Gloucester Cathedral auctions stones on the wall to raise money appears several times in the Harry Potter films

Gloucester Cathedral has appeared in three Harry Potter films, and now the church staff has begun planning to pay for its repairs and restorations by selling some of the wall tiles, ranging from £40 to £800, according to the British newspaper The Mirror. The cathedral appears in all three films, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, The Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. Some of the stones auctioned are 500 years old, and the auction began on November 13 and ended on November 21. The auctioneers were very interested in this, and eight out of ten stones had already exceeded the original bid price. Other churches will conduct such auctions in the future.

Sonia Bielaszewska, manager of the church's philanthropy department, said, "Obviously, the coronavirus has hit a lot of charities and churches. Fortunately, we have raised a lot of money to get through this difficult period, but we want to carry out a large-scale renovation of the cathedral in the next ten years, so we decided to raise funds in this more creative way. We see this as a better way to give Harry Potter enthusiasts the opportunity to connect them more closely with a building they cherish so much. We recently completed the renovation and new gargoyles are under construction, which is a very large project that we managed to complete last year. The few stones that remain were renovated, some of which date back five hundred years. Churches usually keep some stone in the basement as archives, some as historical records. So some extra stones need to find a new home. ”

The church has received bids from all over the UK, including some far away in South Wales, Cornwall and Sussex. The 5th stone at auction is the slender cross-marked mortar handle of the 1890s, the most talked about stone to date. "We've gotten a lot of messages from potential buyers through social media and email, and many want to use these stones as a representation of their new journey of religion. The number of initial bids we received far exceeded our expectations. There is a particularly well-preserved stone dating back to the 1950s, it looks so beautiful that a bidder wanted to display it in the vestibule of his house. (Compiled and reported by China Youth Network)

Source: China Youth Network