La cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Beauvais - Cathedrals on Waymarking.com

[FR] C'est après un incendie de la « Basse Œuvre » qu'a commencé, en 1247, la construction de la cathédrale. En 1284, une petite partie des voûtes du chœur s'effondre à cause des effets du vent sur les arcs boutants. On décide de consolider en modifiant la structure des voûtes et ajoutant des piliers intermédiaires dans le choeur. Les réparations se terminent aux alentours de 1347. La guerre de Cent Ans passe et marque une période de pause dans la construction de la cathédrale. C'est seulement 150 ans après l'édification du chœur que le transept va être construit sous l'impulsion du comte-évêque Louis de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam et sous la direction de l'architecte Martin Chambiges. Celui-ci ne connaîtra pas la fin des travaux : il meurt le 29 août 1532. Une fois le transept érigé (entre 1500 et 1548), on décide de construire la flèche la plus haute de toute la chrétienté.

Les travaux commencent en avril 1563 et se terminent en 1569, elle atteint alors 153 m de hauteur. Le 30 avril 1573 est un jour noir dans l'histoire de la cathédrale : alors que les fidèles sortent de la célébration de l'Ascension, la flèche et les trois étages du clocher s'effondrent. La reconstruction des voûtes du transept prive la cathédrale des fonds nécessaires pour édifier la nef. La cathédrale reste depuis inachevée.

Des échafaudages sont installés presque en continu autour de sa structure en fonction des nombreux travaux toujours en cours. Contrairement à une légende tenace, la cathédrale est solidement ancrée sur un sol stable, mais sa très grande hauteur et le fait qu'elle ne soit pas épaulée à l'ouest par une nef, lui créent une grande fragilité qui est étroitement surveillée par ses différents responsables.

[EN] The cathedral consists only of a transept (sixteenth-century) and choir with apse and seven polygonal apsidal chapels (thirteenth century), which are reached by an ambulatory.

Work was begun in 1225 under count-bishop Miles de Nanteuil, immediately after the third in a series of fires in the old wooden-roofed basilica. The clergy and the master builders wanted to better both past and future architects : the height to the vault's key stone was to be slightly above 158ft, making the roof about the ehight of the towers of Notre-Dame de Paris. The choir was completed in 1272, in two campaigns, with an interval 1232-38, owing to a funding crisis provoked by a struggle with Louis IX. Under Bishop Guillaume de Grez, an extra sixteen feet were added to the height, to make it the highest-vaulted cathedral in Europe. The vaulting in the interior of the choir reaches 157.5 ft in height, far surpassing the concurrently constructed Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Amiens, with its 138-ft nave.

The work was interrupted in 1284 by the collapse of some of the vaulting of the recently-completed choir. This collapse is often seen as a disaster that produced a failure of nerve among the French masons working in Gothic style; modern historians have reservations about this deterministic view: Stephen Murray notes that the collapse also "ushers in the age of smaller structures associated with demographic decline, the Hundred Years War, and of the thirteenth century."

However, large-scale Gothic design continued, and the choir was rebuilt at the same height, albeit with more columns in the chevet.

In 1500 the bishop decided to resume work and entrusted the construction of the transept to Martin Chambiges, assisted by Jean Vast; the first and most important thing, however, was to obtain funds.

The sale of exemptions from Lenten fasting, donations from the clergy, collections and Francois I's gift of part of the revenue from the royal monopoly of the sale of salt were not enough to cover the mounting costs. The citizens of Beauvais appealed to Pope Leo X, patron of Michelangelo and Raphael, who understood only too well, having financial problems of his own, and a solution was found: the sale of indulgences. This scandalised the German monk Luther and partly triggered the Reformation.

The transept was built from 1500 to 1548. In 1573 the fall of a too-ambitious central tower stopped work again, after which little addition was made.

The choir has always been wholeheartedly admired: Eugène Viollet-le-Duc called the Beauvais choir "the Parthenon of French Gothic.'

(excerpts from wikipedia)

Address: La Cathédrale de Beauvais - rue Saint-Pierre - 60000 Beauvais - FRANCE Religious affiliation: Roman Catholic Date founded or constructed: 1225/01/01 Web site: [Web Link]

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