Rouen Cathedral
The cathedral of Rouen , ( French Cathédrale primatiale Notre-Dame de l ' Assomption de Rouen ), coronation place and burial place of the Norman dukes and Metropolitan Church of Normandy , is one of the most important church buildings in France in the Gothic style . Notre-Dame de l'Assomption is still the cathedral of the Archbishop of Rouen , Primate of Normandy.
Building history
The construction replaces the Romanesque cathedral construction of the 11th century, which had been started during the time of Bishop Robert on the site of a Carolingian predecessor church. In 1144, Bishop Hugo (IV) of Amiens took part in the inauguration of the choir of the cathedral of Saint-Denis at the invitation of his friend Suger . In the mid-1140s, Archbishop Hugo began building the Romanus Tower ( Tour-St-Romain ), which probably lasted until 1164. The tower was then a free-standing campanile and had no structural connection with the existing Romanesque nave and its towerless west facade, which is assumed to be a little east of the current facade. At that time there was no construction work on the church, so a new building was apparently not yet planned.
The early Gothic construction of the cathedral did not begin until 1180, a few decades after the start of construction on the Romanus tower. Contrary to common practice, the new building did not begin in the east with the choir, but instead a new nave was built. The new building was therefore from west to east. The first construction phase concerned the lower parts of the west facade with its portals. The new facade was probably erected to the west of the existing Romanesque predecessor building. In a second construction phase in the 1190s, the first, western yokes of the nave and the “false galleries” were built. These are openings on the second floor of the central nave wall, which suggest a corresponding gallery space in the upper floors of the side aisles, which, however, does not exist and has never existed: the side aisles have no intermediate ceilings. This unusual building structure could refer to the Romanesque previous building, which perhaps had galleries. The axis of the building was slightly changed during this construction period. Only now has a structural connection to the Romanus Tower been established.
After a fire in the cathedral district on Easter Vigil 1200, which, however, did not cause any significant damage to the new building, construction continued in the third construction phase up to the fifth pair of pillars (counting from the west). Above all, the upper parts of the western part of the church built in the previous construction phases were created. This includes the triforium with its wide-span segmental arches. The first five yokes were thus largely completed.
The eastern part of the nave with another five bays was then built in a fourth construction phase from 1206/1207. During this time the builder is called Jean d'Andely. His architecture essentially follows the shapes of the western parts, but he changed the dimensions of the yokes.
Only after the completion of the nave building was the crossing with the transverse arms tackled from around 1210, followed by the choir from around 1220. In the 1230s, the crossing tower and the upper parts of the west facade were expanded. The construction was completed around 1235/1237. In the 1260s and 1270s, chapels were added to the aisles. From around 1280 the transept facades were renewed in the high Gothic style, the Portail des Libraires (north transept) and the Portail de la Calende (south transept) were created . From 1302 the axis chapel of the choir was rebuilt as the Marienkapelle on a larger floor plan.
Since the 1370s, the west facade was expanded with a screen facade with countless statues, which was completed around 1450. In the 1460s an upper floor was added to the Romanus Tower, and in the 1480s the Romanus Tower was given a counterpart on the south side, the Butter Tower. After the completion of the Butter Tower in 1506, structural damage to the west facade became apparent, which led to the renovation of the central portal in 1508–1511. After the fire of the crossing tower in 1514, a new, larger crossing tower was built between 1538 and 1557, which is said to have reached a height of 128 m. This tower fell victim to a fire caused by lightning strikes in 1822. The current crossing tower was made of cast iron by 1884.
architecture
Today's Notre-Dame Cathedral of Rouen with four transept arms and seven towers stands on the foundation walls of a previous Romanesque building .
The lower part of the Tour Saint-Romain ( Saint-Romanus tower) was built around 1145-64, while the upper parts were only added in the 15th century.
On the west facade of the church is the 75 meter high, six-storey Tour de Beurre (butter tower) . It was completed in 1506 and is a striking example of the art of the late flamboyant . The tower ends in an octagonal crown, the ingenious buttress of which terminates four large and four small pinnacles . The tower owes its name to a tradition: During Lent, the consumption of butter and other dairy products was actually forbidden, but the temporary lifting of this ban enabled the construction of the bell tower to be financed with the income from the sale of butter.
In the 19th century, the old crossing tower , a lead-clad wooden structure, was destroyed by lightning. The spire (151.5 meters), which is visible from afar, was completed in 1877 and is made of cast iron . Until the completion of Cologne Cathedral in 1880, the cathedral was the tallest building in the world .
