Amiens Cathedral

The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Amiens (French: Basilique Cathédrale Notre-Dame d'Amiens), or simply Amiens Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral and seat of the Bishop of Amiens (currently Jean-Luc Bouilleret). It is situated on a slight ridge overlooking the River Somme in Amiens, the administrative capital of the Picardy region of France, some 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Paris. It is the 19th largest church in the world.

Medieval cathedral builders were trying to maximize the internal dimensions in order to reach for the heavens and bring in more light. In that regard, the Amiens cathedral is the tallest complete cathedral in France, its stone-vaulted nave reaching an internal height of 42.30 metres (138.8 ft) (surpassed only by the incomplete Beauvais Cathedral). It also has the greatest interior volume of any French cathedral, estimated at 200,000 cubic metres (260,000 cu yd). The cathedral was built between 1220 and c.1270 and has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981. Although it has lost most of its original stained glass, Amiens Cathedral is renowned for the quality and quantity of early 13th-century Gothic sculpture in the main west façade and the south transept portal, and a large quantity of polychrome sculpture from later periods inside the building.

Notre-Dame cathedral of Amiens is the largest cathedral of France by its interior volumes (200 000 m3). With the cathedrals of Chartres, Reims, Bourges and Beauvais (even if the nave of the latter was never built), it is considered as the archetype of the classical Gothic style, including elements of the following phases of the Gothic style, radiating Gothic (including the chevet) and flamboyant Gothic (including the large rosette of the western facade, the north tower and stalls). Its length off work is 145 meters and its vaulted height of 42.30 meters (close to the maximum supportable for this architecture).

The cathedral has lost most of its original stained glass, but remains famous for its thirteenth-century Gothic sculptures adorning its western façade and the portal of the Golden Virgin on the south facade of the transept, as well as the stalls of its choir, cabinetmaking masterpiece. Its architectural unity is obvious, but the heterogeneous aspects of its western facade and the elevation of its nave shows what the cathedral undergone during its important construction changes that have altered the original thought of the architect.

An historical monument in France since 1862, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981.

 

History

Previous religious buildings

The current cathedral occupies a site where several sanctuaries have succeeded each other and whose historian knows little, for texts and archaeological excavations. The first cult building probably dates back to the fourth century, during the Gallo-Roman period, when the existence of a Christian community was established, led by a bishop of Amiens. According to a traditional pattern, the cathedral group built inside the ramparts of the city and corresponding to the site of the current Gothic monument consists of two religious buildings: the first, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, by following St. Firmin the Confessor; the second devoted to Our Lady and St. Firmin the Martyr.

During the next eight centuries, several religious buildings were built, but fires reduce them to ashes. Such is the case in 850, during a Viking invasion, then in 1019 and in 1107. Following a fire that destroyed much of the city, a new Romanesque church was built between 1137 and 1152, year of its consecration, but we have no document to determine what it was.

 

The church, which already preserves the bones of the main local saints (Gentien, Fuscien, Victoric), sees its prestige increase dramatically with the arrival, in 1206, of the leader of Saint John the Baptist. Indeed, according to local tradition, a Crusader Picard named Wallon de Sarton, Canon of Picquigny, succeeds in stealing the so-called holy relic of the skull of Saint John the Baptist during the looting of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204. Pretended, because this relic badge is the object, like all bodies of saints at that time, of an international trade and that the invention of relics, even false, is often performed at crucial moments for the cathedrals, allowing them to "get out of difficulties" to reaffirm the power of a bishop, etc. ". The supposed body of John the Baptist is dismembered and his various relics are duplicated, including his skull of which there are many copies. Wallon reports this relic to Amiens where it is solemnly received by the bishop Richard de Gerberoy on the 17^th of  December 1206, during the ceremony of the reception. Very quickly, the relic became the object of a pilgrimage, one of the most important of the North of France during all the Middle Ages, so that this sacred object becomes one of the main sources of income of the cathedral. Many French and foreign princes came to honor him. But the head of the saint attracts especially people with deafness, mutism, blindness and above all people with the "evil Saint John", that is to say, epilepsy. Quickly, this influx makes the Romanesque cathedral too small.

In 1218, the lightning falls on the spire of the old cathedral, which sets fire to the frames. The roof blazes with astonishing rapidity, and soon the whole building collapses in the flames. Bishop Évrard de Fouilloy decided to rebuild a new cathedral, not only much larger and more beautiful than the previous one, but also unparalleled among the other sanctuaries of Christendom, in order to offer to the relic of Baptiste a setting worthy of his importance. And to welcome pilgrims from all over Europe, you have to see big. Faced with this great challenge, he chose as architect Robert de Luzarches. It also provides that this new cathedral - by its iconographic program - is a real book of stone that would promote the teaching of religion to the Christian people. We will talk later about the Bible of Amiens. The construction of this Gothic cathedral is not much more documented. The texts are rare and of a delicate interpretation.

 

 

Building of the current cathedral (1220-1288)

At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the period of the reign of Philip Augustus, Amiens lives in full prosperity. The city benefits from the proximity of Flanders, whose cloth-making business is flourishing, as well as the nearby Champagne fairs. But it is the trade of the woad or pastel of the dyers, used for the dyeing of the sheets and cultivated in the region, which assures to the bourgeoisie amioise the base of its fortune. Amiens has a quasi-monopoly and the bishopric of Amiens contributes to general prosperity. The generous donors are not lacking, and the resources of the bishopric allow him to finance this gigantic project. This enrichment thanks to the trade of the drapery and the pastel explains that in the cathedral, the axial chapel of the Virgin is dedicated to the origin "Notre-Dame drapière".

 

The construction works began with the foundations in 1220 and the laying of the first stone took place the same year as attested by the inscriptions in the labyrinth and above the portal called the Golden Virgin. Not long before, the city wall has been set back and the population has grown. In 1190, the ramparts were receded to the east and soon after in 1193, to the south. The builders thus benefit from an enlarged space (7,700 m2 on the ground) inside the new enclosure (so-called Philippe-Auguste) and can thus provide a sanctuary of gigantic dimensions (145 meters long by 70 wide at the transept). However, it is necessary to destroy the Saint-Firmin-the-Confessor church which occupies the place envisaged for the north arm of the transept, as well as the Hôtel-Dieu which would have prevented the construction of the north tower of the main facade. Unlike the current rule, work began with the nave. The cathedral continues to use temporarily the choir of the old Romanesque church.

Robert de Luzarches having died in 1222, as well as the bishop Évrard de Fouilloy, the new bishop, Geoffroy d'Eu, entrusts the continuation of the works to Thomas de Cormont. Donations  from all sides and the worksite advancing rapidly. In 1225, the portal was completed. In 1228, the walls of the nave already reached the level of the birth of the vaults. That same year, Renault de Cormont succeeded his father as prime contractor. The nave was completed around 1230.

Towards 1236, at the death of Geoffroy d'Eu, the large facade rises up to the cornices above the rose window, and the base of the transept was built. The nave is delivered to the cult. The new bishop Arnoul de la Pierre is at the origin of the second phase of works from 1236 to 1247 with the construction of the choir, the chevet and the radiant chapels. But from 1240, the work slowed down, the budget being exhausted. We can however finish the ambulatory, where Arnoul was buried in 1247.

The new bishop, Gerard de Coucy did little works, which are reduced to little between 1247 and 1258. That year sees a fire ravage the chapels apse. This sinister has the effect of whipping the ardor of the builders and benefactors, and work resumed at a good pace until 1269, year when the choir, as evidenced by the installation of windows, the date of this event is indicated on one of the windows above the high altar: "Bernardus Episc, told me - MCCLXIX" (Bernard d'Abbeville, bishop, gave me in 1269). The Gothic cathedral is therefore operational, although the towers are not completed. The break-up of the building site of a few years at least has made remember as traditional dating of completion of the shell, including vaulting, the year 1269.

Nearly two decades later, Bishop Guillaume de Mâcon still raises an arrow (the first). Small changes in the choir and bedside are made and a light frame nearing completion, the designer may have learned from the recent disaster of the Cathedral of Beauvais. This work ended in 1288. That year, the labyrinth was created, still under the direction of Renault de Cormont. 1288 is the date chosen for the completion of the cathedral, although the towers of the western facade are still not completed. In all, however, the edification was quite fast since the essential was done. This gave Notre-Dame d'Amiens a rather large architectural unity that rarely exists among its rivals.

The construction of the cathedral of Amiens was very important for the development of the rationalization of the medieval building sites and the serial size of the stones. From the very beginning of construction, Robert de Luzarches designed four different types of stones that are mass-produced. The stones used comes mainly from the great careers of Picquigny which belong to the canons of this parish. A contract dating back to 1234 has reached us and reports fifty pounds parisis for eleven years to pay to the canons of Picquigny. The stones are transported by boat on the Somme to the city of Amiens. Stones from the Croissy, Domélier and Bonneleau quarries were also used.

 

From 1288 to the end of the 15th century

From 1290 to 1375, The  side chapels of the nave was built, not planned in the initial plan. They were eleven, six in the north and five in the south, the oldest in the east, the latter in the west.

The south tower of the cathedral was completed in 1372. The north tower poses some problems: in 1375, one must build a counter-buttress to the north tower, made necessary because of the slope of the land, so that the crowning of this tower will be completed in 1402. In 1385 the cathedral the marriage of Charles VI and Isabeau of Bavaria took place.

In 1470, the Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold, eager to seize Amiens, installs his camp at Saint-Acheul. According to Olivier de la Marche, he was so dazzled by the size of the building that he expressly forbids his artillery to fire on the building.

Saved from the collapse in 1498-99

In 1497, Pierre Tarisel was the "master of masonry works". He realizes that an imminent catastrophe was preparing and will cause the collapse of the cathedral. At that time, we did not forget the disaster that occurred in 1284 at the Saint-Pierre de Beauvais cathedral, part of the vault of the choir collapsed just twelve years after its completion. Emergency work was required: additional flying buttresses were added to the straight spans to reinforce the flying buttresses of the nave and transept. In addition, the large pillars of the cross of the transept buckle under the effect of the thrust of large arcades amounting to 42.3 meters. In a genius flash, then circle almost the entire building of a chain in "Spain iron" deemed the best at that time. This chaining runs in the triforium of the nave and transepts. still in place today. It does not take much more than a year to fix the problem. The cathedral is thus not only saved at the time of certain destruction, but also made much more robust for centuries to come.

 

The brotherhood of Notre-Dame du Puy and the puys of Amiens

sources:

The confraternity Notre-Dame du Puy is a puy, a pious literary society such as was found at the end of the Middle Ages in the Netherlands, Belgium, Picardy and Normandy. Founded in 1388, this company gradually came to exercise its patronage by sponsoring the creation of pictorial works to adorn the cathedral. This patronage was exercised since the year 1452 (year following the promulgation of the new statutes of the Brotherhood forcing the masters of the brotherhood to have a work of art executed) until 1693. During this long period from the end of the Middle Ages at the end of the Great Century, the brotherhood had nearly two and a half centuries to execute almost every year a work of pictorial art. In total, the number of art works produced was estimated at 185, a testimony of devotion to the Virgin and intended to beautify the sanctuary. These pictorial works gradually acquired the name of Puys.

Over time, the execution of these Puys evolve gradually. The evolution orders for donation follows the reputation of the brotherhood, and therefore its destiny, but also reflects the change in tastes and artistic trends in France between the end of the Middle Ages and the end of the reign of the Sun King:

 

 

• In the fifteenth century, a total of thirty-four paintings were produced, four of which were of the polyptych type, with shutters.

• In the sixteenth century, there are eighty-six paintings (ten of which are now preserved). At the beginning of this century, five paintings with shutters are listed. From 1518, there are mentions concerning carved frames.

