Notre Dame de Rouen. The façade of the Gothic Church in France. Photographer: Hippo1947. Licence: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Tuesday 12 March 2019

Troyes Cathedral.



Troyes Cathedral, France.
Photo: 9 September 2018.
Illustration: SHUTTERSTOCK

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.

Troyes Cathedral (French: Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Troyes) is a Roman Catholic Church, Dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, located in the Town of Troyes, in Champagne, France.

It is The Episcopal Seat of The Bishop of Troyes. The Cathedral, in The Gothic Architectural Style, has been a Listed Monument Historique since 1862.

The site has been used for Religious buildings since at least the 4th-Century A.D., when an Oratory stood on the site. A Cathedral was built in the 9th-Century A.D., but was badly damaged by Norman invasions and was replaced in the 10th-Century, from about 940 A.D., when Bishop Milo built a Romanesque Cathedral.

This building was the location of The Council of Troyes that opened on 13 January 1128/1129, at which The Order Of The Knights Templar was confirmed and its Rule established. The Romanesque Cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1188.


Troyes Cathedral.
Source: Own work.
This File: 13 November 2006.
User: Scorpius59
(Wikimedia Commons)

Construction of the present Gothic Cathedral was ordered in about 1200 by Bishop Garnier de Traînel, and begun, under Bishop Hervé, in 1208. Work continued until the 17th-Century. The Cathedral only has one Tower, Saint Peter's; Saint Paul's Tower, to the South, was never built, and the building is thus still in fact unfinished. A Steeple, with a height of 110 metres, once stood over The Crossing; it was ruined by a tornado in 1365, and struck by lightning in 1700, after which it was not rebuilt.

The Cathedral structure has suffered other natural disasters; part of The Choir was destroyed in a hurricane in 1228, and the roof was set alight by lightning in 1389.

The earliest part is the 13th-Century Choir. The elaborate façade dates from the beginning of the 16th-Century. The three main Portals are the work of the Architect Martin Chambiges. The Cathedral escaped destruction during The French Revolution, but was de-Christianised and turned into a Temple of Abundance for several years.


English: Troyes Cathedral, France. The Nave.
Photo: 1 February 2015.
Source: Own work.
Author: Myrabella.
Attribution: Photo: Myrabella / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.
(Wikimedia Commons)

It is particularly noted for its exceptional Stained-Glass Windows, dated from the 13th-Century to the 19th-Century, with a surface area of 1,500 m², and for the magnificent Treasury, containing, among many other important Works, the Reliquary Casket, or Shrine, of Saint Bernard de Clairvaux and his closest friend, Saint Malachy of Ireland.

The Cathedral, containing the Nave, two principal Aisles, and two further Subsidiary Aisles, is 114 metres (379 feet 6 inches) long and fifty metres (162 feet 6 inches) wide (across The Transepts), with a height from the top of the Vault of twenty-nine metres (ninety-six feet); the height of the Cupola and the Tower is sixty-two metres
(202 feet 7 inches).

In May 1420, The Treaty of Troyes was signed in the Cathedral between King Henry V of England, his ally Philip of Burgundy and Queen Isabel, wife of the mad Charles VI of France whereby the Throne of France would pass to King Henry on the death of Charles, rather than to Charles' son, The Dauphin. Henry married Catherine of Valois, the French King's daughter, shortly afterwards in Troyes, either at the Cathedral or the Church of Saint Jean.

In July 1429, Joan of Arc escorted The Dauphin to Mass in the Cathedral, en route to proclaiming him King Charles VII of France, at Reims Cathedral, in contravention of the recently-signed Treaty of Troyes.

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