Notre-Dame-du-Puy Cathedral in Grasse
The Notre-Dame-du-Puy cathedral crowns a hilltop in the middle of the old town of Grasse , a French city in the Alpes-Maritimes department with 50,396 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017), around 20 kilometers north of Cannes , on the Côte d'Azur . The addition -du-Puy indicates this location, since Puy means hill.
Grasse was the seat of a bishopric from the 13th to the 18th century .
The Holy Honor of Arles is named as the patron saint of the cathedral .
history
Nothing is known about the origins of Grasse Cathedral. The alleged date of their consecration in 1189 cannot be documented. Only the relocation of the bishop’s seat from Antibes to Grasse in 1244 is proven. It is unlikely that a parish church of this size was built in the 12th century and could thus precede the development of the city, which only flourished at the end of the 12th century started. On the other hand, it is conclusive that there was a smaller previous building, which was replaced by a new, appropriately large church at the time of the relocation of the bishopric, which met the requirements of a cathedral as a representative of the bishop, the canons and the entire diocese.
In addition to traces on today's building, a number of texts also remind of the numerous incidents that it had to suffer over the centuries. The church tower was struck by lightning in 1410 and severely damaged. The antipope John XXIII. In 1414 authorized the bishop to take up 2,000 ducats on the property and continue to use the proceeds of charitable foundations to defend the restoration.
In the years 1539, 1551, 1603 and 1607 various manual work was carried out on the church. A log from 1633 on the occasion of a visit by Msgr. De Villeneuve gives an idea of the medieval cathedral at that time. In addition to the high altar , there was the St. John altar in the south and the St. Anne's altar in the north, that of the Nôtre-Dame de Miséricorde on the fifth north pillar, two altars on the back of the facade, the altar of Anthony in the south and that of Peter of Alexandria in the north, and finally the altar of the ten thousand martyrs on the second north pillar. The choir was bordered in the last yoke by a triumphal beam with a triumphal cross , flanked by Maria, Johannes and Maria Magdalena.
In 1687 it was decided to demolish the old choir apse in order to replace it with a new choir by the end of 1690. This was built by the master mason Jean Laugier from Grasse. The high altar in this choir was created by the sculptor François la Coste, also from Grasse.
From 1714 to 1722 a crypt was then built under the floor of yokes one to five , which made it necessary to take measures to absorb the high loads. Msgr. De Mesgrigny gave the order for this "because of the disorder caused by the funerals". At that time the double flight of stairs was built in front of the facade, between which a third flight leads down to the crypt.
Around the same time, the height of the aisles was cut by adding false ceilings without aesthetic demands, in order to create more space in the galleries that were created for the increased number of believers. However, the entry of the galleries did not change the cross-sections of the pillars, which a study from 1948 has shown.
From 1738 to 1744 the elegant sacrament chapel was created in the baroque style, which protrudes across the south aisle to the outside. On December 15, 1742, lightning again destroyed the bell tower. Alexandre Gayet from Riez, the former builder of the fortifications of Grand Briançon, rebuilt the tower between 1752 and 1757.
In 1790 the diocese of Grasse was abolished. The old cathedral, which was used as a hayloft during the French Revolution (from 1789), was badly damaged by fire on September 22nd, 1795.
Building
The church is built of fine-grain, hard, glossy white limestone that has been quarried on the spot. After the stone, it is also called de la Turbie (a small neighboring hill town). The same material was used for Antibes Cathedral.
Dimensions taken from plan and extrapolated
- Total length (outside): 41.75 m
- Longhouse length (outside): 32.10 m
- Width of nave (outside): 15.95 m
- Width of the nave (inside): 13.65 m
- Central nave width (inside): 5.95 m
- Choir width (inside): 7.10 m
- Choir depth (inside): 8.25 m
- Central nave height: 13.80 m
- Aisle height originally: 7.60 m
- Aisle height today: 4.60 m
- Sacrament chapel (inside): 5.10 × 7.90 m
Interior
The nave has an elongated rectangular floor plan and is divided into three aisles by partition walls, a wider central nave flanked by two slimmer side aisles. In the longitudinal direction it is divided into six equally wide yokes. The bays of the central nave have a slightly rectangular plan in the transverse direction, those of the side aisles are also slightly rectangular, but aligned lengthways.