• At the end of the 16th century, a new type of artwork appears, the chapel fence. These fences always incorporate the gift of a painting that usually takes place in the crowning of the fence. This type of offering  became widespread in the seventeenth century. In fact, there are ten fences of chapels between 1600 and 1615. Soon, all the sites available for the fences having been endowed, one attends the delivery of carved altarpieces, whose number reaches fourteen between 1614 and 1664. These altarpieces generally include a board. Thus in 1627 and in 1634/35, the chapel of the Confraternity of Puy and that of Saint Sebastian beautifully arranged by the creation of a set including an altarpiece (with table and statues), an altar and a fence.

• Some masterpieces of another type also offered to the cathedral as part of this special sponsorship: a pulpit in 1602, an altar table in 1636, two marble holy water stoups in 1656.

• From 1625, the donation of purely sculptural works was manifested. This type of donation gradually increased; there are eight cases in the seventeenth century, seven of which are still in place. On the other hand, the production of isolated paintings became scarce during this period, and there are only eight cases in the seventeenth century.

• Finally, from 1647, the beginning date of the brotherhood decline , the donation of objects of worship became more and more common: there are sixteen donations of this type before 1686.

Despite all these changes in the form and type of works offered, an element remains almost unchangeable over the centuries: the theme of the Virgin, patroness of the Brotherhood. This one was indeed present in the first known paintings (1438) and one finds it until 1678 with the last Puy preserved in the cathedral Notre-Dame of Amiens.

From 1500 to the Revolution

From 1508 to 1519, the magnificent stalls of the choir were created. They numbered 120 originally, there are still 110 to date.

In 1528, the spire of the cathedral was destroyed by lightning, we proceed to the construction of a new one, the one we know today. Its frame structure covered with gold lead sheets and stapled together, as well as the statues of the bell tower and its top is 112.70 meters above the ground. The boom was subsequently subject to many repairs.

The western rose window, whose summit is located 42 meters, was redone in the sixteenth century in the flamboyant Gothic style, on the order of the mayor of the city.

In the eighteenth century, there is a major overhaul of the decoration of the choir. Thus the rood screen, destroyed in 1755, was replaced by a superb grid "Rocaille", work of Jean Veyren according to the plans of Michelangelo Slodtz. This masterpiece was completed in 1768. The closing of the choir of the early fifteenth century is at the same time largely destroyed. Stunning statues and a remarkable Baroque cathedra are also appearing. But all these innovations exhaust the treasure, and thus the maintenance of the building is seriously neglected. Repairs should have been made to the flying buttresses of the choir but, for lack of money, things got worse. Similarly stained glass windows that began to deteriorate in the Middle Ages are not maintained.

During the Revolution, Notre-Dame d'Amiens suffered very little compared to many other French sanctuaries. The Amiens succeeded in preserving their patrimony from the attacks of vandals of the Revolution, such as the troops of the conventional Joseph Lebon who in 1793 exerted unspeakable cruelties in the neighboring city of Arras. There are some lily flowers, some crosses and even some statues removed (including the fleurdelisés backsplashes stalls), but the damage remains marginal. The large and small statues of the various portals as well as those of the gallery of kings remain intact.

In 1793, the cathedral was transformed into a temple of Reason and Truth then, in 1794 temple of the Supreme Being. The catholic cult was restored there in 1795. One can see today the statue of saint Geneviève converted into goddess Reason, on the altar of the chapel of Puy Notre-Dame, on the left in the southern cross of the transept.

From the Revolution to the present day

At the end of the Revolution, the church claims new restorations led by the architect Étienne-Hippolyte Godde and from 1821 by François-Auguste Cheussey. The latter entrusted the restoration of the mutilated statuary to three sculptors, Théophile Caudron and brothers Aimé and Louis Duthoit but resigned in 1848, tired of criticism of scholars Amiens who criticize him to favor the style at the expense of iconography. He was replaced in 1849 by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who wanted to restore his original grandeur and restore the atmosphere of the Middle Ages that emerged at the origin of its layout and decoration. On September 24, 1849, the latter presented to the Minister of Public Instruction and Cults an alarming report on the state of the cathedral, little or not maintained during the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Viollet-le-Duc undertook controversial restoration of the building from 1849 to 1874. It incorporates in fact elements that the monument bequeathed by the Middle Ages never possessed. He adds, at the top of the large western façade, a gallery designed to unite the two towers: the Sonneurs Gallery.

In 1915 during an episode of intense bombing the three portals of the main facade and the gate of the Golden Virgin are covered with a formwork consisting of bags of soil, thus limiting a first time the damage on the building.

In July 1918, during the last German offensive in the west, the cathedral fell under the fire of the German imperial troops. But at the urging of Pope Benedict XV, the Germans stop taking the sanctuary as a target. The cathedral is thus saved. Shortly after, the German army retreated in the distance, and everything went back to normal.

In May 1940, during the German bombings that seriously affect the city, the cathedral was also  spared.

A complete restoration (radiant chapels, frame, furniture, replacement lead arrow, replacement of the lightning rod, gilding of the symbolic rooster rested June 26, 1974) was undertook from 1973 to 1980 under the direction of Chief Architects of Historical Monuments André Sallez then Alain Gigot.

Since 1994, the restoration works of the cathedral are, by convention, financed by Amiens Metropole, the Department of the Somme, the Picardie region and the State. The extensive restoration campaign carried out in the 2000s on the western facade uses for the first time on a large scale the technique of laser photonic descaling for the cleaning of gate carving (the validated laser cleaning test started in 1992 on the South portal dedicated to the Virgin). This work made it possible to reveal traces of polychromy restored by the light under the layer of soiling, on the occasion of the sound and light show "Amiens, the cathedral in color" launched in the winter 1999.

 

From 2010, the restoration of all other exterior facades continues at the level of the north arm of the transept.

Dimensions

sources:

• external length: 145 m

• inner length: 133,50 m

• depth of the choir with 4 spans and double collaterals (including the ambulatory, the roundabout with seven sides and the axial chapel): 64 m

• length of the nave of 6 bays: 54 m

• width of the central vessel of the nave: 14.60 m

• width of the aisles of the nave: 8.65 m

• width of the nave with its 2 aisles: 32 m

• width of the nave with its 2 aisles and side chapels: 40 m

• vaulted height of the aisles of the nave: 19.7 m (nearly double the aisles of Notre-Dame de Paris nave, which are between 10 and 10.5 meters high, and almost same height as for the nave of the cathedral of Lisieux which is 20 meters high)

• height of the columns bordering the nave (capitals included): 13.85 m

• distance between the piles (from west to east): 5.2 m

• width of the transept without its two collaterals: 14.25 m

• total transrept total width: 29.30 m

• length of the transept: 70 m

• length in transept work: 62 m

• North rose diameter of the transept:?

• diameter of the south rose of the transept:?

• height under vault: 42,30 m (against 33,50 m for Notre-Dame of Paris)

• exterior height of roof ridge: 56 m

• height of the boom: 112.70 m

• height of the north tower: 68.19 m (same height as the towers of Notre-Dame de Paris)

• height of the south tower: 61.70 m (only 6 m more than the ridge of the roof of the building)

• covered area: 7,700 m2

• interior volume: around 200,000 m3 (almost double Notre-Dame de Paris, but only half the volume of Cologne Cathedral, which is 407,000 m3)

 

Western facade

• total width: 48.78 m

• width of the porch of the Beau-Dieu gate: 11.69 m

• depth of this porch: 5.52 m

• width of the two side porches: 6.27 m

• Depth of these two porches: 4.54 m

• width of the 2 buttresses separating these 3 porches: 2.92 m

• diameter of the rose: 11 m.

According to the book "Our Lady of Amiens" published in 1833 by Antoine Pierre Marie Gilbert, the total height from the pavement of the church to the top of the spire, including the rooster, would be 128.64 m from which it is necessary to subtract two meters related to the restoration carried out later.

 

Construction materials

Most of the construction is in stone, mainly white chalk, limestone sedimentary rock typical of the Upper Cretaceous (more precisely here Turonian or Coniacian, dating from about 90 million years), mostly extracted from the quarries of Picquigny 10 km downstream from Amiens. It is a very typical rock from the north and west of Picardy, Haute-Normandie and a large part of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, very used for the many Gothic monuments in this area ( as in Beauvais, Abbeville, St Riquier, St Quentin, St. Omer, Evreux, Vernon, the Andelys, Caudebec-en-Caux, the churches of Rouen, or the Gothic cathedrals disappeared from Therouane, Cambrai and Arras). Chalk is a fine rock and quite tender, very easy to work, encouraging the most bold structures and sculptures, the quarry men have been able to select the hardest and best quality benches for the construction (this stone being more usually fragile and resistant to erosion). Many hard flint nodules are present in the chalk, not identifiable in advance they have always been integrated into the sculptures of which they sometimes exceed (and they are very visible for example at the pillars of the cathedral).

The basement of the cathedral is made of quartzite sandstone of control mounds of the Tertiary (Thanetian, towards - 55 Ma) of the region, it is a rock much harder and solid, but especially waterproof, to isolate the construction of the soil moisture.

The 19th century restorations of the upper parts of the façade were made of Lutetian limestone (the typical stone of the Paris region, stronger than chalk, Eocene, Tertiary) of the Oise quarries. The large balustrade and steps of the forecourt, dating from the nineteenth century, are made of Belgian bluestone, a very hard limestone from the Tournais (Primary era, - 350 Ma) quarries of Soignies (Belgium). The tessellation of the cathedral whose labyrinth, in dark and clear, combines the black stone of Tournai (Belgium) with the clear stone of Marquise (Pas-de-Calais), two hard limestone marbriers of the Primary era, traditionally imported in the region.

Plan and elevation

 

The cathedral was erected on a Latin cross-shaped plane and is liturgically oriented from east to west, with a southward inclination of about 23 degrees. It has a surface of 7 700 m2 and a volume of 200 000 m3.

Its side aisle opens on a transept overflowing with collaterals and a choir that includes five vessels. The bedside consists of three straight spans to double collaterals. The ambulatory is surrounded by seven radiant chapels, whose central, the chapel of axis, resembles by its architecture the Sainte-Chapelle of Paris, of which it is contemporary. The elevation in the nave is tripartite: large arcades, triforium and high windows. The pillars that support the arches are round and confined by four columns. The cross vaults of ogives are supported by engaged columns.

Exterior

The western facade and the towers

It is a harmonic facade, that is to say a symmetrical façade with three gates (the wider central), three elevation levels and two towers surmounting the side gates. Levels of elevation are the level of the portals, that of the gallery of kings surmounting a triforium formed of a series of twin arches, and that of the rose window. Finally, above rise the two towers connected to the nineteenth century by the gallery of bellmen added by Viollet-le-Duc, the architect inspired for this gallery small arches ogive gallery of columns of the facade of Notre-Dame de Paris.

Each of the three portals is surmounted by a triangular gable, endowed in its center with a trefoil decoration. The bases of these gables are flanked to the right and left of two remarkable gargoyles depicting grimacing and fantastic beings. The great gâble of the central portal supports at its summit an angel statue sounding the trumpet, statue placed there in the nineteenth century by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, replacing a statue of Saint Michael gulling a dragon.

A difference striking between the interior facade and the exterior facade. The inner facade contains the first facade project subsequently modified, hidden by the organ.

The upper part of the western facade, including the towers, is 6 meters deep. The facade took into account the elevation of the nave (4 meters more) on the large upper bays. The rosace redone in the sixteenth century is a typical flamboyant Gothic style.

 

Above, a curtain, the " bellmen gallery", is surmounted by a second gallery composed of fine openwork arches. The set occupies the space between the two towers. Behind these galleries is a terrace called "Chamber of Musicians".

Four very powerful buttresses divide the building vertically and separate the three gates. They are particularly prominent on the ground floor where they separate and securely frame the portals. They are intended to ensure the stability of both the façade and the two towers that it supports.

