Rouen Cathedral () is a
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...
in
Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...
,
Normandy
Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy.
Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. It is the
see of the
Archbishop of Rouen,
Primate of Normandy.
It is famous for its three towers, each in a different style. The cathedral, built and rebuilt over a period of more than eight hundred years, has features from
Early Gothic to late
Flamboyant
Flamboyant () is a lavishly-decorated style of Gothic architecture that appeared in France and Spain in the 15th century, and lasted until the mid-sixteenth century and the beginning of the Renaissance.Encyclopedia Britannica, "Flamboyant style ...
and
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...
.
It also has a place in
art history
Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history.
Tradit ...
as the subject of a
series of impressionist paintings by
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...
, and in
architecture history as from
1876
Events
January
* January 1
** The Reichsbank opens in Berlin.
** The Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the world's first registered trademark symbol.
*January 27 – The Northampton Bank robbery occurs in Massachusetts.
February
* Febr ...
to
1880
Events
January
*January 27 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the incandescent light bulb. Edison filed for a US patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires." gr ...
, it was the
tallest building in the world.
History
First churches
Christianity was established in Rouen in about 260 by Saint
Mellonius, who became the first bishop. The first church is believed to have been under or close to the present cathedral. In 395, a large
basilica
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...
with three
nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
s was built at the same site. In 755, the archbishop
Rémy, the son of the Frankish statesman and military leader
Charles Martel
Charles Martel (; – 22 October 741), ''Martel'' being a sobriquet in Old French for "The Hammer", was a Franks, Frankish political and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, was the de facto ruler of ...
, established the first
Chapter of the cathedral and constructed several courtyards and buildings around the church, including a palace for the archbishop.
The cathedral was enlarged by
St. Ouen in 650, and visited by
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
in 769. However, beginning in 841, a series of
Viking
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
raids seriously damaged the cathedral complex.
The Viking leader
Rollo
Rollo (, ''Rolloun''; ; ; – 933), also known with his epithet, Rollo "the Walker", was a Viking who, as Count of Rouen, became the first ruler of Normandy, a region in today's northern France. He was prominent among the Vikings who Siege o ...
became first Duke of the
Duchy of Normandy
The Duchy of Normandy grew out of the 911 Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple, King Charles III of West Francia and the Viking leader Rollo. The duchy was named for its inhabitants, the Normans.
From 1066 until 1204, as a r ...
and was baptised in the
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty ( ; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid c ...
cathedral in 915 and buried there in 933. His grandson,
Richard I of Normandy
Richard I (28 August 932 – 20 November 996), also known as Richard the Fearless (French: ''Richard Sans-Peur''; Old Norse: ''Jarl Rikard''), was the count of Rouen from 942 to 996.Detlev Schwennicke, ''Europäische Stammtafeln, Europäische S ...
, further enlarged it in 950.
In the 1020s, the archbishop Robert began to rebuild the church in the
Romanesque style, beginning with a new choir, crypt and
ambulatory
The ambulatory ( '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 century but by the 13t ...
, and then a new
transept
A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...
. The Romanesque cathedral was consecrated by the archbishop Maurille on October 1, 1063, in the presence of William, Duke of Normandy, soon to become
William the Conqueror
William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...
after his conquest of England in 1066.
The Gothic cathedral
The project for a cathedral in the new Gothic style was first launched by the Archbishop of Rouen, Hugues of Amiens, who had attended the consecration in 1144 of the
Basilica of Saint-Denis
The Basilica of Saint-Denis (, now formally known as the ) is a large former medieval abbey church and present cathedral in the commune of Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. The building is of singular importance historically and archite ...
, the first Gothic structure, with its emphasis upon filling the interior with light. In 1145, he began constructing a tower, now called the Tower Saint-Roman, in the new Gothic style.
A complete reconstruction of the cathedral was begun by his successor, Gautier the Magnificent. In 1185 he demolished the Romanesque nave and began building the western end of the sanctuary. He had completed the west front and first traverses when the work was interrupted by a major fire on Easter eve in 1200, which destroyed a large part of the town and seriously damaged the unfinished church and its furnishings. Gautier quickly repaired the damage and resumed the work, which was directed by his master mason, Jean d'Andeli. The nave was sufficiently complete by 1204 for King
Philip II of France
Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), also known as Philip Augustus (), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks (Latin: ''rex Francorum''), but from 1190 onward, Philip became the firs ...
to be received there to celebrate the annexation of Normandy to the Kingdom of France. By 1207 the main altar was in place in the choir.
The first architectural addition to the new church was a series of small chapels between the buttresses on the north and south sides of the nave, requested by the city's prominent religious brotherhoods and corporations. In 1280 the surrounding spaces and buildings were modified to permit the construction of portals on the north and south transepts. The next addition was a response to the growing role of the Virgin Mary in church doctrine; the small axial chapel at the east end of the
apse
In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...
was replaced by a much larger chapel dedicated to her, begun in 1302. The west front was also given new decoration between 1370 and 1450.
Beginning in 1468 a highly ornamental new top, made of iron and covered with stone tiles, in the late Gothic
Flamboyant
Flamboyant () is a lavishly-decorated style of Gothic architecture that appeared in France and Spain in the 15th century, and lasted until the mid-sixteenth century and the beginning of the Renaissance.Encyclopedia Britannica, "Flamboyant style ...
style was added to the tower of Saint-Romaine.
16th century – The Transition and the Renaissance
Cardinal-Archbishop
Georges d'Amboise (1494-1510) had a major influence on the church architecture. He incorporated into the Gothic design new Renaissance features, as he had done in his own residence, the
Château de Gaillon, The first major project of the period was a new tower to match the old Saint-Romaine tower, built almost three centuries earlier. Work on the tower had begun in 1488, under master builder Guillaume Pontifs, but under Cardinal d'Amboise in 1496 the project was taken over 1496 by Jacques Le Roux, who had a more ambitious plan with Renaissance touches. The Pope authorised Cardinal d'Amboise to grant dispensations to consume milk and butter during
Lent
Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christianity, Christian religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Christ, t ...
, in exchange for contributions to the tower. The new tower soon took on the nickname of the Butter Tower, though the money collected paid only a portion of the cost.
File:Louis XII et le cardinal d'Amboise.JPG, Cardinal Georges d'Amboise following Louis XII of France (1503)
File:Une vue de Rouen en 1526.JPG, Rouen and the Cathedral in 1525, from the "Livre des Fontaines" by Jacques Le Lieur.
