Saint-Martin de Tours

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Saint Martin Basilica (Tours)

Saint-Martin de Tours is a Roman Catholic basilica in honor of Saint Martin in Tours (France). The present basilica was built in Romanesque - Byzantine style based on a design by the architect Victor Laloux . Construction began in 1887 and the basilica was inaugurated in 1925. The saint's tomb is located in its crypt .

Previous construction

Tour de Charlemagne , remnants of the ruined basilica
Excerpt from the Grandval Bible
EU pilgrimage route

Until the time of Martin, Bishop of Tours since 372, Tours was a Gallo-Roman city ​​of medium importance. After his death in Candes in 397 , the monks from Tours managed to get hold of the body and bring it to their city. He was buried on the site over which the Saint-Martin basilica was later built, one of the largest church buildings in the West in the Middle Ages.

The saint's call and the pilgrimages to his tomb, one of the most important in Christianity, which soon began, completely changed the character of the city. Bishop Perpetuus arranged for the first important basilica to be built in 471 instead of a modest chapel built by one of his predecessors, Brictius . The basilica above the grave became an essential part of a church family , which included the cathedral built in the 6th century by Gregory of Tours on the site of the episcopal ordination of the saint and, on the other side of the Loire, the monastery of Marmoutier , the former resting place of the saint constituted a sacred landscape of holy places related to the memoria of Saint Martin with the three main centers mentioned. On this basis, Tours remained one of the most important cities of the West and a metropolis of Christianity for more than a millennium.

In 508, after the victory over the Visigoths in the Battle of Vouillé and the conquest of Aquitaine the year before, the Saint-Martin basilica was already important enough that the Merovingian Clovis I († 511) the emissaries of the Byzantine emperor Anastasius I. . here who awarded him the title of Consul of the West . The same king granted the abbey immunity, which was later confirmed by Chlothar I († 561).

From 796 to 804, Alcuin , Charlemagne's advisor and organizer of the first theological and philosophical lectures, was Abbot of Saint-Martin, which shortly before his appointment had been converted into a canon. Tours became one of the most important cultural centers of the Carolingian renovatio . The scriptorium , which had developed its own font with the Touronic semi- uncial , produced on a high level of book art and calligraphy. Elaborately illuminated Bible pandects of the Vulgate revised by Alkuin of Jerome, such as the Vivian Bible or the Grandval Bible, play a special role .

In 853 the basilica was burned down by the Normans under their leader Hasting, as were the other churches in the city - the relics of the saint had previously been brought to the Abbey of Saint-Paul de Cormery , and later to Auxerre . Robert the Strong was killed in the Battle of Brissarthe in 866 when he tried to drive Hasting and his Normans out of the country.

The office of lay abbot of the monastery was in the hands of the Roberts the Brave family , the Robertines , the ancestors of the Capetians , who used the monastery as the central administration for their possessions: the abbot and count made use of the canons of the abbey surrounding him as a kind personal law firm. In addition, the half-coat of St. Martin, the cappa , was mainly used by them as a symbol of power and legitimacy for the lay abbot, after whom the ancestor of the Capetians, Hugo Capet , possibly also got his nickname.

The basilica and the abbey of Saint-Martin de Tours in Tours were, as the burial place of Saint Martin of Tours , one of the most important Christian pilgrimage sites for more than a millennium. In the 18th century the basilica and abbey of Saint-Martin fell into disrepair and were finally largely destroyed during the French Revolution . Only two towers from the 11th to 13th centuries have survived as remains - the so-called Tour Charlemagne (partially collapsed and rebuilt in 1928) and the Tour de l'Horloge . Incidentally, the Rue des Halles now runs instead of the original buildings .

Today's basilica

View through the central nave
St. Martin's tomb in the crypt

The present basilica was built from 1887 to plans by the architect Victor Laloux in Romano-Byzantine style and inaugurated in 1925. By Pope Pius XI. it was raised to the Basilica minor on March 25, 1925 . Due to the conditions of the building site, the church is built in a north-south direction. On its south side there is a large forecourt, where there is a crucifixion group with a statue of St. Martin flanked by figures of saints.

The basilica has a large dome with a height of 51 m. At the top there is a representation of St. Martin blessing the city, made by the sculptor Jean Hugues; the figure is about 4.25 m high and weighs about 1,692 kg.

  • View of the chancel and dome

  • South facade

  • Figure of St. Martin on the dome

Inside, the basilica consists of a large nave with two smaller aisles.

The grave of St. Martin is in the crypt , to which two flights of stairs lead down.

  • Panoramic view through the interior

  • View into the aisle

  • View of the south portal

  • Look into the dome

The organ was in a 1843 housing built in the 18th century for a church in Caen by the workshop Cavaillé-Coll. The instrument was purchased by the city of Tours in 1956 and subsequently restored in several stages. The organ has 27 stops on two manual works and a pedal .

people

Abbots

Deans

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the information on the Church's website (French)
  2. ^ EK Rand: A Survey of the Manuscripts of Tours . Studies in the Script of Tours, vol. 1. Cambridge, Mass. 1929; EK Rand, EK and LW Jones: The earliest book of Tours . Cambridge Mass. 1934.
  3. ^ Basilique Saint-Martin de Tours on gcatholic.org
  4. ↑ Information about the basilica on the website of the church (French)

Web links

Commons : Basilique Saint-Martin de Tours  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 47 ° 23 ′ 34.9 "  N , 0 ° 40 ′ 58.7"  E