Spire spires were an astounding architectural innovation, beginning with the early fourteenth-century spire at Freiburg Minster, in which the pierced stonework was held together by iron cramps. The openwork spire, according to Robert Bork, represents a "radical but logical extension of the Gothic tendency towards skeletal structure." The organic skeleton of Antoni Gaudi's phenomenal spires at the Sagrada Família in Barcelona represent an outgrowth of this Gothic tendency. Designed and begun by Gaudi in 1884, they were not completed until the 20th century. In England, "spire" immediately brings to mind Salisbury Cathedral. Its 403-foot (123-m) spire, built between 1320 and 1380,
Architecture of the medieval cathedrals of England against the openwork spires of Germany and France), and tallest spire in the world that remains from the Medieval period that has not been entirely rebuilt. However, it was greatly surpassed in height by the spires of Lincoln and Old St. Paul’s. At Lincoln, between the early 14th century and 1548, the central tower was surmounted by the tallest spire in the world at about but this fell in a storm. Lichfield Cathedral, uniquely in England, has three medieval masonry spires. Although single western towers are common in English parish churches, only one medieval cathedral, Ely, retains a centrally placed