it took me a lot of tries, but eventually i got an angle, crouching down in the corner of the cloister garden, that shows the full hieght of the tower and nave of the former cathedral in the dutch city of utrecht.

The former cathedral in the dutch city of utrecht. Today the complex consists of the transept and choir. The 112 meters high tower stands now seperated from the rest of the building since the nave collapsed during what might have been a tornado in the sumer of 1647. Because of money problems the nave was not constructed properly and lacked butresses and vaulting.

It is the only church in the Netherlands that was built in a pure French gothic style. Other churches were build in a variation of one of the regional styles.

Nowadays the building itself serves as the main church for a myriad of reformed spinoff churches, eah celebrating their own private version of reality one after the other each week. The adjoining cloister and chapterhouse now serve reason rather than religion as they belong to the ceremonial complex of the Utrecht University. The tower belongs to the municipality and can be climbed regularly.

panoramio link (find out where this shot was taken): [link]