A GIANT metallic orb installation at York Minster helped boost visitor numbers by nearly a quarter towards the end of last year.

The ten metre-wide and three metre-tall dome featured five panes of stained glass taken from the Great East Window in the attraction.

It opened at the end of October to provide visitors with the chance to see the restored medieval works of art up close, before they are returned to the window in 2015.

York Minster credits the dome with a 21 per cent increase in visitors for the last three months of last year.

Marketing director Nicola Bexon said: “The whole York Minster Revealed project is creating a huge buzz with our visitors, so we were quietly confident that it would be well received by visitors, but these figures really do exceed our expectations.”

Alongside the new visitor experiences, York Minster will be launching a number of new musical initiatives and seasons for 2013.

These include the Festival of Passions, which runs from March 9 to March 24 and features some of the region’s top choirs performing a series of concerts telling the dramatic story of the Passion of Christ.

The festival will culminate in a performance of Bach’s oratorio, St John’s Passion by York Minster Choir on March 23 and is followed by the Palm Sunday Procession through York on Sunday, March 24.

For more information, or to book tickets, visit the website; www.yorkminster.org