As the new tower was being built, the west front of the Cathedral showed weaknesses and began to tilt. Cardinal d'Amboise ordered its complete reconstruction. This was carried out by master builder Rouilland Le Roux, nephew of Jacques Le Roux, in a lavishly ornate
Flamboyant
Flamboyant () is a lavishly-decorated style of Gothic architecture that appeared in France and Spain in the 15th century, and lasted until the mid-sixteenth century and the beginning of the Renaissance.Encyclopedia Britannica, "Flamboyant style ...
style. It was covered with layers of lacelike stone
tracery
Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...
, and hundreds of sculpted figures were added to the arch and niches of the portals. To stabilise the new facade, he added two massive buttresses, also richly decorated with sculpture. In addition to his changes to the Cathedral, the Cardinal and his architect reconstructed and decorated the Palace of the Archbishop close by, adding a new reception hall, galleries, gardens and fountains.
In 1514 the flèche, or spire of the cathedral, a lead-covered wooden spire over the lantern tower, fell. It was replaced within a few months in exactly the same form and with the same materials.
17th–18th century
File:Israël Silvestre, Veue de l'Eglise nostre Dame de Rouen, 1664, NGA 60930.jpg, The cathedral in 1664
In the late 16th century the cathedral was badly damaged during the
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...
: in 1562 the Calvinists attacked the furniture, tombs, stained-glass windows and statuary. The cathedral was again struck by lightning in 1625 and 1642, then damaged by a hurricane in 1683.
In 1796, in the course of the
French Revolution, the new revolutionary government
nationalised
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English)
is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with ...
the cathedral and transformed it for a time into a
Temple of Reason
A Temple of Reason () was, during the French Revolution, a state atheist temple for a new belief system created to replace Christianity: the Cult of Reason, which was based on the ideals of reason, virtue, and liberty. This "religion" was supposed ...
. Some of the furniture and sculpture was sold, and the chapel railings were melted down to make cannon.
19th century
File:CathRouen.jpg, The cathedral in 1822 with the Renaissance spire
In 1822 lightning started a fire that destroyed the wood and lead Renaissance spire of the central tower. The architect
Jean-Antoine Alavoine proposed to replace it with a new spire made of cast iron. The idea of an iron spire was highly controversial; the novelist
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...
denounced it as "the dream of a metal-worker in a delirium." The new spire, 151 meters (495 feet) tall, was not finally completed until 1882. For a short time, from 1876 to 1880, the spire made Rouen Cathedral
the world's tallest building, until the completion of
Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral (, , officially , English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia belonging to the Catholic Church. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archd ...
.
20th century
In 1905, under the new law separating church and state, the Cathedral became the property of the French government, which then granted to the Catholic Church its exclusive use.
At the beginning of World War II in 1939, remembering the damage caused to French cathedrals in World War I, the Cathedral authorities protected the sculpture of the cathedral with sandbags and removed the old stained glass and transported it to sites far from the city. Nonetheless, in the weeks before
D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
in Normandy, the cathedral was hit twice by Allied bombs. In April 1944, seven bombs dropped by the British
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
hit the building, narrowly missing a key pillar of the lantern tower, and damaging much of the south aisle and destroying two windows. In June 1944, a few days before D-Day, bombs dropped by the
U.S. Army Air Force set fire to the Saint-Romain tower. The bells melted, leaving molten remains on the floor.
Following World War II, a major restoration effort began to repair war damage by the Service of Historic Monuments, concluding in 1956. Then a new campaign began to consolidate the structure and to restore the statuary of the west front, including putting back four statues that had been moved elsewhere. In 2016, the project was finished and the scaffolding which had covered much of the cathedral for a half-century was finally removed.
Prior to the re-opening of the Cathedral in 1956, the
choir
A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...
, damaged by the bombing during the war, was given a substantial renewal. This included a new high altar topped by an 18th-century
Rococo
Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...
statue of Christ made of gilded made by
Clodion, which had previously been on the altar screen, as well as new choir screens, a new episcopal throne, and a new communion table and pulpit made of cast iron and gilded copper.
Beginning in 1985, excavations were carried out beneath the church and its surroundings, which uncovered vestiges of the earlier Paleochristian buildings and foundations of the Carolingian cathedral.
In 1999, during
Cyclone Lothar, a copper-clad wooden turret, which weighed 26 tons, broke free from the tower and fell partly into the church, damaging the choir.
21st century
On 11 July 2024, the central spire of the cathedral caught fire during renovation works. The fire was brought under control the same day by a team of some 70 firefighters and 40 fire engines.
Timeline
* c. 260 - Saint
Mellonius recorded as first bishop of Rouen
* c. 396 - Bishop and Saint
Victricius builds first basilica
* 769 -
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
attends the Cathedral for Easter
* 1063 - Romanesque cathedral consecrated
* 1145 - Reconstruction in Gothic style of Saint Roman tower begins
* 1200 - On Easter Day, a fire causes major damage to interior of cathedral
* 1207 - Main altar in place
* 1214 - Work underway on axial chapel
* c. 1247 - Gothic cathedral complete
* c. 1270 - chapels of nave constructed
* 1280 - Portals of transept begun
* 1302 - Work begins on Chapel of the Virgin
* 1370 - Rose window on west facade begun
* 1478 - Completion of upper level of the Tour Saint-Romain
* 1479 - Library of the Chapter completed
* 1484 - Porch of Libraries completed
* 1485-1506 - Construction of the Butter Tower
* 1508 - Restoration of west front begins, with addition of lavish late Gothic decoration
* 1514 - Gothic spire called "La Grêle" on the bell tower burns and is quickly rebuilt in same style
* 1562 - Cathedral pillaged by Protestants in the
European wars of religion
The European wars of religion were a series of wars waged in Europe during the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries. Fought after the Protestant Reformation began in 1517, the wars disrupted the religious and political order in the Catholic Chu ...
* 1683 - A hurricane causes major damage to the cathedral
* 1796 -
French Revolution briefly turns Cathedral into a "Temple of Reason"
* 1822 - A fire destroys the fragile Renaissance spire
* 1884 - The spire is replaced by a new version made of cast iron and copper
* April and June 1944 - Cathedral damaged by Allied aerial bombing in advance of
Normandy Landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...
