How France Built
Her Cathedrals

A Study in the Twelfth
and Thirteenth Centuries

Gothic architecture the logical fulfillment of Romanesque—Origin of Romanesque architecture—Romanesque basilicas modified by the liturgy—Horrors of the IX and X centuries in France—Rebirth of the builders’ energy after the year 1000—Cluny, the civilizing force of the X and XI centuries—Various regional Romanesque schools of France—Normandy, Burgundy, Auvergne, Poitou, Languedoc, Provence, and the Franco-Picard school—Birth of Gothic art—An undecided question where the first diagonal-crossing ribs were used—Germany’s and Italy’s claims—Claim of England—The Ile-de-France Picard region, the classic land of Gothic—Gothic architecture not a layman’s revolt against monkish Romanesque—The architects of the Gothic cathedrals—No heretical tendencies in Gothic sculpture—Origin of the term Gothic—XVII- and XVIII-century scorn for Gothic architecture—Modern French school of mediæval archæology.

Evolution from Romanesque to Gothic—St. Denis’ abbatial, the first important Gothic monument—Some early-Gothic churches in the Ile-de-France—Morienval, the first Gothic-vaulted ambulatory extant (c. 1122)—Church of St. Étienne, at Beauvais (c. 1120)—St. Germer-en-Flay built from 1150 to 1175, yet less advanced than St. Denis—Poissy’s church of St. Louis (c. 1135)—How Abbot Suger built his abbey church at St. Denis—St. Denis’ school of glassmaking, the leader for fifty years—Dedication of St. Denis on June 11, 1144, consecrated the national art—Who Suger was and how St. Bernard converted him—What is left of the abbey church which Suger built—Reconstruction of St. Denis by St. Louis, 1231 to 1280—Pierre de Montereau, its architect—Tombs in St. Denis’ abbatial—Deviation of the axis not symbolic—Some happenings in St. Denis during the XII and XIII centuries—Charles Péguy’s verses, linking St. Denis, St. Geneviève, and Jeanne d’Arc.

Cathedral of Noyon, first built of Gothic cathedrals (c. 1150)—Noyon’s communal charter, the first of known date, 1109—Cathedral’s nave, a vessel of most perfect proportion—Exceptional among French cathedrals, its transept’s rounded ends—Noyon has retained its annexes—Its chapter house, built about 1240—Noyon city destroyed, 1918—Cathedral still stands.

Cathedral of Senlis, second of the Gothic cathedrals, begun about 1153—Sculpture at Senlis’ west portal (c. 1180) marks a date in imagery—Cathedral tower, the “pride of the Valois land”—Transept’s façades of the best Flamboyant Gothic art—What the World War did to Senlis.

Cathedral of Sens, begun about 1160—Sens’ ancient see, governed by notable men in the XII and XIII centuries—How they found out who was the architect of the cathedral—St. Thomas Becket in Sens, 1164, and again from 1166 to 1170—St. Louis married in Sens Cathedral, 1234—Glory of Sens’ stained glass.

Cathedral of Laon, begun about 1160—Fallacy of the “town-hall” theory—Cathedral of springtime foliage—Oxen on Laon’s towers—Origin of the square east end of Laon Cathedral—Laon’s communal struggle—Famous XII-century school of Anselm de Laon—Laon city shelled by the French, but its cathedral unhurt.

Cathedral of Soissons almost a ruin—Desolation of Soissons in World War—Soissons’ southern arm of transept ends in a hemicycle (c. 1180)—Is the most exquisite thing in France—The crusading bishop-builder, Nivelon de Chérisy.

Some important Primary Gothic churches: Abbatial of St. Remi at Rheims (c. 1170)—Its superb XII-century glass wrecked in the World War—Abbatial of Notre Dame at Châlons-sur-Marne (c. 1160)—Pioneer in fenestration—First to use pillars between chapels and ambulatory—Church of St. Quiriace at Provins (c. 1160)—Provins, residence of the counts of Champagne—Its international fairs frequented by mediæval Europe—Collegiate of St. Yved, at Braine (c. 1200), between Primary Gothic and the Era of Great Cathedrals—Individual plan of its choir-chapels—St. Leu d’Esserent, on the Oise, the best type of the small churches in the classic Ile-de-France—Its forechurch shows transition work (c. 1150)—Primary Gothic work to be found at Étampes, Vendôme, Fécamp, Rouen, Lisieux, Angers, Mantes, Paris.

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