King's College Chapel
The chapel in Cambridge is the masterpiece of English late Gothic, the Perpendicular style. A single long space without columns is covered by the largest fan vault in the world, and the walls are a grid of vertical mullions and glass.
Henry VI laid the foundation stone in 1446 for a chapel for his new college, but during the Wars of the Roses building stopped several times. It was completed only under Henry VII and Henry VIII, and the Tudor roses, portraits and coats of arms in the western part show who took the credit. The master mason John Wastell built the vault in 1512–1515.
The fan vault is an English invention. Instead of ribs crossing one another, conical bowls grow out of the wall shafts, covered with a dense web of decorative ribs, and meet in the middle. It is built of stone and weighs thousands of tonnes, yet looks like lace. The chapel is also world-famous for its choir, and the Christmas service of Nine Lessons and Carols is broadcast around the world every year.