* 1980s - Completion of restoration of World War II damage
* 26 December 1999 - High winds cause a copper and wood turret to fall through the vaults of the choir
* 11 July 2024 - Spire damaged by fire
Exterior
West front
File:CathedralRouen.JPG, The west front
File:Rouen (37903218494).jpg, The portals and sculpture galleries
File:Rouen (38564194996).jpg, Tympanum of the portal of Notre-Dame
The west front of the Cathedral, with its three portals, is the traditional entrance to the Cathedral. The portals are aligned with the three aisles of the nave. The west front was first built in the 12th century, entirely redone in the 13th century, and then totally redone again at the end of the 14th century, each time become more lavishly decorated.
The main, or central portal, was originally dedicated to St. Romain in the 12th century, but was rededicated to the Virgin Mary when the facade was remade on a grander scale at the beginning of the 14th century. The central sculptural element of the tympanum, or arch over the portal, is a
Tree of Jesse, a traditional depiction of the family tree of Christ. At the top is the Virgin Mary, with a halo of sun and stars. The arches above the tympanum of the portal are filled with sculpture of prophets,
sibyl
The sibyls were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece.
The sibyls prophet, prophesied at holy sites.
A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by Pausanias (geographer), PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he desc ...
s, or fortune-tellers, and patriarchs.
The portals on either side of the central portal followed the same format, with sculpture in the tympanum vividly illustrating Biblical stories. The central portal, facing the building, is dedicated to
John the Evangelist
John the Evangelist ( – ) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Gospel of John. Christians have traditionally identified him with John the Apostle, John of Patmos, and John the Presbyter, although there is no consensus on how ...
, and the sculpture in the tympanum above illustrates the baptism of Christ, the passage of Saint John; the dance of
Salome
Salome (; , related to , "peace"; ), also known as Salome III, was a Jews, Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II and princess Herodias. She was granddaughter of Herod the Great and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas. She is known from the New T ...
; the feast of
Herod; and the beheading of
John the Baptist
John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...
. The portal to the right is devoted to
Saint Stephen
Stephen (; ) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity.["St ...]
, and its sculpture illustrates the gathering of souls, Christ in majesty, and the stoning of Stephen. The portal to the Traces of pigment and gilding on the sculpture indicate that all the sculpture was originally brightly colored.
File:Voussures portail Notre-Dame.jpg, Details of the sculpture in the Voussures over the Portal of Notre-Dame
File:Portail Saint-Etienne (cathédrale de Rouen) 10.jpg, Detail of the portal of St. Stephen
File:Portail Saint-Jean (cathédrale de Rouen) 10.jpg, Detail of the Portal of Saint John
File:Contrefort Nord de la façade occidentale 05.jpg, Sculpture of Apostles on the North Buttress
The towering buttresses on either side of the central portal were installed in the 14th century to strengthen the west front, and were covered with galleries of sculpture to merge them into the rest of the decoration.
Saint-Romain Tower
File:Tour Saint-Romain, Notre-Dame de Rouen.jpg, Saint-Romain tower
File:Rouen Cathédrale Primatiale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption Tour Saint-Romain.jpg, Top of the Saint-Romain tower
File:Chapiteau historié tour Saint-Romain.jpg, Capital of a column of the Saint-Romain tower
The Saint-Romain tower, on the left facing the west front, was begun in 1145 as part of the original Gothic cathedral. The top of the tower, more decorative, was added in the 15th century. Like the Butter tower on the right side, it is separated from and slightly behind the main block of the west front. The ground level has no windows, and contains the Baptistry. Above is a tall vaulted space with are four levels of bays, topped by a very ornate belfry. This contains the bourdon or largest Cathedral bell, named Joan of Arc, which weighs 9.5 tons. It also houses the sixty-four smaller bells of the
carillon
A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a musical keyboard, keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are Bellfounding, cast in Bell metal, bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and Musical tuning, tu ...
, which was restored in 2016. It is the second-largest carillon in France. The roof of the tower is decorated with sculptures of four small suns, made of gilded lead.
Butter Tower
File:Tour du Beurre 04.jpg, Sculpture on the Butter Tower
File:La tour du Beurre.JPG, The Butter Tower
File:Sommet de la tour de Beurre de la cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Top of the Butter Tower
File:Tour du Beurre 06.jpg, Sculpture and gargoyles on the Butter Tower
The Butter Tower was constructed between 1488 and 1506, in a late Gothic
Flamboyant
Flamboyant () is a lavishly-decorated style of Gothic architecture that appeared in France and Spain in the 15th century, and lasted until the mid-sixteenth century and the beginning of the Renaissance.Encyclopedia Britannica, "Flamboyant style ...
style. It received its popular name because donors to the tower were given dispensation to consume butter and milk during Lent. The dense decoration of the tower emphasises its height; tall pointed niches for sculpture, buttresses decorated with tracery, pinnacles, gables and arches. At the top, the square plan of the tower becomes an octagon, with an ornate stone crown.
A bell for the Butter Tower, named
Georges d'Amboise in honor of the Cardinal, was completed in 1501. It cracked in 1786 and was melted down during the French Revolution.
Lantern tower and spire
File:Cathédrale de Rouen vue de l'Opéra.JPG, The spire and clochetons, seen from the Rouen Opera
File:Flèche de la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen 01.jpg, Top of the Flèche
A central lantern tower over the transept is a tradition of Gothic architecture in Normandy. The lantern tower with its flèche, or spire is placed over the transept, almost in the centre of the cathedral, and is 151 meters high, the tallest of the three towers. The first two levels of the lantern tower were built in the 13th century. The original Gothic spire was destroyed by fire in 1514, and rebuilt in 1544 in wood and lead by the master builder Robert Becquet. The next builder, Rouland Le Roux, consolidated the first two levels of the lantern tower and added flamboyant decoration and sculpture.
Another fire in 1822 destroyed the lead and wood spire, which was then replaced, after much controversy, by the architect
Jean-Antoine Alavoine with one of iron and copper, finished in 1882. He surrounded the new spire with four smaller spirelets, made of copper. One of these fell during a hurricane in 1999, going through the roof and damaging the choir stalls below.
On 11 July 2024, the main spire caught fire, though it was quickly brought under control.
Tourelles and sculpture galleries
File:Galerie de statues Nord 01.jpg, Sculpture and tourelles on the northwest front
File:Rouen (37903225844).jpg, Archbishops and apostles on the west front
File:Galerie de statues Nord 08.jpg, An apostle on the northwest front
File:Galerie de statues Nord 11.jpg, An angel musician on the northwest front
In the 13th century four smaller towers, or tourelles, with spires, were added atop the buttresses that were built to support the west front, two on either side of the central portal below. In the 14th century, to enrich the decoration even further, three gables were attached to the west front below each of the tourelles. The gables were filled with sculpture; over the north portal, statues of the first archbishops, apostles and saints, and on the south, kings and prophets from the Old Testament.
