This Blue route Starts at the Market Square, but the highlight of the trail is Durham Cathedral, one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in the world.
One of the main applications of mathematics in medieval architecture was practical geometry. Practical geometry did not concern itself with axioms, deductions, theorems and proofs. Its approach was more empirical and time-tested. Generally, medieval masons including master masons would not have been able to read more abstract or speculative mathematical treatises in Latin, even if they were allowed access to them in the libraries of bishops and monasteries. However, a master mason could adeptly and repeatedly apply a few simple geometric operations and tools, such as the mason’s large compas, to produce a myriad of sophisticated designs as attested to by extant late medieval design manuscripts, by full-scale working drawings still etched on some church floors and walls, and by the cathedrals themselves.