Peterborough Cathedral

The monks who in 1118 began rebuilding the abbey in honor of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew, transported their materials from Barnack in Northamptonshire, just 10mi/16km away, where they could select the beautiful ivory-colored stone from their own quarries. The choir was completed by 1140, the transepts and nave by the end of the century. The west front was added between 1200 and 1222 and is one of the most unusual facades of the early Gothic period with its three huge doorways (81ft/25m high) which form a kind of triumphal arch leading into the church.