Although roofs looked different on all cathedrals, what were some of the common purposes roofs served?

Question

anonymous · Answer

roofs also work as a thing to protect,preserve,nurture,care,gives shade ect....

jagatuba · Answer

I'm not entirely sure on this one. Obviously the main purpose of cathedral roofs was to keep out the elements, but there were various kinds of roofs; peaked, domed, etc. The two things that cathedral roofs all have in common is that they were all very high and their designs were distinctly different from other structures like houses. Now I'm taking a wild stab at this one on this, but I think the reason behind this was so that the cathedral would be easy to distinguish and find. 

Back the church played a much more important role than it does today. Don't take that the wrong way, I'm not saying that the church is not important today, but back then it was very much a part of the sociopolitical structure. Therefore, people had to be able to find it easily.  Therefore, their height made them easier to see from the ground level even when other buildings were around and the unique design aided in making it distinguishable from other tall building. Again, I'm not sure how right I am on this. I'm just taking an educated guess, and it seems to be sensible reasoning to me.