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France 07 July 2024

Cathedrale Notre-Dame – Amiens, France

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Our final church of our summer tour is the Cathedrale Notre-Dame in Amiens, usually referred to as the Amiens Cathedral. We were here on a Sunday morning, so church bells were ringing as we entered the church square. 

We announce our September tour in this video!

A UNESCO World Heritage Center, this 13th-century church was completed in about 50 years. Due to its fast and uninterrupted construction, the structure has a unity of High Gothic style throughout. As with every church we have gone to, Amiens Cathedral is an active faith community, therefore we first toured its beautiful outside while the Sunday-morning worshipers attended services inside. The three west portals are filled with sculpture and the center tympanum, with its Last Judgement, is both breathtaking and intriguing in its detail. The flying buttresses are especially elegant with their pierced designs.

Once inside, we had one last opportunity to view yet more exceedingly high vaults, not quite as high as those we saw in Beauvais, but close. Although services had ended as we toured the inside, we enjoyed an organ recital which was magnificent. So this five-week immersion tour of medieval churches comes to an end. Mike gets a heartfelt thanks for all he did to bring the photos, videos, text, and audio work to life. He has been incredibly supportive of this endeavor and made it even better with his production talents and his addition of music. We both want to thank Pastor Richard for suggesting the blog – it was truly a labor of love and we appreciate the opportunity to record the experience for all to enjoy.

So… until the next church journey…which we announce in this video

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France 06 July 2024

Cathedrale Saint-Pierre

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Our second church was Cathedrale Saint-Pierre in Beauvais. This church was the climax of French upwardly aspiring Gothic architecture. The tallest structure of the entire tour, it had the highest vault in medieval Europe. Even today when we are accustomed to seeing skyscrapers, it calls for a “wow” when you go inside. The structure was also interesting because the nave was never completed, allowing us some insight as to how medieval worshipers were able to conduct services when only an east end and transepts were completed.

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France 05 July 2024

Chartres – Saint-Pierre

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After visiting Chartres Cathedral, we visited Saint Pierre Church, a parish church that is not so well known. The church was outside Chartres’ city limits when it was part of a Benedictine Monastery. Because it was outside the city walls, it was vulnerable to attack. As you will see in the photos, Chartres Cathedral has undergone significant cleaning and restoration and Saint Pierre has not. Its outside walls have plants growing out of cracks and the inside suffers from mold growth. But it has its own charm, and allowed us to learn the importance of pilgrims to church finances.

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France 05 July 2024

Chartres – Cathedrale Notre-Dame

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There has been so much to learn on this trip. I am usually quite excited about rushing into a cathedral to look at the windows, the arches, and the vaulting to see how these medieval masons put it all together in such beautiful and inventive ways. Visiting the Cathedrale Notre-Dame (more often called the Chartres Cathedral) taught me to spend
more time on the outside and look – really look – at the building’s external sculpture.

The tympanum is the semicircular or triangular area above an entry and is often filled with relief sculpture. There are several recurring themes in medieval church tympana – the Last Judgement; the birth and life of Christ; the birth, life, and crowning of Mary; and sometimes the life and martyrdom of a saint that is important to that church. The sculptors were endlessly  imaginative and created small details that are easy to overlook, so I hope you will enjoy some of the close-up photos of the outside.

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France 04 July 2024

Saint Denis

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What can one possibly say about Saint Denis? Let’s begin with some basic information – the abbey church is important both to French politics and architectural history. A “royal” church, it is the burial place of French Kings. Many consider it the birthplace of Gothic cathedral architecture, due to its pointed arches, rib vaulting, and skeletal
structure. These features can be seen in other, older structures, but they came together in a very special way at Saint Denis. I had studied this church and seen many photos of it in my cathedral books so was looking forward to seeing the Abbey of Saint Denis in person.

Nothing had prepared me for entering this stunning church. It literally takes your breath away. We have spent several days looking at gothic churches and seen how the master masons explored and experimented with new styles and building techniques. Saint Denis is on a whole different level.

