Ely Cathedral The relief scenes were built into the wall, so each face or statue was individually hacked off, but leaving many finely carved details, and numerous puzzles as to what the original scenes showed. After the reformation it was redeployed as the Parish Church (Holy Trinity) for the town, a situation which continued up to 1938. The central octagonal tower, with its vast internal open space and its pinnacles and lantern above, forms the most distinctive and celebrated feature of the cathedral. However, what Pevsner describes as Ely's 'greatest individual achievement of architectural genius' came about through a disaster at the
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (Moscow) The octagonal lantern tower above the crossing is high. The façade is based on the design of Westminster Abbey, and the tower loosely on that of Milan Cathedral. Typically for old-style church buildings, each side aisle is strengthened by five buttresses, the ten together symbolising the Ten Commandments. Crosses were erected, as part of the renovation, surmounting each principal tower; the central façade pinnacle and two other façade pinnacles feature the crests of John Paul II and archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz. The first ten steps to the portal symbolise the Commandments, the eleventh symbolises Jesus Christ. The portal symbolises Heaven's gate,