These foothills shrink sharply when passing from the first to the second level (that of the triforium supporting the kings gallery), forming at this location a retreat marked by a deep march. The second level of the facade is therefore far behind the lower floor of the portals. This walk of the four foothills is decorated with huge and imposing pinnacles very worked. The same layout is repeated at level two to level three of the facade (rose window) and a new series of four large pinnacles occupies the second retreat of the foothills thus formed. In total, the facade of the cathedral appears well decorated.

A technical error lies in the facade by the fact that leaks were observed: the water flowed from the large upper galleries on the porches which posed problems for the safeguarding of the sculptures of the portals among others.

Towers

The towers are actually half-turns and have no scale. This role of slenderness was realized by the arrow of the transept which is visible from many places of the city of Amiens.

The towers were the last parts of the building to be built. The two towers, instead of being raised on a square plan like all the towers of the cathedrals of this period, are rectangular, or more precisely barlong, that is to say, half less thick than wide. These are only halves of towers in all their height, and the two buttresses, which were to be located laterally in the middle region of these towers, became corner buttresses. At the root of this situation: a lack of financial resources.

In 1240, Bishop Arnoult had pushed the work at such a rate that funds were exhausted. It was necessary to suspend the construction and to amass new sums. Moreover in 1258, a fire destroyed the frames of the chapels of the apse. This disaster further contributed to slowing down the completion of the choir, facade and towers. In Amiens, as everywhere else, the populations showed less ardor and enthusiasm to see the monument completed. It took a long time to collect the donations necessary for the continuation of the works, and these donations were not large enough to allow to deploy in what was to be built all the greatness that was originally planned. In raising the nave, from 1220 to 1228, it had been wished to finish, above all, the vessel, and we had not been preoccupied with the facade left in suspense. The central door alone had been pierced and the upper rose opened. It was not until 1238, when a new impulse was given to the work by the bishop Arnoult, that one thought to finish the western facade. But already, no doubt, there was a presentiment of the exhaustion of the resources, so abundant during the reign of Philip Augustus (died in 1223), and the primitive projects were restricted.

 

The most certain proof of this modification made to the initial project of Robert de Luzarches is that the foundations exist under the total perimeter of the towers as they should have been. In other words, the lower part of the façade and the base of the towers built before 1238 correspond to the initial plan. From this primitive facade, it remains:

• The two piers of the central door
• The entourage of the large rose window

• From 1240, the new parts of the facade rise according to the new less ambitious plan:

• The three porches and the gables and pinnacles that surmount them (dated about 1240)
• Openwork gallery and gallery of kings (also dated 1240)
• The lower floor of the towers.

As for the upper parts of these towers and the gallery between the two, they are high constructions in the fourteenth century and even in the early fifteenth. They were built far back from the base of the facade and towers, which gave them a flattened shape from west to east, that is to say a rectangular and non-square plan. It is clear that such towers could not rise very high.

The towers are of unequal height. Their last floor is very different in style and decoration. While the steeper, steeply pitched top of the south tower is still radiating in style, the 66-meter-high North Tower, completed thirty-six years later, is a fine example of Flamboyant Gothic style. They are both flanked by a small quadrangular turret, nestled between the two lateral buttresses and forming part of the tower. These turrets each house a spiral staircase to reach the first floors of the towers, and are surmounted by an elegant pyramidal roof very well decorated. On the southern side of the south tower, at the western buttress, one can see a sundial, surmounted by the statue of an angel. This tower was completed in 1366.

 

The north tower and its counter-stop

As for the north tower, the slope of the ground posed some problems. First, we had to build a huge counter-stop to mitigate the risk of collapse. This one was started in 1375, so that it was not until 1402 that the crowning of this north tower was finally realized.

Flamboyant style, the counter-buttress is very rich in ornaments, much more than the adjacent north facade. We can see nine very beautiful statues of the fourteenth century, divided into three superimposed groups. The lower group presents the statues of the Virgin Mary, St. John the Baptist and St. Firmin the martyr. The middle group: King Charles V of France and his two sons, the dauphin Charles future Charles VI and Louis, Duke of Touraine and future Duke of Orleans. Finally the highest group shows us Cardinal Jean de La Grange and two unidentified characters.

The portal of the Last Judgment

The portals of the west facade are, like that of the southern transept, richly adorned with sculptures that present a whole theological program. The great central portal or portal of the Last Judgment, sometimes called the portal of the Good God, is surrounded by two other smaller portals: that of the Mother-God, on the right in the south, and that of Saint Firmin on the left.

The tympanum above the great portal is decorated with a representation of the Last Judgment, when at the end of time, according to Christian tradition, the dead are raised and judged by Christ. This tympanum is subdivided into three registers.

 

At the lower level of the tympanum, the resurrected ones came out of their tombs to the sound of the trumpet. The archangel Saint Michael and his balance are present among them to weigh the souls. At the bottom of the scene, a demon tries to cheat by leaning one of the trays on his side.

In the middle register, the damned are separated from the elect and, completely naked, driven by demons, head for the mouth of a monster, the Leviathan.

In the higher register, Christ on his throne, his hands raised, his torso stripped to show his wounds, was surrounded by the Virgin Mary and St. John kneeling interceding for the salvation of souls, as well as angels who wear them. instruments of the Passion.

The representation of hell and paradise is found in the lower claveaux of the tympanic arch. In heaven, we first see the souls gathered in the bosom of Abraham. They then move to a city that represents the heavenly Jerusalem.

Hell as represented is very similar to that of Notre Dame de Paris. You can see a pot and naked horsemen perched on rearing horses. They evoke the Apocalypse.

The general impression that emerges from this vast representation is not pessimistic. Hell occupies only a very small part of the whole and several elements underline the mercy and the goodness of the Lord. The Virgin Mary and Saint John intercede for us and the image of Jesus who presides at the Judgment showing his wounds reminds us that he came to our rescue as Redeemer to redeem our sins and he did not hesitate to suffer for love for us.

In the center of the central portal, at the trumeau between the two leaves of the door, is a statue of Christ the savior, the "Beau-Dieu of Amiens", a magnificent representation of Christ. This is one of the most remarkable statues of the cathedral. This is a teaching Christ. Standing, wearing a long tunic, he has his feet resting on a dragon and a lion and holds in his left hand a closed book while blessing with his right hand. According to legend, the sculptor had no inspiration to make the statue. God would have appeared to him in the middle of the night. The next morning, we found the dead sculptor, the statue of the Good God at his side.

 

On the pedestals of the seals are the large statues of the twelve apostles surrounded by the four principal prophets. To the left of the portal (to the left for the one who looks at the portal, to the right of Christ therefore), we find successively from left to right (that is to say, starting from the outside and going towards Christ): the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel, followed by Simon or Jude, Philip, Matthew, Thomas, James the Minor and Paul who carries the book and a sword. On the right (right for the viewer, on the left of Christ) the sequence is the following (starting from Christ and going outwards): Pierre, easily recognizable thanks to his usual attribute, the keys, André, Jacques le Major with as attribute shellfish symbols of Compostela, John, Simon or Jude, Barthelemy, then the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. It should be noted that the attribution of certain statues is uncertain because their attribute has been lost. At their base, we can see a series of polylobed medallions that represent vices and virtues.

Laterally, on the right side of the portal, between the Portal of Judgment and that of Mother-God, are other series of medallions with, among others, a Jonah spewed by the whale.

The Saint-Firmin portal

The northern portal is dedicated to St. Firmin (or perhaps Saint Honoré), which is depicted on the trumeau whose base is adorned with five bas-reliefs illustrating the life of the Virgin. The tympanum of the portal tells the story of the discovery of the saint's body.

On each side of the portal are six large statues; most of them represent saints whose relics were exposed each year above the high altar. On the left-hand side of the church, you can see Saint Ulphe, from left to right, an angel unrolling a banner, Saint Acheul (martyr), Saint Ache (martyr too), an angel and Saint Honoré, the former bishop of the city. On the right are the statues of St. Firmin the confessor (Firmin II bishop of the city), St. Domice, St. Fuscian (martyr), St. Warlus and St. Luxor.

 

The picard calendar

The basement of the Saint-Firmin portal is richly worked. They are decorated with a series of medallions, carved in the form of four-leaf (quadrilobes) and presenting an agrarian calendar which establishes a correspondence between the zodiac and the works of the months. All these beautiful sculptures, remarkably well preserved and soon to be eight centuries old, is called the Picard or Zodiac calendar of Amiens. The characters represented work in the countryside. Indeed, we must not forget the important predominance of the rural world at that time. Both the signs of the zodiac and the work of the fields are very well carved. The characters wear different clothes according to the seasons.

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The portal of the Mother-God or the Virgin

The southern portal of the western facade, called portal of the Mother-God, is dedicated to the Virgin. In the tympanum, we find in the lower register a series of six characters from the Old Testament, the ancestors of the Virgin. The death and the assumption of the Virgin are represented at the level of the middle register, and finally one attends his coronation in paradise, in the higher register.

At the trumeau is a large statue of the Virgin walking the Evil, represented in the form of a clawed fantasy animal with a human head. It is represented in a very static attitude, which is the mark of the statues inspired by the Chartres model (that is to say, the model of the Chartres cathedral).

The statues adorning the splayings of the side piers are particularly remarkable: on the right, grouped two by two, they represent three important episodes of the life of the Virgin Mary: the Annunciation, the Visitation and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. On the left, from the outside to the inside, we find the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon, King Herod the Great and the three wise men.

The medallions of the foundations contain representations of episodes from the life of Christ, but especially episodes of the life of the kings represented on the left of the portal: history of Solomon including his relations with the Queen of Sheba, episodes of the king's reign Herod and history of his relations with the three wise men.

 

Earthly paradise and the original sin

The base of the trumeau features bas-reliefs dedicated to original sin, a theme often associated with the Virgin, since it is through her that Christ the Redeemer arrived. This association was founded in particular at the trumeau of the portal of the Virgin of Notre-Dame de Paris.

The third part of this bas-relief of the earthly paradise represents the temptation of Adam and Eve and original sin. The couple are at the feet of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that God has forbidden to consume. The devil here has the shape of a snake with the head of an attractive woman. This is actually Lilith, a biblical figure missing from the Christian Bible, but present in the rabbinical writings of the Babylonian Talmud. According to Jewish tradition, Lilith was Adam's first wife. She would have refused to accept the lower position when they made love. She then leaves earthly paradise and soon reiterates her refusal to submit, but to God this time, which ordered her to do so. Later, having left the surface of the Earth, this perverse woman ends up becoming a devil and favorite of Lucifer. She came back to tempt the couple she was jealous of, in order to make them disobey God and hurl them into misfortune.

The gallery of Kings and its low gallery

On the facade of Notre-Dame d'Amiens, immediately above the three porches, is a covered service gallery, richly decorated with arches and small columns. The gallery of Kings overcame it, and it supports a terrace.

The low gallery, intermediate between the gallery of the Kings and the gables of the porches, is very well made and dates from around 1235. This low gallery, commonly called "triforium" is practicable, like that of the Kings and the terrace superior to that of the Kings. All these galleries communicate with the inner floors of the towers.

 

Behind the lower gallery or triforium, large bays that illuminate the central nave of the cathedral, through another inner gallery (before the installation of the grand organ tribune).

Behind the gallery of the Kings, open other shorter windows. These gave the interior of the building on a second interior gallery which overcame the lower gallery.

It is noted that the arches of the lower gallery bear on piles composed of three columns grouped in front of a pilaster. On these piles rest bows richly decorated with redans and animals carved on the front of the sommiers.

A single base of stone separates the low or triforium gallery from that of the Kings.

Above the latter is an open terrace paved. The waters of the pavement are rejected externally by the heads of the long gargoyles which decorate the top of the gallery of the Kings.