The Nave exterior
File:Rouen Cathédrale Primatiale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption Nordseite 2.jpg, Flying buttresses on the north side reach over the roof of the aisle to support the upper walls of the nave
File:Rouen2009 (3947908741).jpg, The buttresses and decoration of the roofline of the nave
Flying buttresses along the north and south sides of the cathedral reach up over the roof of the side aisles to support the upper walls of the nave. The space between the buttresses on the lower level is filled with lateral chapels. Because of the support of the buttresses, the upper walls of the nave are able to be entirely filled with windows. The edges of the roofs of the aisles and nave are both decorated with balustrades and pinnacles.
North transept
File:Médaillons portail Libraires.jpg, Sculpted medallions in the embrasures of the Portail des Librairies (north side)
File:Rouen, Cathédrale Notre-Dame 06.jpg, The Portail des Librairies (north side)
File:Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen - panoramio - mayatomo (7).jpg, Portail des Librairies
File:ND de Rouen St Romain Portail des Libraires.jpg, Column-statue of Saint Romain in the portal
Two portals, on the north and the south, heavily decorated, give access to the transept at the meeting point between the nave and the choir. On the north is the portail des librairies, and to the south the portail de la Calende. The north portal is similar in its plan to the north transept portal of
Notre-Dame-de-Paris, built a few years earlier; the decoration of the portals spills over into the adjacent sections. Each portal has a column-statue between the doors, and is topped by a tympanum full of sculpture, and above that an arched voussure filled with three bands of statues. Above this a lace-like pointed gable, which rises upward in front of the windows of the claire-voie gallery as far as the rose window. A similar sculpted gable is placed over the rose window, just below the triangular gable of the transept roof. The embrasures of the doorway are also filled with delicate sculptural medallions.
South transept
File:Rouen (38620946921).jpg, Details of the medallions around the portal- Book of Genesis and fantastic creatures
File:Cathédrale de Rouen 2012 - panoramio.jpg, South transept - Portal of La Calende
File:Tympan du portail de la Calende.JPG, The tympanum of the Portal of La Calende - the life of Christ
File:Voussure et sculptures Portail Calende.jpg, Detail of the voussures and the buttress
The front of the south transept and the portal of La Calende are even more packed with sculpture and decoration. The scenes in the tympanum over the portal illustrate the life of Christ, while the contreforts on either side of the portals contain niches filled with angels and prophets The quadrille medallions around of the portal illustrate the
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...
and are filled with an array of fantastic animals. Scenes of the Last Judgement fill the space over the tympanum. At the very top, over the rose window, is another gable filled with sculpture of the crowning of the Virgin Mary.
Chevet
The dominant feature of the Chevet, or east end of the Cathedral beyond the choir, is the chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary, which extends well east of the choir and apse. It has very high buttresses, topped by pinnacles containing statues, and high lancet windows topped by gables, which are topped with statues. Above all these is the 'Golden Virgin", a gilded statue of The Virgin Mary made by Nicolas Quesnel in 1541.
Smaller chapels, accessed by the disambulatory, are fit between the buttresses north and south of the Virgin Mary Chapel. In addition, the
Sacristy
A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christianity, Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.
The sacristy is us ...
and the Revestiaire are attached to the south side of chevet.
File:Руан. Собор.jpg, The Chevet, or east end of the cathedral, topped with a gilded statue of the Virgin Mary.
Interior
Plan
File:Plan.cathedrale.Rouen-01.png, Plan of the cathedral (west front and nave to left, transept, choir and apse and Virgin Mary Chapel to right)
File:Notre-Dame de Rouen, Nave 20140521 1.jpg, The interior, looking from west to east toward the choir
Nave and collateral aisles
File:Rouen Cathédrale Primatiale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption Innen Langhaus West 2.jpg, The nave, looking toward the west front
File:Détail de la nef de la cathédrale.JPG, Elevation of the nave
File:Rouen Cathédrale Primatiale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption Innen Seitenschiff Süd.jpg, The south collateral aisle
The nave is the portion of the cathedral where the churchgoers are seated, extending from the west front to the transept and choir. It is covered with four-part
rib vault
A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islamic a ...
s, supported by colonettes with reach down the walls to the massive pillars on the ground floor. The first four traverses of the nave, on the west, completed by 1200, followed the original elevation plan of the late 13th century; an arcade of pillars on the ground floor, which opened into the collateral aisles; above that a tribune, or wide passageway; above that the triforium, a narrow passageway; and above that the clerestory, the high windows which reached up into the arches of the vaults. All these levels provided the necessary width to support the upper walls.
After the fire of 1200, the master builder Jean d'Andeli began to revise the plans, following the design used in High Gothic cathedrals, which had only three levels. He made a compromise; he preserved the tribunes but he installed a narrow coursiere or passageway atop the arches of the tribune, which wound around the pillars. He then made the arches of the tribune wider and taller, allowing more light from the windows of the collateral aisles to enter the nave. These modifications were possible thanks to another new technology, the
flying buttress
The flying buttress (''arc-boutant'', arch buttress) is a specific form of buttress composed of a ramping arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, to convey to the ground the lateral forces that push a wall ou ...
, which reaches over the collateral aisles to provide support to the upper nave walls, allowing them to be thinner and the windows to be larger.
The collateral aisles at Rouen are fourteen metres high compared with twenty-eight metres high vault in the nave. The high clerestory windows of the central nave look out over the roofs of the collateral aisles, and bring more light to the interior.
Transept
File:Revers portail des Libraires - transept, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Interior wall of the north transept, with rose window
File:Ruen (20).JPG, the interior of the lantern tower over the transept
File:Rouen Cathédrale Primatiale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption Innen Querschiff Süd 2.jpg, Interior of the south transept, with rose window
File:Escalier des Libraires, Notre-Dame de Rouen-8558.jpg, 15th-century stairway to the medieval library, in the northwest corner of the transept
The transept is unusually large and brightly lit thanks to the large rose windows on the north and south and the large windows below them in the triforium of each transept. Overhead, the interior of the lantern tower is visible. The walls of the inside of the north and south facades are richly decorated with tracery, composed of pointed stone arches and sculpture in niches and in the small quadrille panels of the south transept. In the northwest corner is a stairway from 1471 which gave access to the cathedral library. It was updated with Neo-Gothic landings in the 18th century.
