Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
theories and strove to build ever higher. Work on Reims Cathedral began decades after
the Notre-Dame cathedrals in Paris and Chartres, allowing architects to take advantage of
what they'd learned from those magnificent earlier structures.
Contemplate the lives of the people in Reims who built this huge building in the
13th century. Construction on a scale like this required a wholesale community effort—all
hands on deck. The builders of the Reims Cathedral gave it their all, in part because this
was the church of France—where its kings were crowned. Most townsfolk who particip-
ateddonatedtheirmoneyortheirlaborknowingthatneitherthey,northeirchildren,would
likelyeverseeitcompleted—suchwastheirpride,dedication,andfaith.Imaginetheeffort
it took to raise the funds and manage the workforce. Master masons supervised, while the
average Jean did much of the sweat work.
Now, step inside and stand at the back of the nearly 500-foot-long
nave.
The weight
of the roof is supported by a few towering columns that seem to sprout crisscrossing
pointed arches. This load-bearing skeleton of columns, arches, and buttresses allowed
the church to grow higher, and liberated the walls to become window frames. Sun pours
through the
stained glass,
bathing visitors and worshippers in divine light.
Take a look at the wall of
52 statues
stacked in rectangular blocks inside the door.
(Coverthelightfromthedoorwiththisbooktoseebetter.)Imaginethe13th-centurytech-
nology employed to carve each of these blocks in the nearby workshop and then install
them so seamlessly here. These blocks continue the stories told by the statues on the out-
side.
Walkupthecentralaisleuntilyoufinda
plaque in the floor
markingthesiteofClo-
vis' baptism in 496. Back then, a much smaller, early Christian Roman church stood here.
Andbackthenyoucouldn'tenterachurchuntilyouwerebaptized.Baptisteries stoodout-
side churches, like the one that welcomed Clovis into the Christian faith.
Walk ahead to the
choir.
The set of candlesticks and crucifix at the high altar were
given to the church by Charles X on the occasion of his coronation in 1825. Look back at
the west wall. The original windows were lost in World War I; these, rebuilt from photo-
graphs, date from the 1930s.
Walk into the
south transept.
The WWI-destroyed windows here were replaced
in 1954 by the local Champagne makers. The windows' scenes portray the tending of
vines(left),theharvest(center),andthetime-honoreddouble-fermentationprocess(right).
Notice, around the edges, the churches representing all the grape-producing villages in the
area.
Looking high above at the ceiling, you'll see evidence of
bomb damage
from 1917,
when the roof took direct hits and collapsed. (The lighter bricks are from the repair job in
the1920s.)Thegray/white“grisaille”windowsinthistranseptwereinstalledinthe1970s.