Above the latter is an open paved terrace. The waters of the pavement are rejected externally by the heads of the gargoyles which decorate the top of the Kings gallery  and which open at the base of arcatures surrounding the heads of the kings.

 

The statues of the gallery of Kings

There are 22 of them, and we do not know for sure who they represent. They date from the first half of the 13th century. The central part of the façade has eight enormous statues of 3.75 meters, placed at 30 meters height. In addition, there are six on each western face of the base of each tower, and two still placed in front of the central buttresses of the facade, buttresses that divide it into three vertical zones.

These statues seem relatively poorly proportioned, with heads somewhat too big and legs too short. We find this type of gallery at the Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral, as well as at Notre-Dame de Paris (in Paris, the statues date actually from the 19th century). The reason given by the tour guides was that the faces of the statues benefited in this way of a better visibility to the visitors standing on the forecourt than if the tailors had used normal proportions.

Western rosette

Flamboyant Gothic style, it was built in the early sixteenth century by order of the mayor of that time. It was also called Rosace of the Sea. Located just above the central part of the gallery of the Kings, it was preceded by the terrace whose pavement is equipped with gargoyles that point outside at the head of the Kings of the gallery. It is therefore set back from the underlying parts of the facade.

From the outside, its lower part is hidden by the edge of the balustrade of this terrace, which is the upper part of the arches of the Kings gallery.

The side façades of the cathedral

 

Main Features

The north and south side façades are roughly symmetrical. The basic architectural features that we see in the south are found in the north. The big differences are between the two side façades of the nave on the one hand, and those of the choir on the other. The nave and the choir were indeed built during two different periods. Thirty years separate their construction, so that the architectural style of the nave is classic Gothic, while the choir belongs to the radiant Gothic style.

The high windows of the nave are composed of four lancets surmounted by a lobed rose, while those of the choir have six lancets, also surmounted by a rose. These high bays of the choir are surmounted by a triangular gable, characteristic of the radiant Gothic, and which rises up beyond the gallery which runs along the base of the roof of the choir.

The north and south aisles of the nave are each surmounted by a large common roof with a single roof inclined outwards. This roof corresponds to the interior of a triforium, blind, of course, since it is cut off by this height.

On the other hand, at the choir level, the inner part of the double ambulatory has a flat roof built as a terrace. Overlooking this terrace is a series of bays designed to illuminate the triforium of the choir, which is no longer blind.

Always at the level of the choir, the outer ambulatory (which runs only the rectangular choir spans) and the radiant apse chapels are topped by a pyramidal roof with multiple sides inclined on all sides, including outward and inward (the terrace) of the building. On the other hand, the lateral chapels of the nave, built in strict alignment with the outer ambulatory of the choir, are covered with a flat roof laid out in a large common terrace, bordered by a balustrade.

 

As for the transept which has a collateral to the east and another to the west, it has a mixed choir-nave architectural organization. On the eastern side (or the side of the choir) indeed, the collateral is covered with a terrace that extends the terrace covering the inner ambulatory of the choir, except however the span of the end, which is covered with eight-sided pyramidal roof.

On the west side, however, the collateral of the transept is covered in the same way as that of the nave, ie with a roof that was inclined only towards the outside and covering attic space. So, there is no terrace at this level, and inside, the corresponding triforium is necessarily blind.

The southern facade

At the western end of this facade, under the south  tower, is the Saint Christopher door flanked by an enormous statue of Saint Christopher wearing, according to legend, a tiny little Jesus on his shoulders. Several other statues mark the path between the south tower and the porch of the south transept cross:

• On the outside of the Notre-Dame de Foy Chapel, you can admire a representation of the Annunciation surmounted by Saint Michael and Saint Raphael;
• Decorating the exterior wall of the chapel of the Assumption, former chapel of Saint-Nicolas, we found a "waidier" and his wife (waidier: merchant of wedes in Picard, the woad being the plant with which one made the blue dyeing -pastel, plant at the origin of the wealth of Amiens). Above: effigy of St. Nicholas standing, with at his feet the pot (famous in Picardy, in the North, in Belgium and in the east of France) where the three children were cooked by the wicked butcher;
• Then a representation of the Transfiguration;
• finally, a statue of a bishop thought to be Guillaume de Mâcon, since this statue stands at the back of the chapel he built during the last years of the 13th century.

 

The south facade of the transept and the Saint-Honoré gate

Enclosed between two powerful lateral buttresses, the south facade of the transept rises to the sky at a height of nearly 60 meters, about the same height as the south tower. There are three floors: the portal, then a huge glass roof, and at the top, the pediment. The two buttresses, very prominent at the base, make a series of small successive withdrawals, highlighted each time by a horizontal projecting strip, which somewhat attenuates the intense verticality of the facade.

The lower floor of the facade is completely occupied by the superb portal surmounted only by a triangular groove in the upper corner of which a trefoil decoration has been carved. The whole of this floor reaches some 20 meters high and is surmounted by a narrow gallery lined with a balustrade.

Above, begins the second level consisting of a huge glass roof resting on a high skylight. The latter is composed of five bays with four lancets grouped two by two. Each bay has a small rose at its upper part, and is surmounted by a pleasant little gâble. This skylight illuminates the triforium of the transept, inside the building. The canopy is a large flamboyant rose window resting on a second skylight, the latter occupying all the space available under the rosette.

The third and last level is occupied by a high triangular pediment adorned with a series of vertical stripes, accentuating the impression of verticality that emerges from the facade. Especially since this pediment is surrounded by two huge pinnacles very slender and finely crafted, which also seem to rush to the sky. These two pinnacles surmount the two lateral buttresses of the facade. Finally, the upper corner of the pediment is also surmounted by a third high pinnacle very sharp.

 

The portal of the Golden Virgin or Saint-Honoré portal

The portal of the southern transept, or Saint-Honoré portal, is also called portal of the Golden Virgin, because of the statue that adorns its trumeau. The tympanum relates various episodes of the life of the saint, the eighth bishop of Amiens, who lived in the sixth century.

In the lower register, carved on the lintel, we can see the farewells of the apostles to Jesus on the day of Ascension. Then the four registers of the tympanum itself , from bottom to top, the coronation of Saint Honoré, the miraculous cures attributed to him, a procession of relics of the saint, and at the top the death of the Christ crucified on the Golgotha.

The front of the trumeau is occupied by the statue of the Golden Virgin, a masterpiece of the thirteenth century. Dated 1288, 2.30 m high, the original statue, threatened by the weather, was transferred inside the cathedral in 1980 and replaced by a molding. The statue shows us a crowned Virgin and carrying the Child Jesus, looking at him gently. The head of the Virgin was surmounted by a canopy. Three smiling cherubs carry her nimbus. slightly hip, the weight of the body on one leg.

In contrast to the previous Virgins for Child, which are much more hieratic, this statue is that of a smiling young mother who plays with her baby and cradles him. She inaugurates a new kind of representations of the Virgin, she is the first of the Hip Virgins who later was frequently painted or carved. As for the baby Jesus, baby pretty chubby, he seems to play with the world as with the ball he has in his hands.

 

The northern facade

Just after the north corner of the facade, the north tower is supported by a powerful counter-stop.

To the east of the north tower, the facades of the side chapels of the nave are, as in the south, separated by a trumeau decorated with a statue. One sees there successively Saint Louis of which it is one of the oldest existing representations, Guillaume de Mâcon and Saint Agnes. The six chapels are housed between the high abutments of the flying buttresses of the nave. Their facades, well aligned with each other, are each illuminated by very large windows, nearly fifteen meters high and provided with stained glass windows. The roof of these chapels is converted into a single continuous terrace. This terrace and the balustrade are the work of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who took the initiative to modify this monument of the Middle Ages, which earned him some of the harshest criticism against him.

We notice that the high windows of the choir are of quite different structure from those of the nave. In particular, they are surmounted by a large triangular gable that extends beyond the level of the balustrade gallery that runs along the base of the roof.

The north facade of the transept and the portal of saint Firmin-the-Confessor

The facade of the north arm of the transept is much less decorated than the facade of the south arm. Enclosed between two powerful lateral buttresses, it presents in its lower part the portal dedicated to Saint Firmin the Confessor. The latter, also called Firmin II, was the third bishop of Amiens and sat for forty years in the second half of the fourth century.

The portal has a lintel finely adorned with a trefoil decoration and sculptured tympanum because it is occupied by a small glass roof. At the trumeau: statue of a bishop. There are no other statues or sculptures, either on the arches, on the piers of the door.

The upper half of this facade is occupied by a large glass roof, with a five-bay skylight underneath, and a second skylight of ten lancets partially hidden by a balustrade and surmounted by a large rose window. A unique case in France, it is consolidated on the outside by three arches of ogival stone, and its shape resembles that of a five-pointed star placed upside down.

At the top of the facade is a balustrade, but no stone gable and carved as in the south: only a slate pinion, triangular, which is the north end of the roof of the transept.

The left corner buttress (located in the east) of the facade forms a body with the outer buttress of the east face of the transept as well as with an octagonal turret. This complex houses a spiral staircase running from the ground floor to the base of the transept roof. His journey is marked by a succession of loopholes.

The tops of the two lateral buttresses are each topped with a small pyramidal roof of slate. The one on the left (oriental) houses in fact the upper end of the staircase.

The flying buttresses

The flying buttresses of the nave

The flying buttresses of the nave of the cathedral of Amiens, built around 1230, have a disposition analogous to that of the choir of the cathedral of Soissons which seem to be inspired. They are double level and counterbutent the upper part of the nave. They rely outside on large but massive abutments. Their head (upper part) is leaning against piles or rather slender columns along the wall of the nave. As it should be, the last keystone of each of the two arches is not engaged in the pile and remains free to slide in case the vault would make a movement as a result of a settlement of the vertical support points, otherwise flying buttresses would break.

As in Soissons, the upper buttress is supported on the part of the pile of the nave located above the center of thrust of the vaults, where the upper part of the thrust is exerted. It is the same for the lower buttress which contrasts the vault at the lower part of the thrust. The combination of these two flying buttresses ensures maximum stability to the vaults of the building.

Note that, contrary to Soissons, the chaperon of the upper buttress serves as a canal to conduct the gutters waters of the large roof of the building at the lower end of the arch, where they are expelled, through the summit of the abutments, as far as possible by long gargoyles.

The flying buttresses of the choir

The flying buttresses of the choir counterbut the upper part of the choir, but are very different from those of the nave. They are single level, but double ended. They are supported externally on two large but fairly fine abutments. They were built around 1260, more or less thirty years after those of the nave.

The upper flying buttresses, as described for the nave, were at that time replaced by a slatted construction, a real inclined aqueduct which held the heads of the walls, but in a passive way and without pushing.

 

But these flying buttresses, too little loaded by these openwork aqueducts, were able to remain in the roundabout, that is to say at the bedside, where they had to counterbust only the thrust of a single rib of the vault. In the parallel part of the choir, where it was necessary to resist the combined thrust of the arches, the flying buttresses of this type were raised, and in the fifteenth century had to place, below the flying buttresses primitive, new arcs of a larger radius, to neutralize the effect produced by the thrust of the vaults of the choir.

The bedside and its flying buttresses

The bedside of the cathedral of Amiens is striking for its elegance and the power of its construction. It consists of three floors of windows and a series of supporting structures: buttresses and flying buttresses. The whole is richly adorned with gables, statues, gargoyles and pinnacles abundantly worked. The largely predominant verticality of all these elements gave the impression of a powerful slenderness towards the sky.

The lower level of the apse corresponds to the apse or radiant chapels and consists essentially of narrow bay windows, very slender and reaching nearly 15 meters in height. These bays are separated by solid buttresses ensuring the stability of the high walls. These buttresses are surmounted by statues of musical kings or chimeras that scrutinize the city, the evil eye. Most of these chapels are thus equipped with two or three bay windows associated with two buttresses. Only the axial chapel has seven bays, which are separated by six buttresses. Finally, these chapels are all topped with pyramidal slate roofs with multiple sides, inclined both inwards and outwards of the building.

