The Reasons for Building Cathedrals and the Symbolism Behind Them

Cathedrals are one of the few tangible things left behind by the people of the Middle Ages. They continue to amaze us with their impossibly high ceilings and walls that look as though they might be standing up only by the grace of God. One might question how these giants were built, but another, greater question is why they were built. What compelled the people of Chartres, Ulm, Bourges, and cathedral cities around Europe to build these great buildings? One answer is that the bishop and the town needed to show their pride.
A big cathedral would increase the social standing and power of the bishop, increase the zeal of the people in the surrounding area, and increase town morale. Often rival towns would turn the building of a cathedral into a competition as to which town could build the bigger and more beautiful cathedral, such is the case of Ulm and Cologne, two cities in Germany (Glancey, 57). However, some bishops and chapters got carried away and built huge cathedrals that didn’t necessarily fit the size of the town.
A good example of this is Chartres, in France. Today, the cathedral doesn’t look that out of place in the town, however, when the cathedral was built, it outdid the town in size and splendor tenfold. A 1568 painting of the town shows that the cathedral was still the only building of its size in the town or surrounding countryside (Miller, 13).

Painting of Chartres 1568 (Miller, 13)
More examples are the famous wool churches of south-central England. While the are neither Gothic nor cathedrals, they follow the same story line as huge cathedrals in small towns like Wells and Salisbury: An overambitious bishop or a town with a lot of money, and usually both (Dierenfield).
Another reason for building a cathedral is to house relics, objects that are said to be holy because of their relation to a saint or Christ. Many cathedrals were built for this purpose. St. Denis Cathedral, considered the starting point for the large, stained-glass windows, was primarily built to house the garments that Mary supposedly wore when giving birth to Jesus (Lace, 27).
Because pilgrims often visited these relics, the cathedrals with relics had to be very big to hold all the pilgrims in one building. This explains the enormous size of the cathedrals at Canterbury, Seville, and Santiago de Campostela, three major pilgrimage sites around Western Europe (Raeburn, 125). Having relics was also very profitable for a town because the pilgrims had to stay somewhere and buy food while they were visiting the cathedral, so the townspeople could afford to pay for the cathedral.
The third reason for building the cathedrals was for religious reasons. A big new cathedral would revive the zeal of people in the parish, increase their faith in the Church, and would help them connect to God. With the help of the stained-glass windows, places like Notre Dame and Sainte-Chapelle feel as though God is in the very place itself.
The Gothic cathedrals weren’t just supposed to be churches, they symbolized the city of Jerusalem. Not the earthly city, but the City of God. The outside of s Romanesque cathedral wasn’t very inviting, but the inside was like stepping into Heaven. Tapestries lined the walls, statues covered with gold filled the rooms and walls, and the whole inside was dedicated to the earthly goods of the world. The Gothic vision of Jerusalem was much different.
According to Abbot Sugar of St. Denis, in his book, Book of Suger Abbot of St. Denis on What Was Done During his Administration, the divine light is in all of God’s creations, (He was also influenced by Dionysius of Persia, who wrote in the 400s that God was directly pictured in light. Suger mistakenly though Dionysius was also St. Denis of France (Lace,37) and that theory should be made into the base idea for all churches, and in doing so, developed the root of the Gothic movement. The idea of letting the light of God in was the whole purpose of Gothic cathedrals. That was supposed to look the most like Heaven, and so connect the people more closely to God.

Wall Behind Altar, Sainte-Chapelle (Raeburn, 116)