Art of Advent Day 17

By Dane Moffat

York Minster, December 2025.

Image courtesy of Dane Moffat.

Harland Miller’s painting York, So Good They Named It Once (2020) stuck with me after encountering it at York Art Gallery this past weekend. The painting itself did not make much of an impression, inspired by the vintage Penguin book covers that populate the classics section of secondhand bookstores. Rather, it was the slogan that resonated with me. York, so good that I have been one too many times, especially during Christmastime.

This is not about Miller’s painting, but the York Minster, where I am writing from. In front of me, they are setting up for a live-streamed choral evensong, though I have come too early to see it. The Minster is decorated for Christmas: trees line the East End and a wreath hangs in front of the organ. It is not as decorated as I recall from previous years. Still, the Minster manages to provide new surprises—or gifts, as I see them—on each visit.

This year’s surprise, which could have been a gift in a medieval court, was a fountain in the Undercroft. Having taken a module on luxury goods in the Middle Ages this semester, it was particularly exciting. The fountain opened like an altarpiece, revealing several images of saints above a basin. A magnificent piece of microarchitecture crowned the fountain, almost like the Gothic spires on the Minster itself.

York Minster, December 2025.

Image courtesy of Dane Moffat.

The York Minster was built between 1220 and 1472, consisting of various Gothic architectural styles across the medieval period. In 1984, a fire ravaged the south transept which led to the near-constant reconstruction and conservation that I associate the Minster with. I struggle to recall a time when it was not wrapped up in scaffolding. However, I now consider the scaffolding like wrapping paper, as opposed to a blight. When it comes down, albeit slowly, it feels like I have unwrapped a present.

The conservation projects are far from over, though. Most recently they began a twenty year restoration project for more than seventy stained-glass windows. Once the scaffolding comes down for good, it will feel like a Christmas miracle, unwrapping the best and biggest present for all the York Minster goers out there.

Bibliography

York Minster. “Stories.” Accessed December 14, 2025. https://yorkminster.org/discover/stories/.