The next floor is composed of bay windows corresponding to the triforium of the choir.

The upper floor finally corresponds to the windows of the high apse windows of the cathedral. Like those of the side façades of the choir, they are surmounted by a high triangular gable exceeding the level of the base of the large roof.

The upper part of the gutter wall of the main vessel of the choir or chevet proper is supported by six flying buttresses of the same type as the lateral buttresses of the choir, that is to say, pierced buttresses, double flight, simple level and having a drainage channel in the form of aqueduct, on its dorsal part or chaperone. Each buttress therefore has two external support points. The first point of support is from the top of the ambulatory pillar, separating the roundabout and the radiant chapels. The second point of support is the real abutment. It is supported on the widest part of the partition wall of the radiating chapels, that is to say the outer part. To ensure greater strength, the abutment has two wings each resting on the first part of the outer wall of neighboring chapels.

The roof and the high parts of the cathedral

The roof of the Notre-Dame d'Amiens cathedral is made of nail slates and the ridge, which rises to 56 meters, is bristling with a lead ridge. According to a dendrochronological analysis carried out in 1988, the frame of the choir would date from the year 1288, while that of the nave and the transept would be 1311. The frame, very light is formed of farms spaced more or less 3, 75 meters. The roof is completely redone from 1980 to 2007 with quality slates MH, 8 to 10 mm thick.

The upper parts of the cathedral of Amiens, far more than those of Notre-Dame de Paris are literally full of medieval sculptural works, often burlesque or disturbing: gargoyles, chimeras, royal musicians or others.

Gargoyles and chimeras

The gargoyles are innumerable on the high parts of Notre-Dame d'Amiens. Often very slender they sometimes constitute real pieces of statuary. It is important not to confuse gargoyles with chimeras.

The gargoyles were put in place at the end of the gutters and gutters to evacuate the rainwater from the roofs and designate only the ends of the water drainage ducts. They go beyond the void in order to reject the masses of water from the showers as far as possible from the walls of the cathedral, which thus do not deteriorate. They often have the shape of fantastic animals, the mouth constantly open and therefore often frightening or even ferocious. Their position is usually horizontal or sometimes inclined and they always end with a mouth turned downward and outward, to facilitate the flow. Some have human forms. All are different, they were created by many artists who gave free rein to their imagination. Their variety seems almost infinite.

Very beautiful gargoyles are found especially at the level of large flying buttresses. The drainage system of the cathedral roof ends with a pipe on the summit of the flying buttresses and then by long gargoyles. To get an idea of ​​their usefulness, you have to go see them working with a good umbrella on a rainy day. The show is impressive.

The chimeras are simply fantastic statues, even diabolical and often grotesque. They have a purely decorative function, not linked to any flow. They are therefore often the mouth closed, lurking or straightened and perched on supports that raise them. They are found in the heights of the cathedral, perched on balustrades or at the top of the foothills, where they replace pinnacles, and are never located in the sloping places of the roof of the building such as the floors of the high galleries. Their role seems to observe the city, they occupy perches. They have the form of demons, monsters or fantastic birds. Their faces or their eyes are directed downwards, like the feast on the turpitudes which took place there.

The Kings musicians

Unlike chimeras, the Kings musicians are statues of very nice characters scattered on all the roofs of the cathedral, and seem to play tunes to the glory of the Lord. They are found in particular just behind the towers of the western facade, around the chamber of Musicians, located on the roofs between the gallery of the Sonneurs and the western end of the attic of the nave. Another series of Kings musicians, much easier to see, stands at the top of the foothills of the axial chapel, at the bedside of the cathedral, just behind the choir.

 

The arrow

Raised in 1288 by Bishop William of Macon, the first arrow suffered a tragic end in 1528. On July 15 a violent storm triggered a fire that destroyed it completely. With the whole town mobilized, the rescuers managed to prevent the fire from spreading to the roofs of the cathedral, which would have been catastrophic.

Soon, donations poured in for reconstruction and even King Francis I helped by allowing the wood needed to build the new spire to be taken from the forest of Neuville-en-Hez, which was a royal property.

The work, whose purpose was to raise a wooden arrow covered with lead, was entrusted to Louis Cardon Cottenchy, assisted by a modest carpenter village, Simon Tanneau, responsible for the construction of the wooden spire. It is Jean Pigard who realized the lead arrow. The work was completed in 1533 and it took another year to brown the lead. Built of oak and covered with lead, it is currently the oldest known wooden spire. The storm of December 7, 1627 forced a repair and a shortening of the arrow. On this occasion, Nicolas Blasset realized a lead apple placed at the base of the cross which contained the relics of saints.

A total of 71 ton of lead is used in the boom; the average thickness of metal is three millimeters. Its total weight is 500 tons. The wood used is oak wood. Its height, above the ridge of the building to the apple that is near the summit, was 47 meters before the restoration carried out in the nineteenth century by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc; today it is only 45 meters.

 

The base of the spire rests on a platform located above the place where the four large warheads crosses the transept. From birth, it is octagonal. The arrow, of great quality and authentic masterpiece, has a rich decoration, including fleur de lys, and a series of beautiful statues, made of lead repoussé and exceptional quality. The birth of the spire consists of two octagonal floors whose base is surrounded by a balustrade. The 8 statues, hollow, are arranged at the level of the balustrade of the second floor. They represent successively the Christ (arranged in front of the nave), Saint Paul, Saint Firmin wearing his miter and facing north, Saint John the Evangelist, the crowned Virgin carrying the child Jesus totally undressed, Saint John Baptist, Saint James the Greater (decorated with shells) and Saint Peter.

These magnificent Christian statues are not the only ones to garnish the spire. There is also, as everywhere on the roofs of the building, beautiful gargoyles and disturbing chimeras. All are made of lead repoussé and remarkably carved. Plates of commemorative lead, engraved by generations of companions-roofers are placed above the crown which covers the second terrasson.

Interior

The great organ

The great organ of the cathedral of Amiens whose creation dates back to 1422 is one of the oldest and highest in France (17 m above the ground). Its construction was financed thanks to the generosity of Alphonse Lemire, valet de chambre of King Charles VI and his wife Massine de Hainaut. The main buffet dates from the 16th century.

 

In 1620, the Parisian organbuilder Pierre Le Pescheur refitted the great organ giving it a positive. This organ was raised in 1661 by Louis de Brucourt organbuilder friend. In 1769, Charles Dallery endowed the organ with three keyboards, 32 stops, reed sets, bombards 16, trumpet 8 and bugle 4. John Abbey organ builder in Paris restores the organ in its entirety: three keyboards, 42 games, 2 753 pipes, new blower system of his invention, in 1832.

The woodwork was restored and painted in 1835 by Martin Delabarthe, the Duthoit Brothers decorated the turrets with statues that have now disappeared and made ornaments over the platforms of the monte. A Gothic decoration hides the beam that supports the tribune, between the arches of the four wooden arches, were the statues of the Virgin and Child and Saint Firmin the Martyr were placed.

It is to Aristide Cavaillé-Coll who restored it totally between 1884 and 1889 that one owes, in large part, the organ that we know today: 51 games distributed on 3 keyboards and a pedal. Dismantled by the Paris firefighters in 1918 during the German offensive, the organ was rebuilt in 1936 by Edmond Alexandre Roethinger who endowed it with 58 games (inauguration by Marcel Dupré). From 1964 to 1967, Charles Acker, organ builder at Camon for the Roethinger house in Strasbourg, dismantled and reassembled the mechanical drawing of notes and games calls (inauguration by André Fleury).

Redesigned several times, the great organ now has 58 games, 3,854 pipes against 2,500 originally.

Composition of the organ

Pos, GO, Storytelling pulls. Couplings: GO, Positive / GO, Story / GO, Story / Positive in Unison, Positive / GO and Story / GO in the low octave. Positive mixture, GO, narrative. Reeds call Positive, GO, Story, Pedal. Call tutti (all calls mixtures and reeds). Positive tremolo and narrative.

 

The nave

First part of the Gothic cathedral to be built, the nave of Notre-Dame d'Amiens was built in a very short time. Initiated in 1220, its construction was already completed in 1236.

The elevation of the nave (like that of the choir) has three levels: large arches, triforium and high windows. The tall windows consist of four lancets. The triforium, blind, has two sets of three arches, for each span.

The nave lined with aisles and opening onto an overflowing transept was illuminated by the large rosette of the facade, called "Rose of the Sea" and the high windows.

The nave is composed of six rectangular bays with quadripartite barlong (rectangular) vaults. It is bordered on each side (north and south) of a collateral of the same length, but with square vaults. Its vaulted height is 42.3 meters, while that of the aisles reaches 19.7 meters. As for the height of the columns bordering the nave, including capitals, it is 13.85 meters. Around each of the columns that line laterally the central vessel of the nave as the choir, are added four columns arranged in a circle, to strengthen these columns supporting vaults located at such a height.

 

The pavement and the labyrinth

It contains a whole series of different drawings distributed among the different sectors of the building. This tiled floor restored in the nineteenth century, was designed and designed in the thirteenth century. Among the variety of patterns drawn are, among others, the motif of the swastika or swastika.

The centerpiece of this tessellation is an octagonal labyrinth located at the fifth bay of the nave. It is 234 meters long. In the Middle Ages, some pilgrims who came to venerate the relics of Saint John the Baptist, whose skull was brought back in 1206 by the Canon Wallon of Sarton, traveled on his knees, like a Way of the Cross. They had to follow the black line. It was a trial for those who wished to sanctify themselves, or to gain some indulgences or atone for the serious sins they had committed.

There are also labyrinths in other French cathedrals and churches, such as the cathedrals of Bayeux and Chartres, as well as the basilica of Saint-Quentin. There was also one at Notre-Dame de Reims, but it was destroyed in the eighteenth century.

The central stone of the labyrinth is very interesting because it contains a text summarizing the foundation of the cathedral, inscribed on a copper strip. In the center of this piece, a cross oriented on the cardinal points is surrounded by four characters: the three architects of the cathedral (Robert de Luzarches, Thomas and Renaud de Cormont) and Bishop Évrard de Fouilloy. This stone is dated 1288, date chosen for the end of the cathedral construction.

The stone that is currently in the nave is a copy of the original, which has been transferred to the Museum of Picardy.

 

The bronze recumbent

At the entrance of the nave, on the right and on the left, one can admire the tombs surmounted by recumbent figures of the two bishops, Évrard de Fouilloy (bishop from 1211 to 1222) and Geoffroy d'Eu (from 1223 to 1236), who gave the decisive impetus to the construction of this great sanctuary. The bronze recumbent, superb masterpieces fused in one piece, date from the first half of the thirteenth century. These are unique pieces, the only witnesses to the great bronzes of the thirteenth century remaining in France, spared the revolutionary vandalism of the late eighteenth century. Some think that the carved faces of these recumbent figures are the authentic portraits of the two deceased, as their features are admirably typified.

The recumbent Évrard de Fouilloy is on the right of the entrance of the church. It is supported by six lions, bronze too. The bishop is represented in full episcopal attire. He crushes on both feet two clawed creatures, evil and endowed with a snake tail, symbolizing evil. At his side, on the top of the recumbent, two priests are engraved and carry lit candles. Two angels near his shoulders offer incense to the deceased.

The recumbent statue of Bishop Geoffroy d'Eu is to the left of the beginning of the nave. The surface of this recumbent is less worked than the tomb of its predecessor. One finds there the same evil and fantastic creatures representing the evil, and crushed by his feet. Six lions, quite different from the lions of the other tomb, support the recumbent.