The basilical elevation originally had quite high aisles without grandstands for around 500 years. The central nave walls stand on columns with a circular cross-section, which are connected by ogival arcades, the arches of which stand on the edges of the columns. Their reveal edges have sharp-edged offsets. Above the side aisle arcades there is a fairly high, closed wall zone, which is divided by barely bulky wall pillars above the column axes. Further up, the pillars step forward a little further and reach up to the height of the arches of the belts and ribs. There they are covered by capital-like corbels, on each of which a belt arch and two flanking cross ribs stand up. The pillars remain without bases, instead they have bases that are about 63 centimeters high and beveled on the top. They end at the top with no special closure at the level of the arches of the arcades. The pillar shape can be attributed to the Italian influence. The ship resembles the majestic rows of columns of Sant'Abbondio in Como . There, too, one finds semicircular columns on the west wall and on both sides of the choir, on which the outer arcade arches stand. Their capitals are simply cubic in shape. There are square pillars in the floor plan between the fifth and sixth yoke. The northern one is a reinforcement of the round pillar during the reconstruction of the collapsed church tower in the 18th century. For reasons of symmetry, the southern pillar was also walled up accordingly. On the outer walls opposite these pillars, wall pillar templates of the same width are subsequently arranged. Slightly pointed arches are stretched between the pillars and the templates of the walls, which correspond to the arcade arches of the apsidioles. The one in the north aisle is also part of the reinforcement of the tower substructure.
The ribbed vaults of the central nave with ribs that are square in cross-section represent a masterpiece of the stonemasons of Provence, who were raised and raised in the esteem of ancient monuments. The belt arches have almost the same cross-section as the ribs and stand on the aforementioned pillar templates. The cross ribs also fall diagonally onto the arches and end between the pillars and the wall surfaces. The belt arches, as well as the cross ribs, the shield arches on the walls and, accordingly, the vault gussets are clearly pointed. The keystones take on the cross sections of the incoming ribs. In the upper line zone in the middle of the shield arches, a large ogival window is cut out, the walls of which are widened all around. Because of the bell tower over the last yoke of the north aisle, instead of a window, a slightly lower opening and slightly eastward shifted opening with slender, round-arched twin arcades, the arches of which rest on a slender column, which is equipped with a capital, transom and base. This opening in the tower does not add light to the ship. In the first yoke of the central nave, a beamed ceiling has been drawn in at the level of the side stands, on which a large organ rises.
The upper vaults of the aisles are the original. They are groin vaults supported by belt arches with a square cross-section. The latter stand on the walls on cantilever consoles, which are now covered by the subsequent installation of the gallery floors. The drawn-in flat ceilings of the side aisles lie just below the arch approaches of the arcade arches on beams with a right-angled cross-section, which are slightly arched on the underside and stretched between the pillars. In the side aisles, such beams are stretched from the pillars to the walls. The smooth underside of the ceiling panels are rounded off in broad valleys around the edges. Part of the underside of the stands are decorated in the Baroque style. The ship-side visible sides of the gallery floors are stepped on the top. Wrought iron grids are arranged above it as fall protection. In the sixth yoke of the side aisles, no galleries were drawn in, as the apsidioles of the side chapels next to the choir open at their head ends.
The side aisles have the following openings: In the north aisle: Small round-arched, sometimes pointed-arched windows in the middle of yokes 1, 2, 3 and 6. Opening of a two-winged right-angled side portal, covered by a pointed window opening. In the south aisle: small windows in bays 1, 2 and 6. Large rectangular arcade into the sacrament chapel.
