St Andrews - St Rules 1318

St Andrews - St Rules 1318

Intangible Heritage

The small building now known as St Rule's Church was once St Andrews' main cathedral. It was probably built in the early twelfth century, perhaps by workmen from northern England. The church is in the Romanesque (or Norman) style that was then popular across much of Europe. Its high tower is visible for many miles, and may have been designed to guide seafarers to St Andrews. In the late twelfth century St Rule's was superseded by the much larger cathedral whose ruins it stands beside. Nevertheless, the old church remained important to the canons of St Andrews Cathedral, and an image of St Rule's was used on the cathedral canons' seal for official documents until after the Reformation.

2014:09:30 16:12:08

image/jpeg

Reconstruction

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In Copyright (InC)

current,56.33973567993565,-2.786340415477753;

Open Virtual Worlds Team University of St Andrews

TEXT

Firstly, a digital landscape was created using survey data and height maps. Following extensive historical research and collaboration with specialists, 3D models are created and imported into UNREAL Engine (a cross-platform game engine for creating virtual worlds). Models are textured, scaled, oriented and assembled. Scenes are created and populated with appropriate objects, including furniture and artefacts. Landscapes populated with flora and fauna. Weather settings and atmospheric lighting.

Location: To the south-east of the Cathedral. Date Built: Early twelfth century (some later alterations). In the mid-twelfth century St Rule's Church seems to have been extended westwards beyond the tower. Evidence for this extension is still visible on the tower. The roofline of St Rule's was altered a number of times during the Middle Ages. Marks from the different roofs are still visible on the east side of the tower. Medieval images of St Rule's show that the tower once had a short pointed spire. St Rule's Church underwent alterations during the early sixteenth century. It is thought that the stone staircase in the upper sections of the tower dates from this time. St Rule's is named after St Rule or St Regulus who supposedly brought St Andrew's bones from Greece to Scotland.

Richard Fawcett (University of St Andrews)

Sarah Kennedy, Iain Oliver, Alan Miller

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