Choir
File:Rouen Cathédrale Primatiale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption Innen Chor 2.jpg, The Choir, with the altar in the foreground
File:Rouen Cathédrale Primatiale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption Innen Chor Hauptaltar 1.jpg, The High Altar, with 18th-century statue of Christ and kneeling angels
The Choir is the section of the cathedral at the east which was reserved for the clergy, and in the Middle Ages was separated from the nave by an elaborate screen. It was constructed slightly later than the nave, in the middle of the 13th century, and the style is more unified than in the nave. The beginning of the choir is marked by the retable of the main altar, and the throne of the Archbishop. Beyond that to the east are the stalls where the members of the clergy were seated.
The elevation of the Choir is different from that of the nave, being more in the
High Gothic
High Gothic was a period of Gothic architecture in the 13th century, from about 1200 to 1280, which saw the construction of a series of refined and richly decorated cathedrals of exceptional height and size. It appeared most prominently in France ...
style of the 13th century, with three levels. The pillars of the arcade are circular, crowned with capitals decorated with stylised foliage and crochets. Above the arcade is the triforium, or enclosed gallery, and above that the high windows, which form a half-circle.
The center of the Choir was substantially refurbished before the 1956 re-opening to repair damage suffered during the war. The high altar was added, topped by an 18th-century Rococo statue of Christ made of gilded lead made by
Clodion, which had previously been part of the 18th-century altar screen, as well as two kneeling angels, made by Caffieri in 1766, and previously in the Church of Saint-Vincent de Rouen, which was destroyed in 1944. The Choir also received modern screens by 20th-century artist Raymond Subes, a new episcopal throne, and a modern communion table and pulpit made of cast iron and gilded copper.
Choir stalls
File:Stalles de la cathédrale de Rouen 3.jpg">The choir stalls (15th c.)
File:Miséricorde de la cathédrale de Rouen 2.jpg, Detail of a misericord on a choir stall, showing a money-changer
The Choir stalls were put in place between 1457 and 1470 by the master woodworker Philipott Viart. A majority of the original seats are still in place, along with the carved decorations, called misericords, illustrating scenes from the Bible, as well as proverbs, fables and craftsmen at work. Unfortunately, the upper portions of the stalls were destroyed during the Revolution.
Tombs of the Dukes of Normandy
File:Effigy of Rollo of Normandy, Notre-Dame de Rouen-8542.jpg, Tomb of Rollo
Rollo (, ''Rolloun''; ; ; – 933), also known with his epithet, Rollo "the Walker", was a Viking who, as Count of Rouen, became the first ruler of Normandy, a region in today's northern France. He was prominent among the Vikings who Siege o ...
, first Duke of Normandy (died 930)
File:Richard1Rouen.jpg, Tomb with the heart of Richard the Lionheart
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...
(died 1199)
The remains of four Dukes of Normandy are placed in the simple tombs with their images on either side of the choir. These are the tombs of
Rollo
Rollo (, ''Rolloun''; ; ; – 933), also known with his epithet, Rollo "the Walker", was a Viking who, as Count of Rouen, became the first ruler of Normandy, a region in today's northern France. He was prominent among the Vikings who Siege o ...
, a
Viking
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
and the first Duke of Normandy;
William Longsword, the son of Rollo (died 942);
Henry the Young King
Henry the Young King (28 February 1155 – 11 June 1183) was the eldest son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine to survive childhood. In 1170, he became titular King of England, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou and Maine. Henry th ...
(died 1183); and a tomb with the heart of
Richard the Lionheart
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...
, Duke of Normandy and King of England (died 1199); his body was buried at
Fontevraud Abbey
The Royal Abbey of Our Lady of Fontevraud or Fontevrault (in French: ''abbaye de Fontevraud'') was a monastery in the village of Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, near Chinon, in the former French Duchy of Anjou. It was founded in 1101 by the itinerant preach ...
in
Anjou. The original tomb of Rollo was destroyed during the bombing of 1944, and was replaced by a copy of the tomb of Henry the Young King made in the 19th century. The remains of Rollo and his son William Longsword were transferred from the first cathedral to the Romanesque cathedral in 1063, shortly after it was built, then to the Gothic cathedral when it was completed.
Collateral Chapels
File:Détail statue «Notre-Dame du Voeu» - chapelle Sainte-Marguerite, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Statue ''Notre-Dame du Vœu'' by Félix Lecomte (1777) in the Chapel Sainte-Marguerite (south side)
File:Statue Sainte-Cécile - chapelle Saint-Nicolas, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Statue of Saint Cecile by Clodion (1777) in the Chapel Saint-Nicolas (north side)
File:Autel et retable - chapelle Saint-Etienne-de-la-Grande-Eglise, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Altar and retable in Chapel of Saint-Etienne-de-la-Grande- Eglise
File:Détail 2 - chapelle Sainte-Catherine, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Painted wood panels depicting the life of Saint Brice in the Chapel of Sainte-Catherine (17th c.)
File:Autel et antependium - chapelle Sainte-Catherine, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Altar and antependium of the Chapel of Sainte-Catherine
File:Retable de la chapelle Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul.jpg, Retable in Chapel of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
File:Retable - chapelle des Fonts, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Retable in the Chapelle des Fonts (17th c.)
Eighteen small chapels are placed between the buttresses on the north and south sides of the nave. They are filled with art, sculpture and stained glass given by wealthy donors and the guilds of the city. Some of the chapels are very plain, while others are adorned with paintings and sculptures from the 17th and 18th centuries. The Chapel of Sainte-Catherine is distinguished by its highly ornate lambris with painted panels of the life of Saint Brice. The bombardment of the Catedral in 1944 destroyed the other five chapels on the south side of the nave; only the Chapel of Sainte-Catherine survived intact.
Apse – The Chapel of the Virgin
At the east end of the cathedral is the Chapel of the Virgin, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was constructed by master builder Jean Davi beginning in 1302, when the veneration of the Virgin began to play a larger role in Christian theology, and replaced a more modest earlier chapel. Following the style of the 14th century, the windows fill the entire upper portion of the walls, while the lower walls are covered with elaborate tracery and sculpture. Traces of gilding and pigment on the walls show that the chapel was originally brightly colored.
The central feature of the chapel is an enormous altar, made in the 17th century, framing a painting of the Virgin surrounded by carved and sculptural decoration. The chapel also contains the tomb of Cardinal
Georges d'Amboise, the principal patron of the Gothic cathedral, and his nephew and successor, Cardinal Georges II d'Amboise. It is placed against the south wall. The nephew, Georges II, moved the statue of his uncle to the side of the tomb and placed his own in the central position. The baldaquin or upper portion of the tomb is lavishly decorated with sculpture of the Apostles, in pairs, separated by
Sibyls and Biblical kings. The top of the tomb is ornamented with sculpted candelabra and tempietti. or miniature classical temples.