In the west wall, the large main portal dominates, consisting of a rectangular double-winged door with an ogival window above it. At the very top in the area of the shield arch there is a large window, which is decorated with tracery with three arched stands. In the area of the galleries, an ogival window is cut out about in the middle. In the western end wall of the side aisles there was a side portal with a semicircular window above each before the outside staircase was built, but these were bricked up when they had lost their task.
In the east wall between the apsidioles there was originally a choir, presumably consisting of a short choir bay and a semicircular choir apse, which was vaulted with a pointed barrel that merged into half a spherical cap. Today's almost square choir was rebuilt in the second half of the 17th century. It is covered by a barrel vault and is illuminated on each side by two arched windows. The room houses the main altar and is decorated in baroque style. A pointed arcade with profiled arches on profiled cantilever consoles opens into the choir almost across the entire width of the central nave. This triumphal arch is slightly higher at the top than the arcades of the partition walls. Above that, in the middle of the shield arch, a pointed window is cut out, which is decorated with tracery.
In the fifth yoke of the south aisle, a rectangular passage opens into the sacrament chapel in the outer wall. This has a rectangular floor plan to which a small choir with rounded corners is connected. There are two large niches in each of the side walls, in which figures are set. The floor plan is covered with a barrel vault. The decoration shows a baroque style. In the floor plan, you can see a passage in the southeast corner of the choir, which is possibly intended to replace the south portal that was no longer needed due to the extension.
northern partition to the rear
south partition to the choir
Choir from central nave
north side chapel
south side chapel
north north partition, arcade yoke 6
northern partition arcades yokes 5 u. 6th
northern partition arcades, yokes 4 u. 5
south partition arcades 1–3
View into the sacrament chapel
Outward appearance
From the outside of the church only the facade, the north side of yokes 3 to 6 with the bell tower, the north apsidiole and the north wall of the choir can be seen.
The simple but elegant facade also has Lombard characteristics. The three portals correspond to the elevation of the three naves, the main portal with its slightly protruding porch is the central nave and the original smaller side portals flanking it are the side naves. The portal was originally protected by a canopy, similar to that of Embrun Cathedral . It is a six-step, slightly sharpened archivolt portal from the 17th / 18th century. Century when the outside staircase was built. One of the interior archivolts, made of columns with cubic capitals, comes from the original portal from the 13th century. The outer archivolt reaches up to the last apex of the arch and ends with a slight slope on both sides. Above the two-leaf, lavishly decorated wooden door, at the level of the archivolts' fighters, there is a profiled lintel beam above which a slightly pointed window opens. The porch is crowned by a statue of the Virgin Mary.
The almost unadorned former side portals were single-winged and moved slightly outwards from the center of the side aisles. They consisted of rectangular door openings into which profiled corbels protruded in the upper corners, on which lintel beams rest flush with the surface. The pointed wedge arch above it today encloses a walling flush with the surface as a relief arch, which could also have been a window opening. The two door openings have been walled up in a recessed manner. The resulting niches make the whole thing appear to be an unfinished construction site. The side portals lost their function with the creation of the large, rounded outside staircase. The three portals suggest that before the crypt and today's flight of stairs were built, the façade had a flight of stairs over the entire width of the nave, which emphasized the horizontal. A long way above the side portals there is a slender, ogival window in the middle of each aisle.
The lower area of the facade is closed off on the top by a Lombard arched frieze , which runs horizontally across the width of the central nave at the height of the pent roof ridges of the side aisles, and above the aisles just below and parallel to the pent roof aisles at an angle. It has a slim cantilever profile on the top. Just under half a meter above the threshold of the main portal, the façade wall stands on a small protruding base, the outer edges of which are sloping upwards. The thresholds of the side portals are at this height.
