While modern power tools were used in rough shaping for the sake of speed, a good deal of what you'll see onscreen was hand-finished, real stone.

Much of it was plaster, wood and polystyrene, of course, but a considerable part was real stone, and that was enormously impressive. I'm very grateful that the screen cathedral looks just as good as the one in my imagination! I've seen it 'for real,' during my location visits to Hungary. Without the looming presence of this mass of limestone, each of them would have a very different interest in Kingsbridge, and maybe none at all. For different reasons, our villains, Waleran Bigod and William Hamleigh, see the construction of a cathedral in Kingsbridge as a personal affront. But it also affects Aliena when she starts to recoup her fortune at the fleece-fair encouraged by the cathedral's construction. The cathedral's existence, or at least potential existence, is an important influence on several characters: Prior Philip, of course, and Tom Builder and his sons Alfred and Jack. In some way, the cathedral is a character, if by 'character' I mean something whose existence propels the plot rather than just a stage on which the plot takes place. But the cathedral is more than background or set. The stories that comprise The Pillars of the Earth are all connected, directly and indirectly, with the Kingsbridge Cathedral in my book. Now, Ken illuminates the architecture of Salisbury Cathedral, how it was replicated in the movie and what the cast learned from real-life masons. One of Oprah's Book Club's most popular selections, Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth, has been adapted into a sweeping, eight-hour miniseries that premieres July 23 on Starz.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett