Category: Medieval
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Our Easter Phoenix
There’s a great deal of Christian heritage and tradition that is simply unknown to modern Christians, as our abbot’s recent cathedral pilgrimage amply demonstrates. Once you get a proper command of Christian iconography, it’s hard not to be dismayed at how much spiritual richness the wider church is missing out on. It’s quite encouraging, then,…
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Chartres’s Facade: Functional Beauty
Constructed in the 1140s, the west facade of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres is quite different from the north and south porches built 75 years later. The portals are shallower, and the jamb statues are elongated and columnar compared to the more realistic and elaborate statuary on the north and south. Regardless of which side of…
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Enchanted Chanting
The Cathédrale Notre-Dame d’Amiens is the third of the great cathedrals built in northern France during the thirteenth century (the others being the cathedrals in Reims and Chartres). Besides being the largest Gothic cathedral in France, it has an impressive set of medieval sculptures on its facade and many old polychrome sculptures inside. But the…
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Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon
A church has existed in Laon since the beginning of the fifth century. However, the Gothic structure we have today dates back to the 1150s, owing to a parish uprising that destroyed several buildings, including the Romanesque church. Completed in a mere 80 years, the Cathedral is a stylistically unified example of Early Gothic architecture.…