The other monumental tomb in the chapel is that of Louis and Pierre de Brézé, made between 1536 and 1541 in a purely Renaissance style. Louis, who died in 1531, was the grandson of Pierre, and was Senechal and Governor of Normandy. His wife was
Diane de Poitiers, who was the mistress of King
Henri II of France; it was she who commissioned the tomb. Its main elements are a triumphal arch, under which Louis, in armor and on horseback, is passing in triumph. He appears again at the bottom as a corpse, almost nude. Diane is depicted next to his corpse, kneeling. The tomb is attributed to the prominent French Renaissance sculptor
Jean Goujon, who was active during this period as a sculptor to Henri II.
File:Mausolée des cardinaux d'Amboise.jpg, Tomb of the two Cardinals d'Amboise
File:Chapelle de la Vierge, Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen-8548.jpg, The Chapel of the Virgin
File:Tombeau de Louis de Brézé.jpg, Tomb of Louis and Pierre de Brézé
File:Diane de Poitiers 1.jpg, Diane de Poitier, kneeling by the corpse of husband, Louis de Brézé
Stained glass
A considerable portion of the original stained glass from the 13th century is still in place. It dates from about the same time as the early windows of
Chartres Cathedral
Chartres Cathedral (, lit. Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres) is a Catholic cathedral in Chartres, France, about southwest of Paris, and is the seat of the List of bishops of Chartres, Bishop of Chartres. Dedicated in honour of the Virgin Mary ( ...
and
Bourges Cathedral. There are five bays with windows of early glass found in the collateral chapels of the north nave. The early windows are composed of series of medallions arranged in rows. Each medallion is made of small pieces of thick glass, deeply colored, particularly in reds and blues, bound together like mosaics with thin strips of lead.
13th-century windows
File:Baie 10 - Vitrail de la Passion 3 - déambulatoire, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Window of the Passion, disambulatory, Bay 10 (13th c.) (multiple-click to see details)
File:Baie 10 - Vitrail de la Passion 4 - déambulatoire, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Scene from the Window of the Passion- the Last Supper (Bay 10, 13th century)
File:Baie 10 - Vitrail de la Passion 2 - déambulatoire, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Detail of the Window of the Passion; a butcher, sponsors of the window, at work (13th c.)
File:Baie 9 - Vitrail de Saint-Joseph 3 - déambulatoire, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Window of Saint Joseph, Bay 9. (13th c.) The glass is signed by the artist on the band in front of the Saint: "Clement- glassmaker of Chartres"
File:Baie 51 - détail 1 - chapelle Saint-Sever, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Saint Severus,Chapel of Saint Severus, Bay 51 (13th century)
The collateral chapels on the north side of the nave have some of the oldest existing windows. Some of these windows were funded by the guilds of craftsmen, and depict them at their work. Unusually, some of the windows, such as the Window of saint Joseph, are signed by the glass artist; the band in front of the Saint reads: "Clement, glassmaker of Chartres".
The "Belles Verrieres"
File:Baie 23 - Vitrail de Saint-Julien-l'Hospitalier 5 - déambulatoire, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Window of Saint-Julien l'Hospitalier, Bay 23, ambulatory (13th century)
File:Baie 23 - Vitrail de Saint-Julien-l'Hospitalier 2 - déambulatoire, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Window of Saint-Julien-L'Hospitalier, depicting fish-merchants, the sponsor of the window (Bay 23)
File:Baie 53 - détail 7 - chapelle Saint-Jean-de-la-Nef, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Craftsmen planning and building Rouen Cathedral, Chapel of Saint-Jean-de-la-Nef (13th c.) (Bay 53)
The "Belles Verrieres" are a group of windows located in the collateral chapels on the north side of nave and in the transept, containing some of the earliest stained glass in the cathedral. They are composed of early 13th century glass that was moved in the 15th century from its original locations in the south collateral chapels and reinstalled into new windows in the Chapel Saint-Jean, Chapel Saint-Severus, the Chapel of the Saint-Sacrament, and the Chapel of Saint-Pierre-and-Saint-Paul.
The window in Bay 53 of the Chapel of Saint-Joseph-de-la-nef shows some of the craftsmen planning and building Rouen cathedral.
14th–15th century windows
File:Baie 5 cathédrale Rouen Ansbert.JPG, Saint Ansbert, (Bay 5 -14th c.)
File:Baie 32 - détail 1 - croisillon sud, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Detail of Bay 32, in the South Transept (14th c.)
File:Baie 36 - détail 4 - croisillon sud, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Detail of Pentecost window, Bay 36, South transept (mid-14th century)
File:Baie 53 - détail 11 - chapelle Saint-Jean-de-la-Nef, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Detail of "Holy Saints at the Tomb" by Guillaume Barbe, Bay 53 Chapel of Saint-Jean-de-la-Nef (15th c.)
File:Baie 44 - détail 4 - chapelle Sainte-Catherine, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Bay 44, Chapel of St. Catherine
The windows of the 14th century began to look considerably different than the earlier windows. Glass artists had begun using techniques of
silver stain and enamel paints baked on the glass to add greater detail and realism to the images. The windows looked less like mosaics, and increasingly resembled paintings, with the use of perspective and shading to suggest three dimensions. Fourteenth-century windows often depicted the subjects, usually saints and bishops, in architectural settings, surrounded and crowned by elaborate canopies and arches, to match the architecture of the cathedral. They also made greater use of
grisaille
Grisaille ( or ; , from ''gris'' 'grey') means in general any European painting that is painted in grey.
History
Giotto used grisaille in the lower registers of his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua () and Robert Campin, Jan van Ey ...
, or a greyish or white glass, which surrounded and set off the figures and also brought increased light into the cathedral. One example from the mid-14th century is the Pentecost window in Bay 36, with an edge of grisaille bordered by angel musicians.
Rose windows (15th c.)
File:Baie 121 - détail 6 - rose des Libraires, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Rose window of the portal of libraries, north transept (15th c.)
File:Baie 121 - détail 8 - rose des Libraires, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Detail of the rose of the portal of libraries (15th c.)
The rose window of the north portal is the only large rose window to survive in its original form. It was made by Guillaume Nouel at the end of the 14th century, and depicts Christ surrounded by the evangelists, bishops, kings and martyrs.