The whole composition is dominated by the towering gable wall of the central nave. The two sides are bordered by wide pilaster strips that merge at the top into a Lombard arched frieze that runs just below the slightly protruding verges of the gable roof up to the ridge. In the middle of the gable wall there is a large, slightly pointed window that stands out on the lower arched frieze. The edges of the garment are drawn in three setbacks. The window is divided into three slender, slightly pointed openings by columns with cubic capitals up to the level of its arches. Just above their apexes there is a pointed arched field, which is decorated with dense tracery. The window is reminiscent of an Italian detail.
The outside staircase opens up both the nave and the crypt underneath and consists of three runs. Overall, it has a semicircular floor plan, the steps of which wind around the semicircular platform in front of the portal. About the width of the porch of the portal, an almost rectangular area opens up in front of the pedestal, which is bordered by walls on the side and above by a stone balustrade in the course of the runs leading upwards. The latter consist of 12 and 13 curved steps. Between the balustrades, a third staircase leads down to the landing where the entrance to the crypt is located. In the above-mentioned base of the facade, in the area of the first three steps on both sides, or in the axis of the aisle, a twin window with slender openings is cut out, which illuminates the rear area of the crypt. The two slightly pointed arches stand together on a column with a cubic capital and a base.
On the north side, where the bishop's palace is located, a side portal is embedded in the fourth yoke of the aisle, which is very similar to the main portal in the west. The garments were poorly restored in the 19th century. The inner archivolts date from the 13th century, one of which again consists of columns with cubic capitals. The three outer ones date from the 18th century. The profiled corbels under the lintel are modern. There was a similar side portal before the sacrament chapel was built on the south side. Over the first four bays of the north wall, an arched cornice runs directly under the overhanging eaves cornice as you already know it from the facade. In the third yoke you can see a loopholes high up in the wall. A hanging gutter is installed under the eaves of this wall, which drains off the rainwater in a controlled manner via downpipes.
One wonders about the very small windows in the walls of the aisles. This was done in order to weaken them as little as possible. There are no buttresses in the entire structure, either in the side walls or in the side walls of the central nave. The masonry, which is bold for this area, relies entirely on its wall thickness, a good one meter, and the quality of its masonry. On the visible part of the north wall and the north apsidiole runs the same base as on the facade.
The middle section of a choir bay and a semicircular apse is no longer preserved from the original choir head. Only the outer part of the lateral apsidioles in front of the head ends of the side aisles has remained visible. They are covered by half-conical roofs with tiles in Roman format, the eaves of which protrude freely over an eaves cornice. Immediately below this eaves cornice there is again the well-known arched cornice, which merges flush with the surface into slim pilaster strips. The original central section of the choir head was designed similarly. It was built in the 17th century by a sober construction of a new choir, which stands on an almost square floor plan and is covered by a gently sloping gable roof, the eaves of which protrude about 1.50 meters above the apsidioles. Its east wall is completely covered by the adjacent building. The north side wall of the choir is broken through by two arched windows. On this side you can see that the choir has a cellar completely. The basement has an access door and a large arched passage. Above the roof of the choir you can still see the upper part of the east gable wall of the central nave, the verges of which are again decorated by the well-known arched cornices. A pointed window is cut out in the middle of the gable wall.
The bell tower rises above the slightly rectangular floor plan of the sixth bay of the north aisle. The massive substructure was built on its south wall in the 18th century, and its successive collapses made it necessary to completely rework and strengthen it. The current bell tower dates from the 18th century. With his white mass he dominates the whole old town. As usual in Provence, it is simply designed. It consists of a rather high lower storey, which ends roughly at the level of the eaves of the central nave, followed by three other significantly less high storeys, all of which are divided by a simple cantilever profile. Only the top two floors are pierced on all sides by slender, arched sound openings in which the bells are suspended swinging freely outwards and inwards. The top floor with the lowest height is covered by a roof that can be walked on, which can be recognized by two small gargoyles a little below the top of the floor.