In the weeks leading up to the invasion of Normandy , the Royal Air Force (RAF) flew air strikes and attempted to hit transport hubs in order to impede the Wehrmacht's supplies and reduce its ability to be deployed.
On the night of April 18-19, RAF bombers attacked Rouen with the aim of hitting the marshalling yard at Sotteville-lès-Rouen and the nearby railway bridge over the Seine. The air raid hit the old town of Rouen hard, with five bombs falling on the cathedral. A supporting pillar of the central tower was just missed; Parts of the south aisle and two rose windows were destroyed.
Air strikes by USAAF bombers a few days before the start of the invasion caused fires in Rouen and the cathedral. The north tower burned down on June 1, 1944.
In a violent storm in 1999, a 26-ton pillar fell from the main tower and damaged the choir . It has not been replaced to this day.
Organs
Rouen Cathedral was one of the first cathedrals to be known to have an organ. The first instrument probably dates back to before 1380. It was initially in the north transept, and then in 1493 it was moved to the west gallery. The instrument was badly damaged in a storm in 1683 and rebuilt in 1686 by the organ builder Robert Clicquot.
Main organ
The large organ on the west gallery, below the Gothic rose window, goes back in part to this instrument from the end of the 17th century. The organ case was created by Joseph Pilon and has been a listed building since 1862.
In the course of time, various organ builders have restored and worked on the Clicquot instrument, mainly the organ builder Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Lefebvre in the 18th century, and in the 19th century, after the French Revolution, among others. a. the organ builders Clicquot and Merklin, who converted the organ into a symphonic instrument. At the beginning of the 20th century the instrument was revised by the organ builder Joseph Gutschenritter and received an electric wind system. During the Second World War this instrument was completely destroyed.
Today's organ work comes from the workshop of the organ builder Jacquot-Lavergne. It was designed by the organists Marcel Dupré and Marcel Lanquetuit and inaugurated in 1956.
The organ has 68 stops on four manual works and a pedal . Three manual works are laid out as swell works (expressif). The positive is no longer in the upstream housing, but in the main housing. The positive case has been empty since 1956 to make room for the new gaming table. The stops are arranged to the left and right of the manuals: on the left side are the basic voices (32′ – 4 ′ register), on the right side the other parts, especially the reed parts , aliquots and mixtures . The game and stop actions are electro-pneumatic . In 1982 the organ brochure was revised. In 1992 and 1995 the organ was re- voiced .
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Choir organ
The choir organ was built by the organ builder Cavaillé-Coll for Albert Dupré, the father of the organist Marcel Dupré, and installed in his house in Rouen in 1896. Marcel Dupré donated this instrument to the Cathedral of Rouen, where it has served as a choir organ ever since. It has eleven stops on two manual works and a pedal.
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- Coupling: II / I, I / P, II / P
- Playing aids: Appel et renvoi No. 1 and 3, Appel No. 8, Appel No. 11
Bells
The cathedral houses a 64-part carillon from 1914, 1954 and 2016, as well as one of the most powerful chimes in France, which is distributed across both western towers. The large church bell hangs in the north tower, also known as the St. Romanus tower , in a massive wooden belfry on the wooden yoke. This bell, which weighs around 9,600 kilograms, was cast in 1959 by the Paccard bell foundry . It replaces the 16,000 kilogram predecessor from 1914, which was created in the same foundry but destroyed in the 1944 bombing. The name of the bell recalls Saint Joan of Arc , who was burned in Rouen in 1431.
Until 2015 the main chime consisted of 6 bells.
No. |
Surname |
Casting year |
Caster |
Diameter (mm, approx.) |
Mass (kg, approx.) |
Percussive ( HT - 1 / 16 ) |
tower |
1 | Joan of Arc | 1959 | Bell foundry Paccard | 2,520 | 9,600 | f 0 | North |
2 | Germaine | 1959 | Bell foundry Paccard | 1,950 | 4,600 | a 0 | south |
3 | Agnes | 1959 | Bell foundry Paccard | 1,550 | 2,000 | c 1 | south |
4th | Alyette | 1914 | Bell foundry Paccard | 1,330 | 1,200 | d 1 | south |
5 | Marie-Blanche | 1959 | Bell foundry Paccard | 1,220 | 950 | e 1 | south |
6th | Bernadette | 1959 | Bell foundry Paccard | 1,130 | 700 | f 1 | south |
With the new casting of several bells in 2015, a new main chime with 5 bells was designed and presented on September 17, 2016. The largest three bells of the bell from 1959 were supplemented by two bell bells, which were cast by the bell foundry Paccard. Bells 4–6 of the bells from 1959 ( Alyette , Marie-Blanche and Bernadette ) were permanently installed in the carillon.