Renaissance windows (16th century)
File:Baie 28 - chapelle Saint-Joseph, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, 16th-century window in the Chapel of Saint-Joseph
File:Baie 28 - détail 4 - chapelle Saint-Joseph, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Detail of the Chapel of Saint-Joseph window
File:Baie 28 - détail 7 - chapelle Saint-Joseph, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Archbishop Saint-Romain of Rouen slays the Gargoyle (Bay 28)
The windows of the 16th century most fully display the influence of the Renaissance, with greater realism and closer resemblance to paintings. A good example is the window in the Chapel of Saint-Joseph, in the south transept. While it is full of activity and detail, it lacks some of the depth and richness of color given by the thick, densely-coloured glass of the 13th-century windows.
Other major 16th-century works are two windows of the Saint-Romain chapel, the south part of the nave next to the transept. These are based on the work of the Rouen painter Arnoult de Nimegue or his followers. They depict scenes from the life of the archbishop Romaine, best known in Rouen legends for ridding the city of a monster called "The Gargoyle".
Modern windows (20th century)
File:Baie 50 - chapelle Saint-Léonard, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Chapel of St. Leonard, Bay 50 (20th century)
File:Baie 50 - détail 5 - chapelle Saint-Léonard, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Detail of window in Chapel of Saint-Léonard - Noah's ark (20th century)
File:Baie 50 - détail 7 - chapelle Saint-Léonard, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Detail of window in Chapel of Saint-Léonard - a modern angel (20th century)
File:Baie 22 - détail 1 - chapelle Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Detail of Chapel of Saint-Joan-of-Arc window, south transept 20th century)
File:Baie 26 - chapelle Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Joan of Arc window, Bay 26, Chapel of Saint-Joan-of-Arc (20th c.)
The Cathedral has a number of modern windows created in the 1950s to replace windows which were destroyed in the bombardments of the Second World War. They resemble, in their colors and the density of their imagery, the earlier medieval and Renaissance windows. One example is found in the Chapel of St. Leonard, Bay 50. Other striking examples are the three Joan of Arc windows in the Chapel of Joan-of-Arc in the South transept, bays 22, 24 and 26. These were made in 1955–56.
Bells
The cathedral has seventy bells made by the
Fonderie Paccard in
Annecy
Annecy ( , ; , also ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Haute-Savoie Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, regi ...
. There are sixty-four in the Saint-Romain Tower and six in the Butter Tower. Together they are the heaviest "peal" or group of bells in France, with a combined weight of thirty-six tons.
Grand Organ
File:Rouen France Cathédrale-Notre-Dame-de-Rouen-04.jpg, The grand organ, inside the west front
File:Fleur de lys + symboles grand orgue cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Decoration of the grand organ
File:Personnage sculpté grand orgue cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Sculpture on the grand organ
File:Angelot grand orgue cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Cherub on the organ pipe
The cathedral had an organ since the 1380s. A larger new organ was constructed beginning in 1488, and placed at the beginning of the nave, on the inside of the west front under the rose window. This organ was damaged in the hurricane of 1683, but was put back into service. Prominent organists included
Jean Titelouze from 1588 until 1634, and Jacques Boyvin from 1674 until 1706. A smaller organ had been installed in the choir in 1517, in the center of the Choir screen, removed during the Renaissance. New organs were built by Merklin & Schütze (1858–60) and, after World War II, by Jacquot-Lavergne.
Treasury
File:Châsse des Saints-Pontifes - trésor, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, The Châsse des Saints-Pontiffs (19th c.)
File:Détail 2 châsse des Saints-Pontifes - trésor, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, Detail of The Châsse des Saints-Pontiffs
File:Cappa Magna détail - trésor, cathédrale de Rouen.jpg, The Capa Magna of the Archbishop
The treasury of the Cathedral was originally in the Sacristy, and then was moved to its own tower on the Alban Courtyard, on the north side of the cathedral. It was twice pillaged; first by the Protestants in 1562, then during the French Revolution in 1791. Most of the original objects were lost, with the exception of the Chasse de Saint-Roman, but in the 19th century, a new collection was assembled, acquired from monasteries, churches and private collections. Notable objects include the Châsse de Saint Roman, a miniature cathedral made of gilded copper, with figures of Christ and the Apostles (late 13th century); the Châsse de Notre Dame, a mini-cathedral of gilded bronze and enamel, devoted to the Virgin Mary (19th century); A 15th-century monstrance, an elaborate miniature tower embracing a crystal cylinder used to hold the host during the
Eucharist
The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in ...
ceremony; and the Ostentoire of Two Crowns (1777), a similar vessel for the host, decorated with a gilded crown and rays of light. The treasury also displays some of the elaborate ceremonial costumes worn by the Archbishops.
Crypt
File:Crypte rectangulaire cathédrale ND Rouen 2.jpg, The crypt of the Cathedral
File:Crypte rectangulaire cathédrale ND Rouen 5.jpg, The crypt, with fragments of Romanesque columns
The 11th-century crypt of the original Romanesque cathedral is located underneath the choir of the Gothic cathedral. It is accessed through the Chapel of Saint Joan of Arc on the south side of the Choir. It was excavated between 1931 and 1934, and opened to visitors in 1956. It was within the foundation of the old cathedral, and is composed of a sanctuary and a curving ambulatory with three small chapels, with vaults supported by two rows of columns. The original floor was made of a pattern of light stone and black marble. There is a well located in the ambulatory, beneath the axis of the apse above.
The Cathedral in art and literature
The most famous paintings of the cathedral were done by the
Impressionist artist
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...
, who produced
a series of paintings of the building showing the same scene at different times of the day and in different weather conditions. Two paintings are in the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...
in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
; one is in the
Getty Center in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
; one is in the
National Museum of Serbia in
Belgrade
Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...
; one is at the
Clark Art Institute
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, commonly referred to as the Clark, is an art museum and research institution located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. Its collection consists of European ...
in
Williamstown, Massachusetts; one is in a museum of
Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
; one is in the Rouen fine art museum; and five are in the
musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...
in Paris. The estimated value of one painting is over $40 million.
File:Claude Monet - Rouen Cathedral, West Facade, Sunlight.jpg, ''West Facade, Sunlight'', 1892
(National Gallery of Art, Washington DC)
File:RouenCathedral Monet 1894.jpg, ''Rouen Cathedral, Full Sunlight'', 1894
(Musée d'Orsay)
File:Claude Monet 033.jpg, ''La Cathédrale de Rouen'', 1893
(Musée d'Orsay)
File:Claude Monet - The Rouen Cathedral at Sunset - Pushkin museum.jpg, ''Cathedral at Sunset''
(Pushkin Museum)
File:Claude Monet (French - The Portal of Rouen Cathedral in Morning Light - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Morning Light'', 1894
(Getty Center)
Other painters inspired by the building included
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...
