The gothic cathedral represents the pinnacle of medieval engineering and architecture. In a period of some 300 years, more stone was quarried for cathedral building in France alone than all the stone quarried for Egyptian pyramids.

This lesson starts with a somewhat humorous and surreal animated sequence I put together to spark students' interest. It then looks at the evolution of the Gothic form, the structure of a typical Gothic cathedral, and the various techniques used to build it. Included are numerous photos of various Gothic cathedrals, including one of my favorites, Ste Chapelle in Paris.

This is a self-contained PowerPoint that develops slide by slide while other notes for the students scroll down the side. It can be run as a timed presentation on its own, presented slide by slide for discussion, or integrated into your other lectures. There are also extensive pictures with captions mixed in to illustrate the lesson and capture students’ interest. This packet also contains the author’s own research notes which contain lots of details and interesting trivia to spice up your class.

For more information on my flowcharts and approach to teaching history, please view my profile or visit my website at www.flowofhistory.com


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.