Rheims Cathedral (Part Three)

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unless otherwise accredited.

Two Rose Windows at Rheims Cathedral.
Photo taken January 2008 by Mattana

The three portals are laden with statues and statuettes; among European cathedrals, only Chartres has more sculpted figures. The central portal, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is surmounted by a rose window framed in an arch, itself decorated with statuary, in place of the usual sculptured tympanum. The "gallery of the kings", above, shows the baptism of Clovis in the centre, flanked by statues of his successors.

The facades of the transepts are also decorated with sculptures. That on the North Side has statues of bishops of Reims, a representation of the Last Judgment and a figure of Jesus (le Beau Dieu), while that on the South Side has a modern rose window with the prophets and apostles. 

Fire destroyed the roof and the spires in 1481. Of the four towers that flanked the transepts, nothing remains above the height of the roof. Above the choir rises an elegant lead-covered timber bell-tower that is 18 m (about 59 feet) tall, reconstructed in the 15th-Century and in the 1920s.

Français : Notre-Dame de Reims, Champagne-Ardenne, France. Vitraux XIIIè siècle surplombant le chœur, représentant la Vierge, le Christ en croix, les apôtres, archevêques et évêques.

English: Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Rheims, Champagne-Ardenne, France. 

13th-Century stained-glass windows above the Choir, 

representing Our Lady, Christ, the Apostles, Archbishops and Bishops.

Photo taken August 2008 by Tango7174.

The interior of the cathedral is 138.75 m (about 455 ft) long, 30 m (approx. 98 feet) wide in the nave, and 38 m (about 125 feet) high in the centre. It comprises a nave with aisles, transepts with aisles, a choir with double aisles, and an apse with ambulatory and radiating chapels. It has interesting stained glass ranging from the 13th- to the 20th-Century. The rose window over the main portal and the gallery beneath are of rare magnificence.

The cathedral possesses fine tapestries. Of these, the most important series is that presented by Robert de Lenoncourt, archbishop under François I, representing the life of the Virgin. They are now to be seen in the former bishop's palace, the Palace of Tau. The North Transept contains a fine organ in a flamboyant Gothic Case. The Choir Clock is ornamented with curious mechanical figures.Marc Chagall designed the stained glass. installed in 1974. in the axis of the apse.

Rheims Cathedral hit by shell-fire during World War I.

"The Cathedral of Notre Dame at Rheims was one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. 

The framework was still standing when the German Army began their drive in 1918. In this instance, shells burst on the cathedral before the eyes of many spectators." (caption).

Photo is dated 20 September 1914.

"Collier's New Photographic History of the World's War" (1919), page 86.

The Treasury, kept in the Palace of Tau, includes many precious objects, among which is the Sainte Ampoule, or Holy Flask, the successor of the ancient one that contained the oil with which French kings were anointed, which was broken during the French Revolution, a fragment of which the present Ampoule contains.

Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral, the former Abbey of Saint-Remi, and the Palace of Tau were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1991.

PART FOUR FOLLOWS.