Why you don’t need to be religious to bask in the spiritual glory of Europe’s cathedrals

And yet as attendance at church services has fallen, the visiting of Christian cathedrals has risen. From the beginning of the 21st century, cathedrals began to attract new congregations. Attendance at cathedral events has grown by a third since the start of the century, according to Simon Jenkins in his lavish study, Europe’s 100 Best Cathedrals.

Where the parish church might be associated with a sense of identity and commitment that people may no longer accept, the cathedral presents itself as a place of “uncomplicated beauty”. Individuals are “comfortable sitting alone in a cathedral”.

The cathedral offers a portal to history, beauty, art, music and reflection without asking you to respond to the parish newsletter, or participate in a synodical consultation.

Cathedrals even appeal to that growing demographic: those who are drawn to “secular spirituality”. The sociologist Grace Davie calls this “vicarious religion” or even “believing without belonging”. Cathedrals are perfect locations for the uncommitted who still like the aura of a sacred space.

So which are the top Cathedrals we may look forward to visiting when restrictions on travel are lifted? Jenkins awards five stars to Amiens, Bourges, Chartres, Seville, Toledo, Venice St Mark’s and Wells.

Amiens, built in the 13th century, was the grandest building in France until Louis XIV built Versailles and it remains the “supreme expression of France’s golden age”. It has survived everything from the French Revolution to World War I – although Amiens itself, as a town, isn’t anything special. A smaller cathedral at nearby Beauvais is also a gem (drop by when landing with Ryanair).

Chartres, with its famous rose windows, is the “signature experience of European culture”, and from its beginnings in the 1190s, was especially dedicated to Marian devotion. Cathedrals seldom have gardens attached, but French cathedrals often have cafés and restaurants, and my recollection is that the restaurants nearby are excellent.

St Mark’s in Venice is mesmerising and enigmatic. Seville Cathedral is stunning – set on the port to the New World and incorporating an old mosque building. It contains one of Europe’s most extraordinary altar-pieces by the Flemish craftsman Pierre Dancart, comprising a thousand gold miniature sculptures of Bible scenes.

It is perhaps surprising that St Peter’s in Rome, Notre-Dame in Paris, and Canterbury in Kent only get into the second division, with four stars.

The 2019 fire at Notre-Dame shocked even secularists and it is “a citadel of Christianity”. It too has survived so much, including a spell as a ‘Temple of Reason’ during the Revolution.

In their different ways, Rome and Canterbury are remarkable: Rome elaborate, Canterbury unpretentious. St John Lateran in Rome is distinguished not only for its palatial proportions, but a history which goes back to the emperor Constantine.

Continental Europe is packed with cathedrals and basilicas which are among Europe’s finest works of art and architecture – and testaments to its Christian faith – as well as witnesses to some of Europe’s most terrible tragedies. The Frauenkirche in Dresden has been touchingly, painstakingly rebuilt, stone by stone, from the terrible devastation of February 1945. The interior is exquisite.

From St David’s in Wales to Syracuse in Sicily, from Aachen and Cologne to Assisi and Santiago, from Rouen – which so fascinated Monet – to Florence, from the Nordic austerity of Trondheim in Norway to the gorgeous onion domes of St Basil’s in Moscow. What an inheritance of treasures and spirituality.

It all flows from one source: the Nativity of Jesus Christ, which we mark next week whether people go to church or not.

Regrettably, Jenkins didn’t find any Irish cathedrals which in his view measured up to the great traditions. I would have thought Christ Church in Dublin – founded by Sitriuc, Hiberno-Norse king of Dublin, around 1030 – would have merited inclusion. Perhaps the Irish spiritual tradition was more focused on monasteries than the architectural splendour of the Norman or Gothic cathedral.

Yet Ireland did greatly contribute to the Christian culture of medieval Europe with its missionaries and evangelists, and in that sense can justly lay claim to being part of the European cathedral heritage which is such a growing attraction.