Strength with soul: the Chapel of St John shows the sensitive side of the Tower of London

This room of pure clean beauty is hidden inside a forbidding fortress. In 1078, the victorious William the Conqueror started to build the White Tower, the square keep at the heart of today’s Tower of London. In it, he included this scintillating example of the style of building known as Romanesque. The arches, columns and rounded vault of this ethereal chapel are dazzling in their confidence and humble in their piety. It is a place that creates a mood, still and sensitive and spiritual. This ravishing masterpiece of the Middle Ages proves the Normans had soul as well as strength. Illustration: John Kellerman/Alamy