This year marks the 800th anniversary of Salisbury and that means that this lovely cathedral city of mine is doing lots of random stuff to celebrate.
They'd turned out the street lights of the Cathedral Close and lit up the pavement cutting across the grass with fairy lights.
The spotlights that lit up the cathedral were also turned off which gave it a spooky almost gothic feel and when combined with the eerie blue glow of the projections from inside the Cathedral, the majestic building looked haunted! lol.
Very atmospheric.
Following the fairy light path around the building to the West Wall, we stood back on the grass and watched them project the history of the Cathedral onto the cathedral itself.
It took us back in time from when the Cathedral used to be out at Old Sarum, the decision to relocate it and the legend of an arrow being shot from Old Sarum and landing at the site of the "new" cathedral (yep, the 800 year old one, lol).
I should also mention that the legend is actually less pretty than what was projected but I guess the arrow hitting a stag and the stag running until it collapsed dead at the site of the current cathedral is less appealing to the masses...
While the story was projected in pictures onto the side of the cathedral, beautiful music was played from speakers surrounding the site and the music, more than the images, generated a whole load of feels in those present. I heard quite a few people talking about the music giving them goosebumps, etc.
After watching the external displays, we went into the cathedral itself and it was breathtaking.
There was music that again created a majestic atmosphere and different images projecting different stories onto different parts of the cathedral as you walked through... It was like walking through a kaleidoscope at times, which could be disorienting, but still cool.
I thought that the inside stories were less clear and harder to follow than the outside display but it didn't detract from how visually appealing it all was.
Salisbury Cathedral sits right in the middle of the city and its spire can be seen for miles outside the city if the lay of the land is right but it is so easy to take it for granted as it's part of the furniture so to speak. It's awesome seeing it celebrated for the incredible building it is. I'm in actual awe of the fact that this building (including the spire) was founded 800 years ago. The fact that the entire building was built within 40 or so years, is mind-boggling especially when you factor in that they built a spire that's over 120m high all the way back in the medieval period!
🌻
Oh!
And in case you're curious as to what the cathedral looks like without all the projections, I dug out some pictures I've taken of it over the years... They're not very good though.
Oh wow, this is so beautiful! Cincinnati has done similar things like this in the past, though I never got a chance to see it in person. One day! I love the idea of light shows and with the music too.
ReplyDelete-Lauren
www.shootingstarsmag.net
Salisbury Cathedral is huge so it really worked for something like this. :)
DeleteOh wow! That looks gorgeous! Thank you so much for sharing pictures with us!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! I'm glad you liked them.
DeleteHow stunning! This is exactly the kind of event I'd love to visit. Your photos are amazing! I love posts like this!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear it! I love posting things like this but am always conscious that I'm a book blog so people may not want to read these kinds of things.
DeleteThe cathedral is beautiful, and the light show looks like it was amazing. What a neat event! And, I am glad the weather cooperated.
ReplyDeleteFirst time in a long time the weather has co-operated! It's back to rain again... And another named storm heading our way. I never thought I'd say it but I'm tired of the rain!
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