The Gothic World is a photo-rich exploration of Gothic architecture. But not just archiecture — because Gothic represents the ultimate artistic flowering of the medieval mind: a union of structure and symbol, of matter shaped by meaning.
This publication explores the cathedrals, cloisters, and carved visions that gave expression to an entire worldview — that of the High and Late Middle Ages — and traces the cultural, artistic, and mythic forces behind them.
My main focus this year is a weekly countdown of the world’s greatest Gothic architecture, but I am also working on additional posts and series, and have many articles that provide a great introduction to Gothic if you are a newbie, all easily found in Gothic 101.
Why Subscribe
Weekly photo essays on the most extraordinary Gothic buildings ever constructed
Thematic deep dives into medieval art, architecture, and symbolic meaning
A curated, growing archive of visual and intellectual resources on the Gothic world
Why This Site is Like a Cathedral
Gothic cathedrals were always in work-in-progress in the Middle Ages, and so is this publication. Not only will it grow each week with a new post, achieving a final form well in future, but it also bears traces of its past.
This project evolved out of my publication [link]Both/And, much as many Gothic cathedrals evolved out of Romanesque churches — often leaving traces of earlier forms embedded within their walls.
You may still find remnants of that earlier foundation here: older posts, cross-links, and conceptual frameworks that shaped the direction of this series. But The Gothic World has grown into something with its own structure and light. Like the great cathedrals, it’s being built in stages — part archive, part workshop, part pilgrimage.
My Other Publications
Both/And: As mentioned above, I also have a publication named Both/And: History Through a Philosophical Lens. Most of these Gothic posts are cross-posted there, but it also features weekly museum showcases from around the world and occasional essays that embody my approach to “history as a philosophical practice.”
Implicate Orders: Implicate Orders: A Future History is a 46-chapter work of serialized fiction, tracing how over the next forty years the world was destroyed and remade into something completely different. If you like Black Mirror but wish all the episodes interconnected in a single mythic history, then Implicate Orders is for you.