, who selected it as an example of good architecture in ''
The Seven Lamps of Architecture'', and
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Fox Lichtenstein ( ; October27, 1923September29, 1997) was an American pop artist. He rose to prominence in the 1960s through pieces which were inspired by popular advertising and the comic book style. Much of his work explores the relations ...
, who produced a series of pictures representing the cathedral's front. Mae Babitz, known for illustrations of the Watts Towers and Victorian-era buildings in Los Angeles, illustrated the Cathedral in the 1960s. Those works are held in the
UCLA library Special Collections.
In literature,
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...
was inspired by the stained glass windows of St. Julian and the
bas-relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
of
Salome
Salome (; , related to , "peace"; ), also known as Salome III, was a Jews, Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II and princess Herodias. She was granddaughter of Herod the Great and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas. She is known from the New T ...
, and based two of his ''
Three Tales'' on them.
Joris-Karl Huysmans
Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans (, ; 5 February 1848 – 12 May 1907) was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans (, variably abbreviated as J. K. or J.-K.). He is most famous for the novel (1884, pub ...
wrote ''
La Cathédrale'', a novel based on an intensive examination of the building.
Willa Cather
Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including ''O Pioneers!'', ''The Song of the Lark (novel), The Song of the Lark'', a ...
sets a key scene in the development of the protagonist Claude Wheeler of ''
One of Ours'' in the cathedral.
Burials
The Cathedral houses a tomb containing the heart of
Richard the Lionheart
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...
. His bowels were probably buried within the church of the Château of Châlus-Chabrol in the Limousin. It was from the walls of the Château of Châlus-Chabrol that the crossbow bolt was fired, which led to his death once the wound became septic. His corporeal remains were buried next to his father at
Fontevraud Abbey
The Royal Abbey of Our Lady of Fontevraud or Fontevrault (in French: ''abbaye de Fontevraud'') was a monastery in the village of Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, near Chinon, in the former French Duchy of Anjou. It was founded in 1101 by the itinerant preach ...
near
Chinon
Chinon () is a Communes of France, commune in the Indre-et-Loire Departments of France, department, Centre-Val de Loire, France.
The traditional province around Chinon, Touraine, became a favorite resort of French kings and their nobles beginn ...
and
Saumur
Saumur () is a Communes of France, commune in the Maine-et-Loire Departments of France, department in western France.
The town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgu ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. Richard's effigy is on top of the tomb, and his name is inscribed in Latin on the side.
The Cathedral also contains the tomb of
Rollo
Rollo (, ''Rolloun''; ; ; – 933), also known with his epithet, Rollo "the Walker", was a Viking who, as Count of Rouen, became the first ruler of Normandy, a region in today's northern France. He was prominent among the Vikings who Siege o ...
(''Hrólfr'', ''Rou(f)'' or ''Robert''), one of Richard's ancestors, the founder and first ruler of the Viking principality in what soon became known as Normandy.
The cathedral contained the black marble tomb of
John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford, one of the English commanders who oversaw
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...
's trial. His original tomb was destroyed by the
Calvinist
Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...
s in the 16th century but there remains a commemorative plaque.
Other burials include:
*
Maurilius, a Norman Archbishop of Rouen (d. 1067)
*''Poppa'', wife of
Rollo of Normandy and mother of Duke William I
*
William I, Duke of Normandy (also known as William Longsword)
*
Hugh of Amiens (d. 1164), first abbot of
Reading Abbey and then archbishop of Rouen
*
Matilda of England (also known as the
Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda (10 September 1167), also known as Empress Maud, was one of the claimants to the English throne during the civil war known as the Anarchy. The daughter and heir of Henry I, king of England and ruler of Normandy, she went to ...
)
*
Walter de Coutances, medieval Anglo-Norman bishop of Lincoln and archbishop of Rouen (d. 1207)
*
William FitzEmpress
*A memorial to
Arthur I, Duke of Brittany, a rival claimant to
King John for the throne of England. He is remembered in Rouen as he was last heard of in
Rouen Castle in 1203, aged sixteen. His fate and place of burial are unknown.
*
Henry the Young King
Henry the Young King (28 February 1155 – 11 June 1183) was the eldest son of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine to survive childhood. In 1170, he became titular King of England, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou and Maine. Henry th ...
, heir to King
Henry II of England
Henry II () was King of England
The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with the ...
, but predeceased him
*
Georges d'Amboise
*
Pierre de Brézé
*
Louis de Brézé, seigneur d'Anet
*
Gustave Maximilien Juste de Croÿ-Solre, a French cardinal, Archbishop of Rouen, and a member of the House of Croy (d. 1844)
*
Pierre Petit de Julleville (d. 1947)
*
Joseph-Marie Martin, a French Cardinal and Archbishop of Rouen (d. 1976)
Dimensions
See also
*
Gothic cathedrals and churches
Gothic cathedrals and churches are religious buildings constructed in Europe in Gothic style between the mid-12th century and the beginning of the 16th century. The cathedrals are notable particularly for their great height and their extensive u ...
*
French Gothic architecture
*
List of Gothic Cathedrals in Europe
*
List of tallest structures built before the 20th century
*
French Gothic stained glass windows
*
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved f ...
*
Church of St. Ouen, Rouen
*
List of tallest churches
*
André Bizette-Lindet
*
Treaty of Louviers
References
Bibliography
* Aubert, Marcel (1926). "Rouen, la cathédrale", ''Congrès archéologique de France, LXXXIX (Rouen)'', 1926, 11–71.
*
*
*
*
*
* Heinzelmann, Dorothee (2003). ''Die Kathedrale Notre-Dame in Rouen – Untersuchungen zur Architektur der Normandie in früh- und hochgotischer Zeit''. Rhema-Verlag, Münster 2003,
External links
Les Cloches de la Cathédrale de RouenOfficial WebsiteRouen Seine valley Tourist Board's website
{{Authority control
Churches completed in 1876
Cathedral
A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...
Roman Catholic cathedrals in France
Former world's tallest buildings
Burial sites of the House of Lancaster
Burial sites of the House of Normandy
Burial sites of the House of Plantagenet
1876 establishments in France
Burned buildings and structures in France