 

The chair of truth

The cathedral pulpit of truth of the is leaned against the last column on the north (left) side of the nave, before the pillar of the window. It is an impressive baroque ensemble dating from 1773. It is the work of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste as well as the architect Pierre-Joseph Christophle. At the base, the pulpit is supported by life-size statues of the three theological virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity. In the back, an elegant drapery is supported by cherubs. The pulpit has a roof or knockout formed of clouds from which a dove escapes, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Finally, crowning the whole thing, an angel carrying an open gospel points a finger at the sky. This work, was highly criticized in the nineteenth century for its grandiloquence, is no less admirable both for the great plastic beauty of the characters on it and for the precision of execution of its various components.

The aisles of the nave

The aisles or collaterals north and south of the nave, of gigantic size, are worthy of comparison with the main vessels of some large churches. Their width between the axes of the columns is indeed 8.65 meters, while they start at 19.7 meters high. By way of comparison, the main nave of Notre-Dame de Senlis cathedral is just 9.2 meters wide, while its vault, before the fire of 1504, did not exceed 17 meters (24 after restoration following the fire).

As for the columns that border these collaterals, they are nearly 14 meters high, including capitals.

 

The south aisle shelters in its first bay two tombs. Leaning against the large pillar that supports the north-east corner of the south tower and facing the Saint-Christophe gate, we can see the tomb of Canon Pierre Bury (died in 1504), topped by a carved group representing the kneeling canon at the feet of a martyred and humiliated Christ, clothed in the cape of which he had been decked out, and whose two hands are bound by a thick cord.

Facing the tomb of Canon Bury, is that of Antoine Niquet (died in 1652), also canon. This tomb is surmounted by a funerary monument attributed to the sculptor Nicolas Blasset. It is leaning against the first column separating this collateral from the central ship, and also faces the Saint-Christophe gate. The monument shows the deceased kneeling at the feet of a painful Virgin, an open prayer book. At his side, St. Anthony seems to indicate to him what prayer to send to Mary. Three daggers are placed on the chest of the latter.

 

The side chapels of the nave

The nave has eleven side chapels, six on the north and five on the south. They were not foreseen in the initial project, but the necessity of their construction is felt from the end of the 13th century. Raised between the foothills after the side walls were punctured, their edification dates from the years 1292 to 1375. The oldest are located in the east, the most recent in the west.

 

 

The south side chapels

• The Saint-Christophe chapel received its current decoration in 1762. It includes a statue of Saint Christopher in stone, work of Jean-Baptiste Dupuis, 18th century sculptor who collaborated in the construction of the pulpit of truth as well as the master- present altar.

• Chapel Notre-Dame de Foy or chapel of the Annunciation: there is a remarkable statue of the Annunciation work of the seventeenth century Amiens sculptor, Nicolas Blasset, offered by a master of the Notre-Dame du Puy fraternity. The Annunciation was carved in white marble standing out against a marble background of Rance.

• The third southern chapel of the nave is the chapel of the Assumption, formerly Saint Nicholas chapel. It was offered in the fourteenth century by waidiers or woad producers. She took her name following the decoration offered by a master of the Confraternity of Puy-Notre-Dame named François de Fresne. There is one of the most beautiful works of Nicolas Blasset, made around 1637, a representation of the Assumption of the Virgin. This one, as well as the angels and God the Father are carved in white marble on black marble background.

• The Saint-Etienne chapel, also known as the Saint-Laurent chapel: you can see the statues of Saint Stephen and Saint Augustine. The decor of the chapel was designed by Christophle in 1768. Above the altar is a painting by Laurent de La Hyre: The Blessed Virgin, dated 1628.

• Finally, the Sainte-Marguerite chapel seems to be the oldest of the side chapels of the nave. It was built in 1292 by Bishop William of Macon. Its current decoration dates from 1768 and was made by the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Dupuis and the architect Pierre-Joseph Christophle. It is a marble statue of Saint Marguerite placed on an altar.

 

North side chapels

• The first chapel is the Saint-Jean-Baptiste chapel or chapel of the Savior. Built in 1375 by the bishop-cardinal Jean de La Grange, one finds there its statue. As well as the remains of Saint Anthony Daveluy, martyr of Korea in 1866.

• The second chapel, built at the same time by the same Jean de La Grange is known as the chapel Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours. It contains a Madonna and a Child, work of Nicolas Blasset.

• The Saint-Sauveur Chapel was formerly called Saint-Michel Chapel. It houses a twelfth-century Byzantine Christ from the old church of Saint-Firmin-le-Confesseur, destroyed in the early thirteenth century to make room for the north arm of the transept.

• The Saint-Honoré Chapel contains a sculpture of Saint Honoré executed in 1780 by the sculptor Jacques-Firmin Vimeux.

• The Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix chapel was formerly known as the Saint-Louis chapel. You can admire an altarpiece with a virgin white marble. This is a puy, offered in 1654 and sculpted by Nicolas Blasset.

• Finally the sixth chapel or chapel Saint-Firmin, former chapel Sainte-Agnès, houses a plaster statue of Saint Firmin.

 

 

The choir

The choir of Notre-Dame d'Amiens, formerly surrounded by a carved stone fence and  girded with a wrought iron gate, includes four rectangular spans with quadripartite barlong and double collateral arches, plus an apse with seven sections. The latter is surrounded by a simple ambulatory in which seven radiant chapels open.

Like the nave, its elevation is three levels: large arcades, triforium and high windows. In the rectangular bays, we find the same architecture as in the nave, with some peculiarities however. Thus the two sets of three arches of the triforium are surmounted by arches in miter. In addition, unlike what we see in the nave, the triforium is here at a glance. Finally, the high windows are six lancets and no longer four.

At the level of the apse, or roundabout, the triforium, still open, was composed for each section of two sets of geminated arcades (always covered with arches in miter). In their extension, the high windows have four lancets (grouped by two).

The choir is usually the first part of a cathedral to be built. But in Amiens, the architects began in the middle of the building, that is to say by the seven bays of the nave.

In the axis of the choir, one can see in the high central window, an important stained glass window offered to the cathedral in 1269. It is the most beautiful and most important window of the sanctuary. Its theme is that of the Angels announcing the coronation of Saint Louis.

The choir is surrounded by radiant chapels which sit superb sculptures dating from different eras (from the Middle Ages to Louis XVI ...). The cathedral has indeed been completed over the years by various decorations.

 

The baroque choir

In the eighteenth century, the bishop of Amiens, Monseigneur Louis-François-Gabriel of Orleans de Lamotte, whose episcopal reign extends from 1734 to 1774, wanted, in the years following his appointment, to leave in his cathedral the a mark of a new, dynamic and enthusiastic art, the Baroque. He therefore undertook important changes in the decoration of the choir of his cathedral. He was supported by Canon François Cornet de Coupel. And for their cathedral, they both wanted the most beautiful and the most luxurious.

The old rood screen was thus destroyed in 1755, and replaced by a baroque grid, work of Michelangelo Slodtz, and executed by Jean Veyren dit Vivarais.

The new Baroque high altar was installed in 1751. It is framed by a grand sculpted group, occupying almost the entire apse and composed of large baroque sculptures (French) adorned with gold. It is a unique monument that lives the day, designed by the Avignon architect Pierre-Joseph Christophle and sculpted by the Amoismois Jean-Baptiste Dupuis. It is called the Eucharistic Glory. On a marble basement, the Eucharistic Glory is shaped like a whirlwind of clouds surrounded by a halo of rays of light made of enormous golden needles. In the center is the Eucharistic dove to which converge all eyes. The whole is a real explosion of light, this one symbolizing the resurrection of Christ "Light of the world". All around the dove, angels and cherubs swirl in the heap of clouds. At both ends of the stage, more than fifteen meters high, one can see the effigies of the Virgin on the left, and of St. John on the right. Later still two beautiful angels, human grandeur, frame the scene. The whole is arranged in a semicircle just in front of the arches of the apse.

This baroque work, unique in France, was highly controversial in the nineteenth century, especially by Viollet-le-Duc and his followers. It escaped destruction twice: during the first revolutionary turmoil, and during the restoration of Viollet-le-Duc in the 19th century.

A little further to the left is the cathedral of the cathedral, also baroque, and just as richly decorated, dating from the same period.

Stalls

Made in blond oak wood, the stalls of Notre-Dame d'Amiens are exceptional, they represent the largest set of  the cabinet making bequeathed to Gothic art. Flamboyant style, they were designed by the masters huchiers Arnould Boulin, Antoine Avernier and Alexandre Huet and executed in 11 years between 1508 and 1522.

They stage more than 4000 characters. The stalls were 120 in origin, they are 110 today, including 62 high and 48 bass. The two master stalls were reserved for the king and the dean of the chapter. The latter are unique because they are surmounted by an enormous wooden lace that rises to no less than thirteen meters and fifty feet above the ground. On the stall reserved for the king, Louis XII, Francis I, Henry IV, then also Napoleon I and the President de Gaulle were seated.

Technically the adjustment of these stalls is such that the eye can hardly detect any trace of assembly. There are no nails, screws, or ankles here; nothing but tenons and mortises.

This masterpiece alone justifies a visit to the cathedral. Although flamboyant Gothic, this masterpiece already incorporates Renaissance elements.

 

On mercy and crawling, a multitude of characters carved faces typified, trace the main events described in the Old Testament, since the creation of the man to King David. These biblical characters are dressed and perform various works in the manner Picardy of that time. We can admire Pharaoh seated on a throne surmounted by a canopy of the sixteenth century, turbaned as were the Saracens. There is a lot of documentation on the way in which skippers or milling was practiced, for example, at the beginning of the 16th century in Picardy. The chariot of Pharaoh has a hitch very local color Picardy. On the plays of the stalls, scenes of the life of Mary are carved with great delicacy. We thus witness his journey from his Conception to his Coronation, following the texts of the New Testament and the Golden Legend.

On the armrests, a crowd of characters often truculents tell us the daily life in Amiens and, more generally, in France at the beginning of the XVIe century. A profusion of small characters, sculpted very skillfully and with a lot of humor, makes us glimpse the pilgrims, the religious, the craftsmen, in short the men and women of that time, with their manias and their faults, their character traits too.

As for the backs or backsplashes of the stalls, they are "fleurdelysés". This was not a tribute to the French monarchy, but to Mary mother of Jesus, to whom the cathedral was and is always dedicated to. The fleur-de-lis is indeed the marial flower par excellence. There are no less than 2,200 fleurs-de-lis spread over all the backsplashes. During the Revolution, they were burned. From 1949 to 1952, the Amiens sculptor Léon Lamotte reconstructed them entirely by hand, according to the techniques of the sixteenth century. He used wood for this purpose, taken from the frame of a Picardy castle dating from the same period.

Finally the stalls dais, some of which reach more than 13.5 meters in height and consist of intertwined foliage alternating with small characters. It is in this gigantic wooden lace that the dexterity and the great mastery of the craftsmen of that time are manifested to the highest point.

Regarding this great work, the expense account of the notaries of the chapter was preserved. It amounts to 9,498 pounds, 11 sols and 3 deniers, which equates to more or less 150,000 francs germinal or a million and a half euros 2008.

The fence of the stone choir of the early sixteenth century

At the beginning of the 16th century, the dean of the Adrien chapter of Hénencourt, an opulent patron, ordered the sculptor Antoine Acquirer an imposing enclosure to surround and isolate the choir. The purpose of this operation was multiple. On one hand, it was a question of isolating the chapter and their stalls from the noise made by the pilgrims marching around the choir in the ambulatory, which greatly embarrassed the canons. On the other hand, the fence had to have a pedagogical aspect of religious education with these pilgrims. To do this the fence was to include a series of sculpted and colorful scenes explaining the life of the saints. Finally it was also to build a structure likely to collect the graves of illustrious men linked to the cathedral.

The fence was completed around 1530.

