Rouen is the capital of Normandy, however its cathedral is, in a approach, the “capital” of Rouen. It’s Rouen’s most prestigious monument and deserves to be explored intimately. You are able to do it any approach you want however I’ve divided the go to into seven subjects, or themes, by means of which to find this superb constructing.
Even in the event you don’t care about architectural type, if the Center Ages make you yawn, or in the event you assume Gothic means carrying black eye make-up, Rouen Cathedral will make you sit up and take discover. This can be the start of your love affair with these buildings.
I solely say this as a result of it’s what occurred to me.
I’ve by no means been an enormous fan of spiritual structure however once I first set eyes on the façade of Notre-Dame de Rouen, I nearly misplaced the flexibility to breathe for a second. Exploring this magnificent constructing is without doubt one of the unmissable and most rewarding issues to do in Rouen.
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Taking within the filigree that decorates this cathedral’s exterior is like making an attempt to deconstruct a chunk of lace: intricate, delicate, overwhelming, and in the end unimaginable.
The design, the stability, the beautiful carving – it’s as if somebody designed probably the most sophisticated constructing potential, after which doubled the work.
To construct this from scratch may need been unimaginable, however by including layer upon layer, this lovely gem lastly emerged.
Find out how to discover the Cathedral of Rouen
The cathedral is Rouen’s most prestigious constructing, reflecting greater than 1000 years of tumultuous historical past, a muse for artists and a magnet for guests.
You’ll be able to method in a wide range of methods, relying in your pursuits, and I’ve utilized seven completely different themes, or prisms, by means of which you’ll discover this spectacular construction. Whichever you select, you’ll in all probability not stroll away untouched.
1. Via historical past and resilience
If a constructing have been to obtain a prize for survival, this cathedral simply would possibly land in first place. Just like the proverbial phoenix, it has been destroyed and reborn numerous occasions.
- ninth century: this was the primary destruction, courtesy of Viking raids, which left the unique church broken and in want of rebuilding.
- Reconstruction within the Romanesque type would start within the eleventh century, just some years earlier than the Norman invasion of England (so effectively depicted within the extraordinary Bayeux tapestry a two-hour prepare trip away). However in 1200, a serious fireplace would devastate the cathedral and repairs would take practically half a century.
- In 1562, because the Wars of Faith swept Europe, the Rouen Cathedral was ransacked by Huguenots. They broken its façade, destroyed its statues, and usually vented their anti-Catholic sentiments.
- Then the massively anti-clerical French Revolution got here, and the cathedral, its spiritual perform eliminated, became a “temple of cause”, as many church buildings have been.
- 1822: Its authentic spire was manufactured from wooden and was destroyed by lightning, so a brand new one was constructed, with the extra resilient and fashionable forged iron changing the fire-prone wooden.
- 1944: The Allies, combating to displace German occupying forces throughout World Warfare II, bombed Rouen, inflicting vital damages and destroying a big a part of the cathedral, which might take a dozen years to restore. In reality, after the bombs fell it was nicknamed “Our Girl of the 7 Shells”.
- 1999: A violent storm broken the cathedral but once more, kickstarting one other spherical of repairs.
It by no means ends! But when nothing else, all these challenges underscore the cathedral’s immense resilience and the continuing dedication of the Rouennais to rebuild and protect their most beloved monument.
2. Via creative inspiration
The cathedral has impressed some of the cherished artists of current occasions, Impressionist Claude Monet, who painted its western façade no fewer than 30 occasions, cementing the popularity of the town of Rouen as “capital of Impressionism”.
Due to its intricacy, every tiny patch of the cathedral’s face absorbed gentle in another way, relying on the time of day, nearly driving Monet mad with the impossibility of capturing it absolutely. And so he saved making an attempt. Under are three of his works.
Camille Pissarro would additionally discover inspiration right here, as would Roy Lichtenstein and loads of others.
The cathedral would additionally encourage writers, like Gustave Flaubert, a local of the town, and Victor Hugo, each of whom would typically use the cathedral as a backdrop for his or her scenes.
CURIOUS ABOUT NORMANDY?
Listed here are a couple of reliable guidebooks to take alongside in your journey:
3. Via architectural evolution
If there’s one factor the cathedral is known for, it’s the completely different types it has worn over the centuries.
Whereas there aren’t any seen vestiges of the Gallo-Roman church that after stood right here, a chunk of wall from the twelfth century stays from the Romanesque cathedral, seen on the left in the event you’re going through the primary western entrance.
The unique Romanesque cathedral, commissioned by Archbishop Robert the Dane round 1030, featured a lot of the parts we’ve at the moment and would set the stage for the cathedral’s later developments.
The Gothic motion would start with the rebuilding of the cathedral after the dreadful 1200 fireplace. We’d see the arrival of these oh-so-Gothic options, the pointed arches and flying buttresses that allow in additional gentle and allowed for greater ceilings.
The Gothic construction was constructed on high of its Romanesque predecessor. In different phrases, the cathedral was constructed from the skin in – first the façade after which, slowly, the inside, with builders dismantling the older construction progressively as they superior inward.
Step-by-step, the constructing would develop. Through the fifteenth century, a further storey was added to the primary tower (tour Saint-Romain) and a second, the so-called Butter Tower, or Tour de Beurre, was constructed. However it could fissure, weakening your complete construction, calling for reinforcement work.
WHY CALL IT THE BUTTER TOWER?
For certainly one of two causes. The primary is due to the stone’s yellowish shade, which stands out towards the white stone used elsewhere for the cathedral. The opposite, and extra believable one in accordance with historians, is that the tower was financed by donations made to the church for forgiveness for having eaten butter throughout Lent.
