to amaze with the sheer size of their cathedrals. All of these cathedrals are a bit different, but also a bit similar.
France is the place of the birth of the Gothic vision, and so retains its purest qualities: with large windows, high vaults, and flying buttresses, Notre Dame, Chartres, and Laon all come to mind. Notre Dame has one of the highest vaults in France (29.5 m), has some of the best buttresses in the world, and is generally considered the most beautiful cathedral in the whole world (Wilson, 136). Chartres has arguably the best and most beautiful stained glass in all of Europe, but interestingly enough its buttresses are much shorter than comparative cathedrals, such as Notre Dame.

Bourges Cathedral Choir (Clancey, 54)
Laon is more interesting than Notre Dame or Chartres because it combines the elements of many different styles. It has 7 very tall spires and smaller buttresses, more traits of England and Germany than France. But the vault is very high, typically a French strongpoint. And to top it off, the spires all have very big windows in them, almost so it looks like there is more window than wall.
In Germany, they emphasized low vaults and tall spires. Ulm Cathedral is a good example of this. Its spire is over 580 feet tall, far and away the tallest in Europe. However, its vault is only 19 m tall and noting else in the cathedral is very spectacular (Glancy, 57). Cologne Cathedral is very similar. It has 2 spires each 490 feet high, the second tallest in Europe, yet the vault is only 20 m high (Glancy, 57)

Ulm Cathedral (Glancey, 57)
England built in a style similar to what bishops in Germany were building in the Early Gothic period. Durham, Wells, and Salisbury are cathedrals with the majority of the building done in the Early Gothic style: bare, no decoration, a tall vault, rounded arches, impressive, and aloof. and not very interesting. However, since the English built their cathedrals very slowly, by the time they were done with one part, a different style was in fashion, so they did the next section in the new fashion. This made for some very interesting cathedrals because one cathedral might have three or four different styles in it, as is the case at Canterbury, where the style changes from Romanesque to Early Gothic to Perpendicular to Decorated (Wilson, 100).
Henry VII Chapel in Westminster is an excellent example of English Decorated. The fan vault has carved pendants on them and the middle of the apse ceiling is filled in with Tudor badges. This was the last great English Decorated before the Renaissance, but it was a glorious flourish (Glancy, 64).
The Spanish were a little late to get around to Gothic architecture, owing to the fact that they were fighting the Moors. When they conquered Seville, the townspeople instantly started to cover the large mosque in town with a cathedral. This meant the cathedral isn’t very pleasing to the eye on the outside, but it is huge, the Nave rising to almost 40 m tall. It has buttresses and a rose window, but it still doesn’t seem like a Gothic cathedral because it’s way to boxy and bulky.

Seville Cathedral (Raeurn, 127)