Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
Glasgow Cathedral and around
Castle St • April-Sept Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm, Sun 1-5pm; Oct-March Mon-Sat 9.30am-4pm, Sun 1-4pm • Free •
T
0141 552 8198,
W
glasgowcathedral.org.uk • Buchanan Street underground
Built in 1136, destroyed in 1192 and rebuilt soon after, stumpy-spired
Glasgow Cathedral
was not completed until the late fifteenth century, with the final reconstruction of the
chapterhouse and the aisle designed by Robert Blacader, the city's first archbishop.
hanks to the intervention of the city guilds, it is the only Scottish mainland cathedral to
have escaped the hands of religious reformers in the sixteenth century. he cathedral is
dedicated to the city's patron saint and reputed founder, St Mungo.
Because of the sloping ground on which it is built, at its east end the cathedral is
effectively on two levels, the crypt being part of the lower church. Either side of the nave,
the narrow
aisles
are illuminated by vivid stained-glass windows, most of which date from
the last century. hreadbare Union flags and military pennants hang listlessly beneath
them, serving as a reminder that the cathedral is very much a part of the Unionist
Protestant tradition. Beyond the nave, the
choir
is hidden from view by the curtained
stone pulpit, making the interior feel a great deal smaller than might be expected from the
outside. In the choir's northeastern corner, a small door leads into the gloomy
sacristy
, in
which Glasgow University was founded over five hundred years ago. Wooden boards
mounted on the walls detail the alternating Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy of the
cathedral, testimony to the turbulence and fluctuations of the Church in Scotland.
Two sets of steps from the nave lead down into the
lower church
, where you'll see the
dark and musty
chapel
surrounding the tomb of St Mungo. he saint's relics were
removed in the late Middle Ages, although the tomb still forms the centrepiece. he
chapel itself is one of the most glorious examples of medieval architecture in Scotland,
best seen in the delicate fan vaulting rising up from the thicket of cool stone columns.
The Necropolis
Rising up behind the cathedral, the atmospheric
Necropolis
is a grassy mound covered
in a fantastic assortment of crumbling and tumbling gravestones, ornate urns, gloomy
catacombs and Neoclassical temples. Inspired by the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris,
developer John Strong created a garden of death in 1833, and it quickly became a
fitting spot for the great and the good of wealthy nineteenth-century Glasgow to
indulge their vanity. Various paths lead through the rows of eroding, neglected graves,
and from the summit, next to the column topped with an indignant John Knox, there
are superb
views
.
St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art
Cathedral Square • Mon-Thurs & Sat 10am-5pm, Fri & Sun 11am-5pm • Free • Buchanan Street underground
he
St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art
, housed in a rather bland late
twentieth-century pastiche of a Scots medieval townhouse, focuses on objects, beliefs
and art from Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism. In
addition to the main exhibition there is a small collection of photographs, papers and
archive material looking at religion in Glasgow, the zealotry of the nineteenth-century
Temperance movement and Christian missionaries (local boy David Livingstone in
particular). Outside is Britain's only permanent “dry stone” Zen Buddhist garden.
Provand's Lordship
Cathedral Square • Mon-Thurs & Sat 10am-5pm, Fri & Sun 11am-5pm • Free • Buchanan Street underground
he oldest house in the city, the
Provand's Lordship
dates from 1471 and has been used
as an ecclesiastical residence and an inn, among other things. Inside, the re-creations of