Furnishing
Relics of St. Honoratus are kept in a wood-carved, colored reliquary. They came to the area in 1391 after a monk from Saint-Victor stole the relics kept in Arles in 1390 and, after a stay in Ganagobie, offered them to the Lérins monastery , where one of his relatives was a Messner. The solemn acceptance of this "gift" took place in Lérins on January 20, 1391.
A reredos from the school of Nice (end of the 15th century) depicts the holy honor, Saint Pope Clement and Saint Bishop Lambert of Vence in a Gothic wooden frame . The adjacent panel by Gaillard (1643) shows a circumcision of Christ .
An important painting, the Assumption of Mary of Subleyras (1741), covers the back wall of the choir. In the south aisle there is a group of pictures by the painter Peter Paul Rubens from 1602. It is about a crucifixion, a crowning of thorns and a St. Helena . Rubens originally created the pictures for the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome. They later came into private ownership and finally to the hospital in Grasse. In the elegant sacrament chapel you can see the washing of feet by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1755), a rare example of religious painting by this artist, who was born in Grasse. Johann Baptist Bailet created the baroque decor of the four evangelists. The altar of Fossati (1750) is remarkable.
Coronation of thorns by Rubens
altar
Reliquaries and liturgical implements
Sculptures and liturgical implements
Holy Honorat between Pope Clement u. Bishop Lambert
organ
The organ was built in 1855 by the organ builder De Junkg (Toulouse), and was last restored and expanded in 1981 by the organ builder in 1981. The instrument has 39 registers on three manuals and a pedal . The actions are mechanical and reinforced with Barker machines .
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- Coupling: I / II, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
Character and some dates
The Notre-Dame Cathedral of Grasse obviously belonged to the art of the Maritime Alps, while only a few kilometers away the now defunct Lérins abbey church was built on the Provencal model. The cathedral of Grasse took over elements, construction forms and decoration from northern Italy: round columns, square compositional patterns of the facade and the portals, cubic capitals, Lombard arches and others. Here, however, these elements were combined in a special way. In this way, closely interconnected volumes were combined with concepts by Provencal architects.
No doubt decorators and workers were drawn in from across the mountains. Grasse had commercial and even political relations with Italy. Alliances of the city councils are documented, the first with Pisa in 1179, then with Genoa in 1198. This latter treaty was confirmed again and again, for example in 1227, 1251 and 1288. In 1227 the occupation by the Count of Provence, Raimond Berenger, did not interrupt this relationship . After all, the provost of Antibes, the bailiff of Grasse, the person who did most of the reorganization of the diocese of Grasse, came from Piedmont. This also included the famous lawyer Henri de Bartholomei, who shortly thereafter became Bishop of Sisteron before he died as a cardinal , bishop of Ostia and Velletri.
The developed ribbed vaults with their capitals, the pointed girders and keystones, the pattern in the pointed arches of the windows, the direct exposure of the nave, even on the north side, suggest that the building was built in the course of the 13th century. The boldness of the central nave is evident in the "Lombard" gable, the facade and the former choir head, which is sculpted like the choir apse by Senez, but forms continuous cornices. The conformity of the facade with the late Romanesque style of Liguria has already been mentioned.
Everything implies that they wanted to build a really new church for the future bishop, because Grasse became the bishopric in 1244.
literature
- Jaques Thirion: Romanesque style of the Côte d'Azur and the Maritime Alps . Echter Verlag , Würzburg 1984, ISBN 3-429-00911-1 , pp. 211-221
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jaques Thirion: Romanesque of the côte d'azur and the Maritime Alps. 1984. p. 211
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 211
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 212
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 212
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 212
- ↑ Thirion 1984. pp. 212-213
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 213
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 217
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 217
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 217
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 219
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 219
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 220
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 221
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 221
- ↑ Information about the organ on the website orgue.free.fr under the keyword Grasse
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 222.
- ↑ Thirion 1984. p. 222.
Coordinates: 43 ° 39 ′ 28 " N , 6 ° 55 ′ 29" E