From what I understand, 140 years is a fairly quick completion time by European cathedral standards. What makes them so powerful is that they are not the singular vision of one man but the collective vision of a society. Hell, Chartres, Notre-Dame, etc were all built pretty much without the aid of plans on paper as we know them.
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la forme d'une ville change plus vite, hélas! que le coeur d'un mortel...
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