No. |
Surname |
Casting year |
Caster |
Diameter (mm, approx.) |
Mass (kg, approx.) |
Percussive ( HT - 1 / 16 ) |
tower |
1 | Joan of Arc | 1959 | Bell foundry Paccard | 2,520 | 9,600 | f 0 | North |
2 | Romain | 2016 | Bell foundry Paccard | 5,400 | g 0 | North | |
3 | Germaine | 1959 | Bell foundry Paccard | 1,950 | 4,600 | a 0 | North |
4th | Cécile | 2016 | Bell foundry Paccard | 3,500 | b 0 | North | |
5 | Agnes | 1959 | Bell foundry Paccard | 1,550 | 2,000 | c 1 | North |
In the south tower there are two more chime bells, but they are not part of the main chime. They come from the old carillon from 1914 (Paccard).
No. |
Surname |
Casting year |
Caster |
Diameter (mm, approx.) |
Mass (kg, approx.) |
Percussive ( HT - 1 / 16 ) |
tower |
1 | Cécile Delalande | 1914 | Bell foundry Paccard | g 1 | south | ||
2 | Jeanne Palfray | 1914 | Bell foundry Paccard | a 1 | south |
Reception in painting
We owe the most impressive depictions of the cathedral to Claude Monet , whose impressionistic series of pictures, the Cathedral of Rouen, with depictions of the building under the most varied of light, is one of the painter's most important works.
literature
- Anne-Marie Carment-Lanfry: La cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen , 1999.
- Dorothee Heinzelmann: The Notre-Dame cathedral in Rouen - studies on the architecture of Normandy in early and high Gothic times , (contributions to the art history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; Vol. 9). Rhema-Verlag, Münster 2003, ISBN 978-3-930454-21-1 .
- Pascal Krafft: Brève étude de quelques fleurons du patrimoine campanaire de Seine-Maritime , in Patrimoine Campanaire, no.67, 2011 (to the bell).
- Yves Lescroart: La cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen , éditions du patrimoine, Paris, 2000, ISBN 2-85822-152-9 .
- Les stalles de la cathédrale de Rouen: histoire et iconographie , Université de Rouen, 2001, ISBN 2-87775-351-4 .
- Markus Schlicht: La cathédrale de Rouen vers 1300 , Société des antiquaires de Normandie, 2005, ISBN 2-9510558-3-8 .
- Rouen, la cathédrale retrouvée , éditions Point de vues, Bonsecours, 2006, ISBN 2-915548-10-2 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Werner Schäfke. Normandy (DuMont Art Guide), p. 85.
- ^ Building history of the early and high Gothic parts according to Dorothee Heinzelmann: The Cathedral Notre-Dame in Rouen - investigations into the architecture of Normandy in the early and high Gothic period , (contributions to the art history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; Vol. 9). Rhema-Verlag, Münster 2003, ISBN 978-3-930454-21-1 , pp. 345-349.
- ↑ z. For example, tanks were transported close to their locations by rail freight cars .
- ↑ At that time the 'Viaduc d'Eauplet' was the last railway bridge before the mouth of the Seine funnel. Upstream, the 'Viaduc d'Orival' was the next railway bridge.
- ↑ www.patrimoine-histoire.fr, section La cathédrale dans la seconde guerre mondiale
- ↑ Le 30 may 1944, la Semaine rouge débutait à Rouen (with the title page of Le Petit Parisien of June 3-4, 1944).
- ↑ Information on the organ (French).
- ↑ Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen - les cloches de volée - le carillon - le plenum on YouTube .
- ↑ Plénum de la Cathédrale de Rouen on YouTube .
- ↑ Le bourdon Cécile de la cathédrale de Rouen @ fonderie Paccard on YouTube .
- ^ Restoration of the carillon .
Web links
- The main church at Rouen in France - in Pfennig magazine No. 3 of May 18, 1833
- About Rouen Cathedral (French)
- Virtual tour
before | Tallest building in the world | after that |
St. Nikolai in Hamburg | (151 m) 1876-1880 |
Cologne cathedral |
Coordinates: 49 ° 26 '25 " N , 1 ° 5' 41" E