As a result of the upheavals brought in the 18th century in the ornamentation of the choir, much of this fence was destroyed at that time. There are now only two portions located at the stall folder level, so at the part of the choir adjoining the cross of the transept, that is to say, the western part of the choir. One is the  south of the stalls called the southern fence and the other one to the north is the northern fence.

The southern fence of the choir and its tombs

Two mausoleums are located in the southern part of the choir fence. The buried personalities are Ferry de Beauvoir and Adrien de Hénencourt:

Adrien de Hénencourt executed the first part of the fence at the first span of the choir, to serve as a mausoleum for his uncle, Bishop Ferry de Beauvoir.

The tomb of Ferry de Beauvoir with its recumbent is embedded in a fosse of the portion of fence occupying the first span of the choir (so close to the cross of the transept). It is surmounted by a series of carved niches, covered with vaults of ogives, depicting the story of Saint Firmin, from his entry to Amiens to his martyrdom and his exhumation by Saint Saulve. The characters of these niches, polychrome, are very expressive. They wear the costumes of the late fifteenth century. We can admire the sumptuous finery of the notables and the rags of the poor of that time. Note the executioner dressed in curious breeches.

Adrien de Hénencourt, who died in 1530, executed between 1527 and 1530, beside his uncle's burial, his own grave while his recumbent statue was carved in 1531 by Antoine Ancquier. This burial is in a second crib dug at the level of the next span of the choir.

 

 

 

Dated July 18, 1527 his will and his execution accounts (kept in the Departmental Archives of the Somme) provide on its construction important information. We know from these documents that the representation of the discovery of the relics of St. Firmin (visible in the upper part of his tomb) was already made before his death. All that remained was to do his own lying and painting together.

The closing portions of the choir delimited by the lateral columns of the choir are each divided into two horizontal levels: a solid basement below, surmounted by a series of four niches telling the story of Saint Firmin. The base or stylobate measures 2.45 meters high, it is painted and carved.

 

The northern part of the choir fence

The northern fence of the choir is of the same structure as the southern fence, but its base contains no tomb. There are reliefs in quadrilobes, representing the various episodes of the birth of St. John the Baptist, and the history of his relics. The upper level consists, as in the south, of a series of niches. The whole retraces a series of episodes from the life and death of St. John the Baptist. They are to follow from right to left.

In the first span are the appearance of the angel to Zechariah, the exit of the temple of Zechariah mute, the meeting of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the Visitation, Mary and Elizabeth reading side by side, the birth of John the Baptist, his circumcision, the imposition of the name by Elizabeth, then by Zachariah, and finally John the Baptist young man in the desert. Above, in the niches, John the Baptist in the desert calls for penance, baptizes Christ, responds to the Pharisees, then bears witness to Jesus.

The story continues in the niches of the second span: John the Baptist accuses Herod of his adulterous conduct and is arrested, then Salomé claims his head at the banquet of Herod. John the Baptist is then beheaded before his prison, then his head, brought to the banquet, is desecrated by Herodiade who pierces it with a knife, while Salome collapses, suffering from epilepsy. At the base, five quadrilobes relate the story of the relics: the disciples of John the Baptist bury his body, then miracles took place on his grave. Julian the Apostate burns his bones, and the ashes are thrown to the wind. Finally, the head of St. John the Baptist is brought on a plate to the bishop of Amiens.

 

The 18th century wrought iron choir fence

After the old rood screen, destroyed in 1755, it was the old stone fence of the sixteenth century which in turn disappeared, for the most part at least. The choir was then surrounded by a baroque gate, the work of Michelangelo Slodtz, and performed by Jean Veyren dit Vivarais. An admirable ironwork, this gate protecting the choir is a pure masterpiece, sometimes reminiscent of goldsmithery rather than ironwork. At the crossroads of the transept, the large gate opening on the stalls and the choir is surrounded by the statues of Saint Vincent de Paul on the left and Saint Charles Borromee on the right.

The ambulatory

The ambulatory is double at the rectangular part of the choir. It is simple at the apse; at this point it is called a roundabout. On this roundabout, in the continuation of the outer ambulatory, a series of seven apse chapels opened.

Walking through the ambulatory from its southwestern part, that is to say at the south fence of the choir, just after the recumbent Adrien de Hénencourt and the last of the carved niches, we can see on the left, against the column of the choir the small monument of white marble raised in memory of Charles de Vitry (recipient of the salt tax in 1670), and containing his heart. It has the shape of a small column serving as a pedestal for a child Jesus holding an iron cross and treading the Serpent with his right foot. On each side of the top of the column are carved two heads of cherub very well made. This monument dates from 1705.

Just behind the choir, facing the entrance to the axial chapel, is the mausoleum of Canon Guilain Lucas (died 1628), the work of Nicolas Blasset, a sculptor from Amiens who worked for the cathedral from 1630 to 1659 and who created this group in 1636.

Below, the reclining figure of the canon, with his hands clasped, is lying in an inferno of the bedrock. In the upper part, the canon is represented kneeling in front of a statue of the Virgin and Child. Between the canon and the Virgin, in the center of the monument, the very famous Weeping Angel symbolizes the sorrow of the orphans whose canon had occupied by creating a House of Charity in their favor, also called blue School for children. The little cherub, still a baby, leans to the right on a clepsydra, a sort of hourglass, a symbol of the brevity of life, and on the left on the skull of a skeleton, a symbol of death. During the First World War, hundreds of thousands of postcards, medals and other items were made in the image of this angel and sold to the soldiers who took them or sent them to the four corners of the earth.

A little further on, in the north part of the ambulatory is the most beautiful masterpiece of this same Nicolas Blasset, the marble funerary monument of Jean de Sachy, the first alderman of Amiens who died in 1644, and his wife Marie de Revelois. Executed in 1645, Death is represented in the form of a decomposing corpse lying in a hanging shroud in the shape of a hammock. Above, Jean de Sachy and his wife are carved on their knees, at the feet of the Virgin carrying baby Jesus in her arms. At his feet, St. John the Baptist is represented as a child with a lamb.

The apse chapels

The apse chapels all have very elongated bays with two lancets surmounted by three trilobes. The two chapels closest to the rectangular part of the choir have two bays, the axial chapel, by far the largest, has seven. The remaining four have three bays.

 

These chapels are very high; they are the same height as the aisles of the choir and the nave, that is to say nearly 20 meters of elevation (for comparison, the main vessel of the great Gothic cathedrals of Laon, de Sens or Brussels have a height of plus or minus 25 meters).

From left (north side) to the right, we find:

• The first chapel gave access, on the left, to a spiral staircase leading to the upper levels, and on the other hand to a vast chapel called catechism chapel located outside the cathedral;
• The second chapel or chapel of Saint John the Baptist was decorated from 1775 to 1779 by Jacques-Firmin Vimeux. It contains an altarpiece featuring St. John the Baptist;
• The Chapel of Saint Theudosie was formerly called Saint Augustine's Chapel. It was in 1853 that the bishop of Amiens, Monsignor de Salinis, brought back from Rome the relics from the catacombs, Aurelia Teudosia presumed Amiénoise. Napoleon III himself financed the restoration and ornamentation of the chapel of St. Augustine, and witnessed the inauguration of what became the chapel of St. Theudosia. The shrine of the saint is in a neo-Gothic tabernacle executed by brothers Aimé and Louis Duthoit. Note a remarkable grid due to a locksmith Amiens, called Corroyer. The very beautiful and interesting windows date back to this time and include Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie his wife, Pope Pius IX and the bishop of Amiens, Mgr de Salinis. We also see the famous Pierrefonds Castle, rebuilding at that time. The windows in the lower right, or stained glass windows of the weavers date from the thirteenth century;

 

• The fourth chapel or axial chapel is called chapel of the Virgin or chapel of the small parish. It is the largest and the longest of the apse chapels (15.25 m deep). It is similar in architecture to the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, of which it is contemporary. It was restored in the 19th century by Viollet-le-Duc and his team. The stone altar is the work of the Duthoit brothers. The chapel houses two tombs of the fourteenth century: that of the bishop of Amiens Simon de Gonçan and that of Thomas of Savoy. Each of these tombs rests on a base decorated with crying. These are among the oldest in France;
•  The next chapel, the fifth, is the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, formerly called Chapel of Saint James the Major. It contains a superb bronze altar, work of the Parisian goldsmith Placide Poussielgue-Rusand. The windows were made in 1932-1933 by Jean Gaudin;
• The chapel of Saint Francis of Assisi, formerly Saint Nicaise chapel, was decorated from 1775 to 1779 for a canon by Jacques-Firmin Vimeux. There is especially the altarpiece of St. Francis of Assisi and a painting by the painter Bénouville and representing the saint dying and blessing the city of Amiens;
• The last of the seven chapels, located at the southern end of the roundabout, is called the Chapel of Saint Eloi. Strangely, it displays on its walls the pictorial representations of the Sibyls, who are not exactly Christian characters, but rather seers related to the paganism of antiquity. However, the dean of the chapter, Adrien de Hénencourt, had them painted in 1506. The eight sibyls represented are Agripa, Persian, Tiburtine, Lybiqua, Europe, Phrygian, Eritrea and Cumane. Restored in 1853 and in 1977, these sibyls are an excellent sample of early 16th-century painting in France. But the chapel of Saint Eloi is above all an antechamber leading to the chapel of the Maccabees and the treasure of the cathedral.

 

 

Memory of the First World War

In the fifth abbess chapel known as the Sacred Heart, the flags of the Allied countries who fought for the defense of Amiens in 1918 (United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, United States) were suspended.

Other chapels around the choir

The two eastern ends of the outer ambulatory are also converted into chapels.

At the north end of this outer alley of the ambulatory is the Chapel of Our Lady of Mercy, which includes a baroque altar surmounted by a painful and supplicating statue of the Virgin Mary. A sword pierces his heart. It occupies a large niche within a high altarpiece lined with twisted columns typically Baroque. At the top: a series of cherubs and various characters. The whole, very luxurious, is made of marbles of various colors.

In the south, also at the end of the outer ambulatory, one can see the chapel of Saint Joseph, formerly the chapel of Saint Charles Borromeo. It also has an altar surmounted by a baroque altarpiece with twisted columns. The latter received in the nineteenth century a statue of Saint Joseph, due to brothers Aimé and Louis Duthoit. The altarpiece, richly decorated, is surmounted to the right of a beautiful statue of the apostle Saint Matthew, and to the left of a beautiful statue of St. Luke.

The transept

 

The two braces of the transept each have three bays and two collaterals, one to the west, the other to the east. The elevation of the transept is at three levels, like the nave and the choir: large arches overlooking the collaterals, triforium with openwork, and high windows.

Each cross is illuminated by a large glass roof with a rosette, a glass roof that occupies the upper part of the back wall, and which surmounts a five-arcade skylight. This skylight corresponds to the outer wall of the triforium. The rose of the southern cross called Rose of the sky is flamboyant, while that of the north cross or Rose of the winds is radiant.

On the outside, the two braces are supported, like the nave and the choir, by two series (one in the east, the other in the west) of three openwork buttresses, of the same type as those choir and bedside.

The transept of the cathedral is also richly decorated.

In the north cross is a tank washing the dead dating from the twelfth century.

On the left (western) side of this cross, one can see a series of four stone niches flamboyant style, carved on the model of the old fence of the choir of the same time. Painted and gilded scenes were carved in the four parts of the Temple of Jerusalem:

• in the first niche, we see Jesus in the Atrium of the Temple advancing among the merchants;

• the second scene took place in the Tabernaculum and still shows Jesus in the middle of the merchants;

• in the part of the Temple, called the Saint, two priests incense an altar, and on a table are piled twelve loaves;

• Finally, the fourth niche houses a scene which took place in the Holy of Holies: the High Priest incensing the Ark of the Covenant.

