This is a great book on exactly that

Goodreads

Universe of Stone: A Biography of Chartres Cathedral

Chartres Cathedral, south of Paris, is revered as one o…

Are you in Exeter too @jimmysong ?

The vision of the catherdral builders have probably never been to build a garbage dump place.

The building in your picture was not built by our civilization. None of those church buildings were. If you read one comment, if you actually do read some of your comments, you should really look into this YouTube channel.

Winchester?

Builders with very low time preference, robust & varied expertise and confident (borderline ego) makes for some of the most beautiful buildings out there.

These things take years to build, and are usually built by taller people from what I've heard.

We need maintenaners after it’s built, but not more creative developers over time View quoted note →

Most buildings of this type have huge underground cellar systems or crypts. How does the gradual expansion of the buildings fit in with this fact? In addition, the buildings often have completely symmetrical patterns. These patterns cannot be created by patching things together. They have to be planned in advance.

How can one not be catholic?