DAVID LEVIN: You're listening to a NOVA podcast. I'm David Levin. Gothic cathedrals are some of the crowning achievements of Western architecture. They're more like giant sculptures than just ...

The Gothic cathedral—from St.-Denis and Notre-Dame of Paris to Chartres, Reims, and Amiens—stands out for a reason. Their flying buttresses, lofty towers, and subaqueous stained-glass windows showcase ...

Life in many medieval towns revolved around constructing a cathedral, a massive undertaking that took generations of work by everyone from artists and architects to prisoners of war. Work in ...