 

The chapel of Saint Sebastian

It is located at the intersection of the transept and the north side of the double ambulatory of the choir, at the front of the pillar separating the two aisles of this ambulatory. The chapel dates from the first half of the 17th century and was restored in 1832 by the Duthoit brothers. It includes a small altar surmounted by a painting located in the center of an imposing altarpiece carved and partially gilded marble. The painting is a Crucifixion, from the Fontevristes de Moreaucourt convent, attributed to the Flemish painter Guillaume Hergosse (18th century). He is surrounded on the right by Saint Louis, King of France, wearing the crown of thorns. On the left is the statue of Saint Roch accompanied by his dog, work of Nicolas Blasset dated 1634. Above the set: a very beautiful statue of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, the latter pierced with arrows and the head surrounded by cherubim. The association of the three saints (St. Louis, St. Roch and St. Sebastian) is understandable, because they were all invoked during the plague epidemics.

The chapel of Notre-Dame du Puy

Corresponding to the south to the chapel of Saint Sebastian, this chapel is that of the important confraternity of Puy Notre-Dame whose master, designated each year, had to offer a gift to the cathedral, generally in the form of a rich work of art. The chapel dates from the seventeenth century and comprises above all a superb altarpiece in the center of which is a very beautiful painting of the Virgin Assumption. Two statues surround him. On the right, Judith holding the head of the giant Holofernes, and on the left St. Genevieve. The latter was transformed into a goddess during the Revolution, and the table of Human and Citizen Rights was placed in her hands. After the Revolution, she was again transformed, this time as a Sibyl, the latter being supposed to carry the Tables of the Law.

 

The chapel of St. Peter and Paul

It occupies the southern end of the east aisle of the south transept, converted into a chapel (collateral side of the choir).

The altar, carved wood, was commissioned in 1750 by the canon François Cornet de Coupel, right arm and active support of the bishop Louis-François-Gabriel of Orleans de Lamotte, in the baroque renovation of the cathedral . It is painted in imitation marble. A large canvas represents the Adoration of the Magi. The altar is surrounded by the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul.

In this chapel opens a staircase leading to the upper levels of the south transept.

Memory of the Great War

On the pillars of the south transept are affixed ex-voto plaques to the memory:

• 600,000 soldiers from Great Britain and Ireland who fell on the field of honor in France and Belgium (1914-1918), Battles of the Somme, Battle of Amiens (1918) and Victory (1918);

• soldiers of the Australian Imperial Army who fell in defense of Amiens in 1918;

• the New Zealand Division and its fallen soldiers in the Somme;

• Officers, NCOs and Royal Canadian Dragoons who gave their lives during the Great War;

• the island of Newfoundland and the fighters of that island, fallen in the Battle of the Somme;

• Marshal Foch;

• General Debeney;

• Raymond Asquith, son of Herbert Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who fell on the field of honor at Ginchy on the 15^th of September 1916.

 

 

Polychromy

The portals were cleaned in the 1990s using a laser process. This technique allowed to discover and preserve traces of polychromy, ending a long controversy. Since then, a free show is given at the end of the year and in the summer period to see the cathedral in color.

Polychromy was also present in the interior, especially at the level of the sculptures on which the effects of light were to be accentuated by the colored set of stained glass windows, as well as the ocher tone of the wall surfaces adorned with false joints of apparatus and the tone more decided still architectural members.

Treasure and relics

The leader of Jean-Baptiste

• A reliquary housed the anterior (frontal and maxillary) face of a human skull named St. John the Baptist. This relic survivor of the destruction of the Revolution was kept in the "treasure" near the sacristy. The local tradition sees the skull of St. John the Baptist brought back in 1206 during the Fourth Crusade by a canon of Picquigny, Walloon of Sarton. Legend has it that the hole above the left orbit is a cut due to a stab wound by Herodias, a Jewish princess who demanded Baptiste's execution. From the ancient decoration of the vermeil reliquary only remains the rock crystal globe of the thirteenth century. The other part is a reconstruction of the nineteenth: this goldsmith's piece was made in 1876 by the Parisian goldsmith Placide Poussielgue-Rusand, based on the work of Ducange of the seventeenth, destroyed during the Revolution. On the enamel medallion above the relic, Saint John the Baptist  represented. A cover of the same materials (gilded silver and enamel) can cover the rock crystal.

• A relic consisting of a small "shine" of cranial bone, presumed to belong to St. John the Baptist, was presented in a window (a wooden chest with window) in the north transept.

 

Other relics

• The relics of St. Anthony Daveluy are offered for worship in a reliquary of a chapel on the north aisle.

The treasure

• The cross of the Paraclete (early 13th century): masterpiece of medieval goldsmith, it is composed of an oak soul covered with silver leaves partly gilded, trimmed with precious stones and decorated with filigree.

o on the obverse is engraved the crucified Christ with Adam at his feet on a niello bottom, the whole is very finely chiseled. Each end of the cross is decorated with a quadrilobe decorated with filigree and engraved stones;

o On the reverse, at each end on a quadrilobe, finely chiseled the symbol of one of the evangelists, in the center is the Agnus Dei. Under oblong crystals are inlaid relics.

• A gilded silver reliquary crown (early 14th century), a silver circle surmounted by 12 fleurs-de-lis (alternatively a large and a small) was garnished with cabochons and fine pearls. Under each large fleur de lis a crystal quadrilobe garnished with relics.

• a reliquary vase (14th century) in gilded silver, consisting of a twelve-faceted rock crystal goblet mounted on a twelve-facet foot. A cabochon lid decorated with nielles, intaglios and enamels closes the reliquary, it is surmounted by a cross with Jesus crucified.

These pieces came from the old abbey of Paraclet des Champs.

• The hunting of Saint Firmin (early 13th century) in stamped silver.

Annex buildings

Next to the cathedral are various buildings including:

• the palace of the Bishopric of Amiens to the north in a park;

• a presbytery to the north connected to the bedside and containing the "treasure".

 

Construction

The lack of documentation concerning the construction of the Gothic cathedral may be in part the result of fires that destroyed the chapter archives in 1218 and again in 1258—a fire that damaged the cathedral itself. Bishop Evrard de Fouilly initiated work on the cathedral in 1220. Robert de Luzarches was the architect until 1228, and was followed by Thomas de Cormont until 1258. His son, Renaud de Cormont, acted as the architect until 1288. The chronicle of Corbie gives a completion date for the cathedral of 1266. Finishing works continued, however. Its floors are covered with a number of designs, such as the bent cross (to symbolize Jesus' triumph over death). The labyrinth was installed in 1288. The cathedral contains the alleged head of John the Baptist, a relic brought from Constantinople by Wallon de Sarton as he was returning from the Fourth Crusade.

The construction of the cathedral at this period can be seen as resulting from a coming together of necessity and opportunity. The destruction of earlier buildings by fire, and failed attempts at rebuilding forced the fairly rapid construction of a building that, consequently, has a good deal of artistic unity. The long and relatively peaceful reign of Louis IX of France brought a prosperity to the region, based on thriving agriculture and a booming cloth trade, that made the investment possible. The great cathedrals of Reims and Chartres are roughly contemporary.

Structural defects

The original design of the flying buttresses around the choir had them placed too high to counteract the force of the ceiling arch pushing outwards resulting in excessive lateral forces being placed on the vertical columns. The structure was only saved when, centuries later, masons placed a second row of more robust flying buttresses that connected lower down on the outer wall. This fix failed to counteract similar issues with the lower wall which began to develop large cracks around the late Middle Ages. This was solved by another patch that consisted of a wrought iron bar chain being installed around the mezzanine level to resist the forces pushing the stone columns outward. The chain was installed red hot to act as a cinch, tightening as it cooled.

The exterior

The west front of the cathedral, built in a single campaign from 1220 to 1236, shows an unusual degree of artistic unity: its lower tier with three vast deep porches is capped with the gallery of twenty-two over lifesize kings, which stretches across the entire façade beneath the rose window. Above the rose window there is an open arcade, the galerie des sonneurs. Flanking the nave, the two towers were built without close regard to the former design, the south tower being finished in 1366, the north one, reaching higher, in 1406.

The western portals of the cathedral are famous for their elaborate sculpture, featuring a gallery of locally-important saints and large eschatological scenes. Statues of saints in the portal of the cathedral have been identified as including the locally venerated Saints Victoricus and Gentian, Saint Domitius, Saint Ulphia, and Saint Fermin.

The spire over the central crossing was added between 1529 and 1533. The surface area is 7,700 square meters; the largest in France.

The façade in colour

During the process of laser cleaning in the 1990s, it was discovered that the western façade of the cathedral was originally painted in multiple colours. A technique was perfected to determine the exact make-up of the colours as they were applied in the 13th century. Then, in conjunction with the laboratories of EDF and the expertise of the Society Skertzo, elaborate lighting techniques were developed to project these colours directly on the façade with precision, recreating the polychromatic appearance of the 13th century. When projected on the statues around the portals, the result is a stunning display that brings the figures to life. The projected colors are faint to photograph, but a good quality DSLR camera provides excellent results, as shown below.

The full effect of the colour may be best appreciated by direct viewing, with musical accompaniment, which can be done at the Son et lumière shows which are held on Summer evenings, during the Christmas Fair, and over the New Year.

The interior

Amiens cathedral contains the largest medieval interior in Western Europe, supported by 126 pillars. Both the nave and the chancel are vast but extremely light, with considerable amounts of stained glass surviving, despite the depredations of war.

The ambulatory surrounding the choir is richly decorated with polychrome sculpture and flanked by numerous chapels. One of the most sumptuous is the Drapers' chapel. The cloth industry was the most dynamic component of the medieval economy, especially in northern France, and the cloth merchants were keen to display their wealth and civic pride. Another striking chapel is dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury, a 13th-century dedication that complements the cathedral's own very full list of martyrs.

The interior contains works of art and decoration from every period since the building of the cathedral. There are notably baroque paintings of the 17th century, by artists such as Frans II Francken and Laurent de La Hyre.

John the Baptist's head

The initial impetus for the building of the cathedral came from the installation of the reputed head of John the Baptist on 17 December 1206. The head was part of the loot of the Fourth Crusade, which had been diverted from campaigning against the Turks to sacking of Constantinople, the great capital of the Byzantine Empire. A sumptuous reliquary was made to house the skull. Although it was later lost, a 19th-century replica still provides a focus for prayer and meditation in the North aisle.

Renaissance polychrome sculpture

Some of the most important works of art are sequences of polychrome sculpture, dating mainly from the late 15th and the 16th centuries. A large sequence in the North transept illustrates Jesus' Cleansing of the Temple, with imaginative tableaux of the Temple. Both sides of the ambulatory are lined with sequences illustrating the lives of the two saints whose cults brought large numbers of pilgrims to the cathedral: John the Baptist and St Firmin, the first bishop of Amiens. The artists took care to create a parallelism in the telling of the stories: both saints, decapitated for offending the rich and powerful, suffer neglect and loss, until a later generation discovers their relics and houses them fittingly.

The pulpit

The baroque pulpit, constructed of marble and gilded wood, dominates the nave of the cathedral. It is supported by three allegorical female figures, apparently representing Faith, Hope and Charity, the three Theological Virtues.

Notable burials and memorials

• Elisabeth, Countess of Vermandois, wife of Philip I, Count of Flanders
• Charles de Hémard de Denonville, Catholic bishop and cardinal
• Antoine de Créqui Canaples (heart only), Catholic bishop and cardinal

Memorials

• The cathedral's south door contains eleven memorial tablets to commemorate the war dead from World War I, mainly the Battle of the Somme. Nations commemorated are mostly British Empire and dominions (modern-day countries of Republic of Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).
• Notable individuals commemorated include French World War I general Marie-Eugène Debeney, British Army officer Raymond Asquith and French World War II general Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque

Source: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cath%C3%A9drale_Notre-Dame_d%27Amiens