Reaching for the Stars
The Cathedral was delighted to welcome over 4000 visitors to the Cathedral as part of the City’s annual Light Night Trail.
With a new installation entitled ‘Wonder and Awe’ visitors were invited to step into a world of vibrant colour and gothic splendour. With brightly illuminated arches, chapels and ambulatories- the colours gave visitors an idea of the intentional luminosity of Gothic Cathedrals- designed to soar to heaven
This year, thanks to a grant from Nottingham Council, the Cathedral’s trail featured a new addition of stars projected onto the Cathedral’s ceilings in the nave and side chapels. AWN Pugin’s original designs and decorative paint work in the Cathedral featured starry night skies across the Cathedral’s ceilings, helping worshippers lift their minds and hearts to the heavens. A remaining fine example of this can be seen in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel- Prussian blue ceiling beds covered in gold gilded stars. A number of these schemes have been uncovered in the Cathedral’s east end and, as part of our Heritage Fund Restoring Pugin Project, there are plans to reinstate these schemes throughout the year. The starry projections, although a little larger than life, provide a marvellous talking point to share this exciting aspect of the Cathedral’s heritage with visitors, old and new.
Throughout the evening the Cathedral Choirs and Organists enchanted visitors with sacred music. And as visitors left, they were offered the opportunity to light a candle for anything that might be on their heart that evening. Visitors were struck by the beauty of the Cathedral, with many commenting that they had never visited before.
