The Basilica of Notre-Dame du Port is a Romanesque

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

, formerly a

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a ...

, in the Port quarter of

Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label=Auvergnat (dialect), Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population ...

, between Place Delille and the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

. From the 10th century to the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

it was served by a community of canons, regular until the 13th century, and thereafter

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

History

According to tradition, the church was founded by the

Bishop of Clermont The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Clermont (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Claromontana''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Clermont'') is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman ...

Saint Avitus Alcimus Ecdicius Avitus (c. 450 – February 5, 517/518 or 519) was a Latin poet and bishop of Vienne in Gaul. His fame rests in part on his poetry, but also on the role he played as secretary for the Burgundian kings. Avitus was born of a promi ...

, in the 6th century and was rebuilt in the 11th or 12th century after being burned down by the

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Fran ...

. The establishment here of a community of canons took place no earlier than the middle of the 10th century, under bishop Étienne II of Clermont. The church was formally declared a ''

basilica minor In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular b ...

'' on 3 May 1886. In the 19th century the

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

was added, and the Romanesque roof tiles were replaced by lava slabs. These have since been removed again and the roof restored as near as possible to its original state. A major restoration programme took place in the church interior between 2007 and 2008, consisting of the cleaning of all the stonework, the removal of cement pointing from the restoration of the 19th century, the restoration of the pictures and the replacement of the lustres (the crypt however was not included). On Sunday 7 December 2008 the statue of '' Notre-Dame du Port'' ("Our Lady of the Port") was reinstalled in the church, having been kept safe in

Clermont Cathedral Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral, or the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption of Clermont-Ferrand (french: Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Clermont-Ferrand), is a Gothic cathedral and French national monument located in the town of C ...

during the restoration works, thus marking the reopening of the building to the public. In 1998 the Basilica of Notre-Dame du Port was added to the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

list as part of the

Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France UNESCO designated the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France as a World Heritage Site in December 1998. The routes pass through the following regions of France: Aquitaine, Auvergne, Basse-Normandie, Bourgogne, Centre, Champagne-Ardenne, Ile-de ...

. The name "du Port" supposedly comes from the fact that the church was built in the "port" district, in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''portus'', here in the sense of "market" rather than "seaport". The church at first bore the name of Sainte-Marie-Principale; the description ''Portus'' or '' du Port'' is not known before the 11th century. Nor was the Port district, at least in the Middle Ages, a particularly commercial one: the districts of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Genès were much more so.

Description

The basilica is one of the five Romanesque churches in

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; oc, label=Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Auverg ...

known as the "greater" churches (''majeures''), the others being the church of Saint-Austremoine in

Issoire Issoire (; Auvergnat: ''Issoire'', ''Ussoire'') is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France. Geography Issoire is located on the river Couze, near its confluence with the Allier, SSE of Clermont-Ferrand on the P ...

, the Basilica of Notre-Dame of Orcival, the church of

Saint-Nectaire Saint-Nectaire is a French cheese made in the Auvergne region of central France. The cheese has been made in Auvergne since at least the 17th century. History Up until the 17th century, the Saint-Nectaire cheese was farmstead, and mostly made ...

, and the church of Saint-Saturnin. Built of

arkose Arkose () or arkosic sandstone is a detrital sedimentary rock, specifically a type of sandstone containing at least 25% feldspar. Arkosic sand is sand that is similarly rich in feldspar, and thus the potential precursor of arkose. Quartz is c ...

, a sort of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

, the building has an almost perfect harmony supposedly resulting from the application of the ratio of the Golden Number. The church is built on a

Latin cross A Latin cross or ''crux immissa'' is a type of cross in which the vertical beam sticks above the crossbeam, with the three upper arms either equally long or with the vertical topmost arm shorter than the two horizontal arms, and always with a mu ...

ground plan with a nave of six bays between two low side aisles with simple vaults. There is a

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

with a semi-circular chapel on each arm, and a quire surrounded by an

ambulatory The ambulatory ( la, ambulatorium, ‘walking place’) is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th ...

from which open four radiating chapel, none of them on the main axis, thus forming a

chevet In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

, which with its fine mosaics is a notable example of the Romanesque art of Auvergne. The

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

s, which are among the finest in Auvergne, principally depict scenes from the Bible, but also some from the ''

Psychomachia The ''Psychomachia'' (''Battle of Spirits'' or ''Soul War'') is a poem by the Late Antique Latin poet Prudentius, from the early fifth century AD. It has been considered to be the first and most influential "pure" medieval allegory, the first in ...

'' of

Prudentius Aurelius Prudentius Clemens () was a Roman citizen, Roman Christianity, Christian poet, born in the Roman Empire, Roman province of Tarraconensis (now Northern Spain) in 348.H. J. Rose, ''A Handbook of Classical Literature'' (1967) p. 508 He prob ...

Gallery

Image:NDPort-4675-0023.jpg,

Dormition The Dormition of the Mother of God is a Great Feast of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches (except the East Syriac churches). It celebrates the "falling asleep" (death) of Mary the ''Theotokos'' ("Mother of ...

and

Assumption of the Virgin The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Catholic_Mariology#Dogmatic_teachings, Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and d ...

Image:NDPort-4675-0026.jpg, Detail of the Assumption Image:NDPort-4672-s-0025.jpg, Detail of a capital Image:NDPort-4672-s-0032.jpg, Detail of a capital

Bibliography

* Bréhier, nd: ''La sculpture romane en Haute-Auvergne''. RHA, vol. 23 * Collière, Guy, nd: ''Art roman en Basse-Auvergne: les églises majeures. Livret détaillé disponible dans certaines des cinq églises majeures d'Auvergne.'' * Craplet, Bernard, 1992: ''Auvergne romane''. Éditions Zodiaque, revised edition * Fornas, 1997: ''Le symbolisme dans l'art roman''. La Taillanderie * Fornas, 1994: ''Eglises romanes de Basse-Auvergne''. La Taillanderie * Mourlevat: ''La géométrie du Nombre d’Or à Notre-Dame du Port'', in ''Bulletin historique et scientifique de l’Auvergne'', Jul-Sept 1978 * Porcher, 1968: ''Bestiaire roman Auvergnat''. RHA, vol. 41

External links

Photos of the churchPhotos of the church

3D anaglyptic stereophotography of the Rotbertus Capitals in the Basilique Notre-Dame du Port
* High-resolution 360° Panoramas and Images of th
Basilica of Notre-Dame du Port , Art Atlas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Notre Dame du Port Basilica churches in France World Heritage Sites in France Churches in Puy-de-Dôme Buildings and structures in Clermont-Ferrand

History

Description

Gallery

See also

Bibliography

External links