unless stated otherwise.
Please note: “Reims” (French) is often spelled “Rheims” in English.
Rheims Cathedral.
Artist: Domenico Quaglio the Younger (1787–1837).
Collection: Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, Germany.
This File: 14 May 2005.
User: Luestling~commonswiki
(Wikimedia Commons)
Unusually, the names of the Cathedral's original architects are known. A Labyrinth built into the floor of The Nave at the time of construction (similar to examples at Chartres and Amiens) included the names of four Master Masons (Jean d'Orbais, Jean-Le-Loup, Gaucher de Reims, and Bernard de Soissons) and the number of years they worked there, though art historians still disagree over who was responsible for which parts of the building.
The Labyrinth was destroyed in 1779, but its details and inscriptions are known from 18th-Century drawings. The clear association here between a Labyrinth and Master Masons adds weight to the argument that such patterns were an allusion to the emerging status of the architect (through their association with the mythical artificer, Dædalus, who built the Labyrinth of King Minos).
English: Postcard depicting Rheims Cathedral burning
after German Army bombardment in September 1914.
Français: La Cathédrale_de Reims en_flammes
par les obus allemands, carte postale.
Date: 1914.
Source: Own work.
Author: Gérald Garitan
(Wikimedia Commons)
The Towers, 81m tall (267 ft), were originally designed to rise 120m (394 ft). The South Tower holds just two great Bells; one of them, named “Charlotte” by Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine in 1570, weighs more than 10,000 kg (about 11 tons).
During The Hundred Years' War, the Cathedral was under siege by the English Army from 1359 to 1360.
English: Poster for the mobilisation of the 178th Canadian Battalion
during The First World War, with Rheims Cathedral in the background.
Français: Affiche pour la mobilisation au sein du
178 bataillon canadien avec en fond la cathédrale Reims.
Date: 1915.
Source: Not known.
Author: Not known.
(Wikimedia Commons)
In 1875, The French National Assembly voted £80,000 for repairs of the façade and balustrades. The façade is the finest portion of the building, and one of the great masterpieces of The Middle Ages.
German shells, during the opening engagements of The First World War on 20 September 1914, burned, damaged, and destroyed, important parts of the Cathedral. Scaffolding around The North Tower caught fire, spreading the blaze to all parts of the carpentry superstructure.
The Lead of the roofs melted and poured through the Stone Gargoyles, destroying, in turn, the Bishop's Palace. Restoration work began in 1919, under the direction of Henri Deneux, a native of Rheims and Chief Architect of The Monuments Historiques; the Cathedral was fully re-opened in 1938, thanks, in part, to financial support from The Rockefellers, but work has been steadily going on since.
German shells, during the opening engagements of The First World War on 20 September 1914, burned, damaged, and destroyed, important parts of the Cathedral. Scaffolding around The North Tower caught fire, spreading the blaze to all parts of the carpentry superstructure.
The Lead of the roofs melted and poured through the Stone Gargoyles, destroying, in turn, the Bishop's Palace. Restoration work began in 1919, under the direction of Henri Deneux, a native of Rheims and Chief Architect of The Monuments Historiques; the Cathedral was fully re-opened in 1938, thanks, in part, to financial support from The Rockefellers, but work has been steadily going on since.
A wonderful history of this extraordinary Catholic sanctuary.
ReplyDeleteAnd another fact that I should’ve known but of which I had no idea that it was bombarded and seriously damaged in 1914 during World War I. I am always amazed at Zephyrinus’ unearthing of so many facts (And what was going on with those senseless German officers of the Kaiser in 1914? But we know, just as with the shelling of Whitby Abbey by German naval forces also in 1914, or their deliberate arson of the Catholic archives and library at the Universite de Louvain in Belgium in the same year, it was in fact a deliberate act by atheist forces at work in Kaiser-era Germany.
And now, those vandals disguised as enlightened leaders are all gone, and Reims still carries on.
Dear Dante Peregrinus. Most grateful for your welcome Comment. I concur with your observation that ". . . those vandals disguised as enlightened leaders are all gone, and Reims still carries on".
DeleteAllegedly, the German Army bombardment of Rheims Cathedral was designed to "lower the French people's resilience, belief, and Esprit de Corps".
What comes to mind, in relation to " . . .those vandals disguised as enlightened leaders . . .", is "Memento Mori". The Latin phrase, meaning: "Remember, you must die".
Of course, this Latin phrase is equally applicable to all those so-called "Leaders". whom we all know, these days. There will come a time when "Memento Mori" will apply to them. Then, like all of us, a great deal of explanation will be required.
Esteemed Dom Zephyrinus,
ReplyDeleteYou are most insightful:
Exactly the same—an attempt to demoralize and demotivate the populace— appears to have been the thinking behind the German occupation forces in the arson of the Louvain library (25 Aug 1914), as in the bombardment of Reims Cathedral, and I have read it was apparently a deliberate policy of the German military in 1914 to attempt to crush the will of occupied peoples by destroying their historic treasures.
But there also is little doubt that many of the higher officers of the German 1st Army, such as the Commandant of the Belgian Occupation, Gen. Walther Karl Freiherr von Luttwitz, who ordered the arson, were atheists hateful of Catholicism (he later joined the Freikorps after WW1 and still later was a member of Hitler’s NSDAP in the 1930’s) and as a book-burning Nazi precursor, he had no use for “archaic religious treasures.”
The Age of Godlessness predicted by P. Leo XIII’s vision had begun. Reims and Louvain were just milestones on the March.
And yet Reims survived and the Louvainlibrary was restored, and von Luttwitz is another “erased” Nazi.