What can we say? Another Saturday, Another Cathedral. This time it was Reims--a jewel of the French High Gothic, site of coronations, wars and, like modern Western Europe itself, restoration. A great cathedral and a town with more to do than we anticipated. (Yes, we ran out of time and will have to go back to see a couple sights on the UNESCO world heritage list that we missed).
We went there primarily to see the cathedral and it did not disappoint even though it was undergoing repairs like most of the great sites in France, even this close to the change of year (and only one year before the change in millenium). The cathedral introduced a number of architectural innovations.
This cathedral is the place of coronations, 25 French kings in all. (Or perhaps we should say so far as there are still loyalists in France trying to bring back the monarchy. Probably the English would be glad to loan us their royal family, but then maybe not since we didn't take all that good of care of Dianna when she was here).
The view at top of this page is of the west façade. In real life, it doesn't quite look this impressive as the approach is partially blocked by scaffolding of yet another building under repair.
We'll go inside in a minute but there's a few things that impressed us at first sight. One is height. This isn't called high gothic for nothing. Below is a drawing I've borrowed from another web sight which shows the comparative size of some of the great cathedrals. As you can see if you have fine enough web resolution (if not, Reims is 2nd from the right), Reims is among the tallest. As height increases, the arches get thinner. This will be even more aesthetically meaningful when we go inside and are nearly stunned by the sheer verticality of this building:
The cathedral got to be the coronation site because the first French king, Clovis, was baptized there in 498 and succeeding medieval kings wanted to be anointed with the same holy oil. If you recently had the misfortune of seeing the latest remake of Joan of Arc, you probably recall that it was her goal to have the Dauphin crowned Charles VII at Reims -- which he was.
Here's the center door of the west façade:
And a closer look at the carvings around the door:
Most of this appears to be in reasonable shape. Actually some of it is in horrible shape as this cathedral has fallen on hard times being more-or-less the fence between Germany and France. (These weren't always good neighbors so they took it out on the fence). The newly restored Cathedral was nearly wiped out during WWI but Rockefeller Foundation money did a pretty good job restoring it. Way to go, Exxon Mobil (and Chevron, and 20 plus other companies). Most of the statues have deteriorated quite severely over time. (Bill Gates, are you listening?) Take a look at these below still fighting the elements on the left side of the West façade:
Check out the two on the far left.
Typically these statues are being restored and brought inside the cathedral museum (called the Tau) and a copy is placed outside, generally a pretty good compromise in that the overall effect for the layman is pretty much the same.
In the picture, did you notice the famous smiling angel on the far right? Unlike a lot of cathedral statuary we've seen, these icons have personality. This angel is by far the most popular of the 2300+ exterior statues bristling like porcupine needles from the skin of this building. Close-up, you can see she is probably smiling because she hasn't lost the top half of her head like her neighbor:
But looking even closer, you'll see that she's not in all that good of shape with her missing hand and wing and all.
Here's an upward view of the west façade where you can see more deterioration behind a mesh screen that holds what's left of these stones from snowing on the passing tourists:
Walking around the church on the north side, we get this view of the North tower. The statues are of the kings of France who were so high up that they didn't get their heads knocked off during the French revolution as did the similar statues at Notre Dame in Paris.
While the church was completed in the thirteenth century, the towers were added in the fifteenth. Fortunately the six major architects stayed true to the original plans and the edifice is remarkably homogeneous.
Below is a wider shot of the North side showing the rather dramatic effect of the cleaning. Note the industrial strength flying buttresses to the right holding up the walls of the naves. (In fact, the architect doubled the number of buttresses but slimmed down the horizontal bars.) At the top of each buttress, an angel stands in the recessed niche. Below this picture is what appears to be a permanent excavation site while they dig out earlier versions of cathedrals below.
Moving beyond this construction, we see below one of the three doorways (the others were behind scaffolding).
This portico is quite busy with popes at the far end of the arches, etc. With the exception of the figures of Christ at the top, most of the more figures in the center are of local Christian legends with Clovis's baptism at the lower right, nearly obliterated by the anti-royalist iconoclasts of the French revolution. Much easier to see is the "Miracle of the Cask" towards the upper right. I'm not sure what that is all about but maybe they are talking about this place's most famous export, Champagne.
Finally here's a picture of the east end, the area behind the main altar of the church:
The Bishop's palace (now the Tau museum) blocks the south side.
Now we're ready to go inside. Please join us by clicking here.
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