We were there on a sunny day and the colors that filled the interior were magical. So, I will write less, talk less so we 
can enjoy this visual journey into heaven on earth.

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France 03 July 2024

Reims – Cathedrale Notre-Dame

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Saint Remi has a close connection to our final visit for the day, the famous Reims cathedral, which did not disappoint. It was the coronation church of the French monarchy so had to provide an impressive stage for these important ceremonies. It is “High Gothic” and filled with portal sculptures inside and out. We spend more time than
usual on the outside and one could spend hours looking at each tympanum.

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France 03 July 2024

Basilique Saint-Remi Reims, France

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Saint Remi is fascinating with its heavy Romanesque nave next to an Early Gothic choir area. It is also important to French history, as this is where Clovis, first King of the Franks, was baptized. The shrine of Saint Remi, although a replica, is still quite impressive and was an important pilgrim destination.

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France 03 July 2024

Cathedrale-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais – Soissons

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Today we visited three sites – the Cathedrale-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais in Soissons, and the Basilique Saint-Remi and Cathedrale Notre-Dame in Reims.  All are beautiful and as much as they share certain characteristics, each one was unique with its own beauty.

The Soissons cathedral provides examples of the rapid architectural changes taking place in the latter 12th century.  The nave was filled with scaffolding, but instead of being disappointed I much prefer to be thankful they are maintaining this ancient building.  See the photos of the transepts and the east end, as they well illustrate the style changes that occurred in just a few decades.

 

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France 02 July 2024

Laon – Cathedrale Notre Dame

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We toured the cathedral in Laon, also called the Cathedrale Notre Dame.  Located on the top of a large hill and overlooking the vast valley below, one can see the church from a great distance.  As with the church in Noyon the current building sits on the same ground of previous churches, beginning in 497 when the diocese was founded.  A Carolingian cathedral replaced the original building, which was in turn replaced by the current structure begun in 1160.  It is famous for its five towers – two on either side of the west front, one over each transept, and a fifth tower over the crossing.  The west front towers start out as a square shape in the lower levels, then transform into octagonal shapes.  Much loved are the stone oxen that extend from the sides of the towers.  They are there to acknowledge the contribution of the oxen who pulled heavy carts of stone and building material to the top of the of this very big hill.

Inside, the nave is incredibly tall and offers a “gothic” feel. Even though we still see a mixture of semi-circular and pointed arches, the inside is filled with light and delicacy.  The eastern wall has, unusually for France, a flat end with a large window, adding to the amount of light that enters.

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France 02 July 2024

Cathedrale Notre-Dame – Noyon, France

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Today was the first full day of the third and last leg of this cathedral journey.  I am back with a group of cathedral lovers and our Lecturer is Dr. Jana Gajdosova who is the Director of the British Archaeological Association.  Tremendous credentials, a specialist in medieval architecture, and she is very nice!  The goal of the tour is to study French Gothic from around 1140 – 1280, a period of experimentation and rapid change. 

We first toured The Cathedral of Our Lady of Noyon, or in French, Cathedrale Notre-Dame.  It was one of the earliest gothic cathedrals and has characteristics of both Gothic and Romanesque.  The building that exists today was started around 1150.  But the first cathedral on the site was started around 531 and it was here that Charlemagne was crowned King of Neustria.  Ruined by Viking invasions in 859, a new cathedral was built in the Carolingian period.  This building, in turn, was damaged by fire so a replacement – and the current – structure came into being.  As we have seen repeatedly, construction began on the east end, ending with West Door completion in 1230.

Depending on the part we are in, the inside has four or five distinguishable levels, rather than the usual three (arcade, gallery, clerestory).  Instead, it has an arcade, gallery, triforium, in sections a second triforium, then a clerestory.  Although considered gothic, the church had a residual “feeling” of Romanesque.  Besides the semicircular arches, there is a lot of stone.  It did not have that “light and airy” atmosphere one expects of gothic.  Yet architectural experimentation is everywhere – the transepts have rounded ends rather than the more usual flat ends, and the vaulting is quadripartite, rather than the more usual (for its time) sexpartite or six-sectioned vaults.

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