Cities and Cathedrals: Europe in the Middle Ages | Episode Four | History Documentary

This Four Part History Documentary Series focuses on the Middle Ages. Isn't it true that this epoch conjures up ominous images of superstition and witch-hunting? Burning pyres and plague doctors hurrying strangely muffled along dark alley-ways in their fight against the Black Death, such are the generally accepted associations we have with this "dark" era. The Middle Ages were in the true sense of the word dark.

In Episode Four historians have considered for a long time the picturesque maze of alleyways in medieval towns to be construction planning gone haywire. New research reveals the surprising fact that many medieval towns were conceived on the drawing board by urban planners who were well versed in geometry, for the towns grew and offered a home to many people. Even outsiders such as swindlers, beggars and charlatans found shelter, for the influence of the feudal lords ended before the town-gates. In the freedom of the towns, the guilds and bourgeois society flourished. Mechanical tower clocks heralded a new rhythm of life, the first universities were founded, trade and industry followed suit.