Durham Cathedral

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A Norman cathedral begun in 1093 on a rock peninsula above the River Wear. Its high vaults, built in stages between the 1090s and about 1133, are the earliest surviving large-scale ribbed vaults over a major church nave, and they are the reason Durham appears in every account of Gothic origins despite being resolutely Romanesque in everything else - massive drum piers, round-headed arcades, thick walls. The choir aisles carry rib vaults from the 1090s and the nave high vault, with its pointed transverse arches, follows in the 1120s and 1130s. Durham also has early quadrant arches concealed in the triforium above the aisles that do the work a flying buttress does, without being visible from outside. It is inscribed with Durham Castle as a UNESCO World Heritage property.