The third cathedral tower, the “lantern tower”, was accomplished within the early sixteenth century and is dizzying in top, hovering upwards for 54m/177ft earlier than the spire even begins. Typical of Gothic structure, it was designeçd to attract gentle into the center of the church and was a exceptional engineering feat on the time.
Its development and that of the ultimate façades would culminate within the cathedral we’ve at the moment.
This can be a temporary overview, in fact, and there’s loads extra to study in regards to the cathedral’s structure.
4. Via its parts
Whereas the cathedral as an entire is great, I’d like to attract your consideration to a few of its parts.
The stained-glass home windows
Take your time admiring the home windows, which vary in date from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries, permitting the sunshine to enter and to play upon the partitions and statues. Among the home windows have been provided by guilds through the thirteenth century, such because the one by the town’s fishmongers.
Some of the lovely is the rose window, though it was shattered throughout a seventeenth century hurricane and ultimately restored thrugh a donation by Louis XIV.
The rose window of Rouen CathedralThe constructing stone
Two sorts of stone have been utilized in constructing. The primary was sturdy white stone from the Seine valley. The later use of yellow stone obtainable nearer to Paris could have been the results of shortage of the white stone; the yellow stone was additionally simpler to sculpt.
The spire
The forged iron spire changed the picket one after lightning struck it in 1822, and it has once more been renovated, this time painted in deep turquoise slightly than the unique brown. The arrow weighs 9000 tons: 8000 tons of stone and one ton of iron.
The chapels
The cathedral accommodates quite a few small chapels constructed to venerate saints but in addition to extend the cathedral’s measurement.
The principle one is devoted to the Virgin Mary, the Chapelle de la Vierge, and is house to a number of necessary tombs. I used to be significantly intrigued to study it included that of Louis de Brézé, whose demise resulted within the prolonged relationship between his widow, Diane de Poitiers, and King Henri II (the citadel of Chenonceau could be the scene of a few of their amours).
Chapelle de la Vierge at Rouen Cathedral ©OffbeatFrance/Leyla AlyanakFittingly for Rouen, one of many chapels is devoted to Joan of Arc, her modernist stained glass home windows telling the story of her life. On the backside is the inscription: “From the English in homage”.
Joan of Arc chapel in Rouen Cathedral – her statue reveals her burning on the stake, and above to the proper is a stained-glass illustration ©OffbeatFrance/Leyla AlyanakThe stairway
A surprising Gothic stairway was constructed to succeed in the library through the fifteenth century, one of many first Norman examples of a straight stairway (most had been spiral till then).
Gothic stairway resulting in library at Cathédrale de Rouen ©OffbeatFrance/Leyla AlyanakThe statues
Time, climate, battle, all these have darkened and helped erode a few of the cathedral’s works. The final time main restoration work befell, a lot of the façade’s statues have been introduced indoors and changed by copies.
The statues have been underneath risk from air pollution and have been moved indoors. Most have been cleaned, however a couple of have been left of their authentic state to indicate air pollution injury. ©OffbeatFrance/Leyla Alyanak5. Via its function as an illustrious necropolis
A bit just like the Pantheon or Saint-Denis Basilica in Paris, well-known personages are buried right here and people with an curiosity in historical past come to pay their respects.
Essentially the most well-known, in fact, is the near-mythical Richard the Lionheart, whose coronary heart was buried right here and whose “gisant”, or recumbent tomb effigy, is clearly seen.
When he died, his physique was break up in three, together with his entrails buried on the positioning of his demise in battle at Châlus in jap Aquitaine, his physique on the Plantagenet necropolis of Fontevraud Abbey (alongside together with his mother and father, Henry II of England and Eleonor of Aquitaine), and his coronary heart in Rouen, as per his needs.
The grave the place the center of Richard the Lionheart was buried in Notre-Dame de Rouen Cathedral ©OffbeatFrance/Leyla AlyanakThere are many different recumbent statues buried right here embrace Richard’s brother, Henry; Rollo, first Duke of Normandy; and Rollo’s son William.
6. Via superlatives
We like our “mosts” and our “bests” and Rouen’s cathedral doesn’t lack any of those.
- It’s the tallest cathedral in France and boasts the nation’s tallest spire, at 151m/495ft (for a time, it was the world’s tallest constructing).
- It additionally has France’s second-largest carillion after Chambéry, and one of many first organs to be seen in a Western church.
- And it has the widest façade in France, 61m/200ft (the façade of Notre-Dame in Paris “solely” measures 44m/144ft).
- At 137m/449ft, it’s barely longer than Notre-Dame in Paris, however solely by 10m/33ft. Nonetheless.
7. Via spiritual significance
Right this moment’s imposing cathedral is a really early church. It was appointed seat of the bishop of Rouen within the third century, as early Christianity was spreading and is Normandy’s oldest Christian monument, turning into the See of the Archbishop of Rouen within the eighth century, practically 1300 years in the past.
Nothing has interrupted its spiritual vocation, except a couple of years through the French Revolution.
With Rouen was established as Normandy’s capital, the cathedral slowly turned a focus of Norman spirituality and energy. The primary Norman duke, Rollo, could be baptized right here, sealing the mixing of Vikings into Christian and Frankish society.
Earlier than you go…
How a couple of guide suggestion?
You could recall years in the past having come throughout, as a toddler, a duplicate of Cathedral: The Story of its Building by David Macauley, an intriguing black-and-white guide crammed with architectural drawings of a fictitious cathedral’s inside. That guide has now been up to date and republished in full shade, and whereas it’s designed for youngsters, it’s additionally good for these of us who want an architectural primer to assist us inform a nave from a transept.
The Rouen Cathedral is a residing monument of each Christianity and France’s heritage, destroyed and rebuilt, by no means static and ever-changing, and all the time enduring in spirit.
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