of england. the normans stroyed most of the main anglo-saxon churches, replacing them with ones built in the frenchomanesque or, as it is known in britain, the norman style. and it would be in england that somof the most daring and original innovations were made in medieval architecture. durham cathedral, even by the standards of norman architecture in england, is a colossal building. durham cathedral was begun in 1093 on the sort of scale and grandeur common to many great norman cathedrals of england in the late 11th century. durham is a masterpiece of structure, and that makes it, in a way, a slightly ambiguous building because durham is undoubtedly a romanesque church. in fact, it is a massive romanesque building, one of the largest, but it also has gothic elements in it. in the 19th century, archaeologists defined the gothic style as having three essential characteristics-- the pointed arch, the rib vault, and the flying buttress-- and durham has got all three of these. it's got pointed arches in the nave of the building. durham's also got rib vaults. in fact, it's perhaps one of the first buil