A SPECTACULAR light show created by renowned international artists has lit up the East End of York Minster.

The digital art installation called Recovered Light was launched on Saturday and brings to life extensive restoration work to the Minster's Great East Window.

People gathered after dusk to watch as the artwork was projected on to a 70ft by 40ft screen installed on scaffolding covering the entire East Front.

Rory McCarthy, tourism development officer for City of York Council, said: "The feedback we have received so far has been very positive.

"On Saturday night, two museum managers from London travelled up to York especially to see Recovered Light and were amazed.

"People who have seen the artwork think it is fantastic to see the city's heritage become the inspiration for such an amazing piece of artwork."

The Minster's famous East Front, which contains the world's largest medieval stained glass window - about the size of a tennis court - has been covered with scaffolding to allow a £23 million restoration to proceed.

The show has been created by New York-based artists Marc Downie, Shelly Eshkar and Paul Kaiser, known as the OpenEnded Group.

They say the continually moving images will allow people to see the window's upper scenes up close for the first time through a kind of virtual X-ray.

Recovered Light was commissioned by the York Tourism Partnership as part of Illuminating York, a ten-year plan to encourage greater use of the city in the evenings.

The show will run until January 28, every day from dusk until midnight.

Mr McCarthy said: "The process of developing such an ambitious world-class piece of contemporary art has already attracted national and international attention to York as a creative city and cultural destination.

"It has attracted great attention to York's heritage and to the Great East Window."

Coun Keith Orrell, executive member for leisure and culture, said: "It adds a new dimension to all the wonderful buildings we have in York.

"People will remember the illumination of the Minster's West End, which was acclaimed by everybody.

"We have been very successful at attracting people to the city, and this is part of that."

Meanwhile, the Ice Factor ice rink closed on Sunday with organisers hailing its most successful year yet, with almost 45,000 people taking to the ice.

Spokeswoman Maria Faruglia said: "It went really well. This weekend was phenomenally busy, more so than we ever anticipated.

"Word had got out that we were still around and people wanted something to do at the weekend.

"It was a shame we had to close then, otherwise we would be looking to stay open until next weekend."

She said organisers hoped to return to the site later this year, adding: "We will start planning as soon as we have packed up."