Beauvais Cathedral Construction Sequence

In 1225, a fire destroyed the choir of the ancient

cathedral

of Beauvais. First built on a large scale around the year 1000, the old church had probably been expanded with a new choir in the late 12th century. The new

cathedral

, dedicated to Saint Peter, was begun by the powerful Bishop Miles of Nanteuil, who is said to have been as proud as Nebuchadnezzar. Generous funds derived from the clergy's regular income allowed for an ambitious architectural program and rapid

construction

. The new Gothic cathedral (the current one) has a generous transept and the choir, unusually wide, is flanked by double naves, the inner one higher than the outer one, like that of Old St.

Peter's in Rome. Work began on the arms of the transept and the exterior walls of the first sections of the choir, from west to east, from north to south. Each arm of the transept was to be flanked by large twin towers. As

construction

progressed eastwards towards the choir, the space between the pillars was increased, culminating in a very wide third bay. Seven years into the project, the bishop's funds were already depleted, and to make matters worse, in 1232, rioting by the townspeople led to the hostile intervention of the young King Louis IX, who confiscated the bishop's palace. and his income, forcing him to flee his city.

The new bishop, Robert de Cressonsac, submitted to royal sovereignty and, with the restoration of episcopal revenues, work resumed on the polygonal eastern end of the choir, the hemicycle, as well as the interior supports, which are thinner than the from the choir. cruise. This eastern end is slightly misaligned with the choir body, suggesting poorly coordinated building campaigns caused by political upheaval. In the 1250s, under the direction of a Parisian master bricklayer, work continued on the upper choir under the direction of Bishop William of Grez. It was decided to increase the height of the superstructure to transcend the nearby Amiens Cathedral.

The goal was to reach 144 feet to the cornerstone: heaven is described in the Book of Revelation as being 144 cubits high. The first mass was celebrated in the completed choir on the eve of All Saints' Day in 1272. Beauvais Cathedral is best known as the tallest of the French Gothic cathedrals. But its special characteristics go far beyond its great height. It was a wide two-nave structure with low exterior aisles and high interior aisles and with a cross section probably originally planned around an equilateral triangle as at Notre-Dame de Paris and Bourges Cathedral. The wide space between the slender pillars of the main arcade offered spectacular views of an interior hallway and ambulatory surrounded by a clerestory and brilliant stained glass windows.

During construction the height of the imposing upper choir was increased, producing a square cross section and a dangerously top-heavy structure. Unfortunately, such sublime beauty was dangerous and survived only a decade and a half. On Friday, November 29, 1284, at eight in the afternoon, the large vaults of the choir fell and several exterior pillars broke and the large windows were destroyed. The divine office ceased for forty years. The magnitude of the collapse is actually quite limited. A transverse arch in the central section of the upper choir failed and collapsed along with the accompanying ruffles. The tracery of the two clerestory windows to the east on each side was severely damaged, while the western windows (to their left) remained intact.

It has been difficult to avoid the simplistic notion that pride comes before the fall, attributing the disaster to the cathedral's great height. In fact, the disaster was due to a serious design defect that can be located in a specific part of the building. The third section of the choir, to the east, is the largest space in the cathedral: its masonry vault was, therefore, the heaviest and with the greatest outward thrust. On the east side of this vault, that thrust was answered by the solid blocks of masonry at the base of the chapels. On the west side, however, the thin aisle piers and upper buttresses were inadequate.

The piers themselves were unstable and tended to rotate inward, and the exposed upper supports were subject to extreme oscillations during winter wind storms. The failure of these supports caused the ruffles to break, bringing down a main main arch along with adjacent portions of the high vaults. Panic set in and a massive program of demolition and reconstruction continued for more than half a century. Although the upper clerestory wall and roof remained intact, the original three choir bays were doubled by the insertion of additional supports in both the main arcade and aisles; Additionally, the exterior mullions and frills on the west side of the critical third bay were completely rebuilt.

The clerestory and vault of the three straight bays of the choir were demolished and rebuilt in six bays, reusing many of the ancient stones. The chamber remained intact. For more than a century and a half the cathedral remained in this unfinished state, propped up and temporarily closed at the cliff-like western end. Around 1500, noticing that the western piers were tending to lean outwards, the clergy began to consider finishing works. Further demolition of the old cathedral cleared the way for a new transept, to be built by the most prestigious Parisian late Gothic architect, Martin Chambiges, known for his previous work on the transept of Sens Cathedral.

Chambiges had exploratory trenches dug and discovered that the foundations of the old cathedral were about ten meters deep. Work began on the very public south transept portal. This was a new type of late super-Gothic in which substantial masses of masonry were animated with a profusion of niches, pilasters, canopies and tracery; However, the simple intersection of the balustrade and the gable that crowned the portal recalled the prestigious transept of Notre-Dame de Paris. . Work then continued on the façade of the north transept, further away, where the shapes are simpler. Inside, Chambiges used his characteristic undulating supports, bringing the north transept to its maximum height before completing the upper south transept, where he was joined by his son, Pierre.

Martin Chambiges died in 1532 and was buried in the transept of his cathedral. Instead of continuing to complete the nave, the cathedral's builders were seduced by the idea of ​​a very tall central tower and a spire that would surpass the height of the new St. Peter's in Rome. Work began on a masonry lantern tower topped by a wooden spire in the 1550s; the total height was close to 300 feet. It was said that from above you could see the distant towers and spiers of Paris. The openwork lantern must have been particularly impressive: at night a large lamp was sometimes raised and lowered inside creating a spectacle visible for miles.

The plans for the completion of the cathedral that should have existed from the beginning of the works were updated with the construction of the bell tower. Here we see a possible scheme from 1225: a nave with two aisles and a facade similar to Notre-Dame de Paris. Saint Peter of Beauvais could finally surpass Saint Peter of Rome. This earlier vision is now transformed into a scheme appropriate for the 16th century, somewhat in the style of Martin Chambiges, with triple portals set in a sumptuously decorated west frontispiece surmounted only by squat turrets. However, only one section of the nave was completed and the remains of the ancient cathedral known as Notre-Dame de la Basse Oeuvre remain in place to this day.

The enormous weight of the central tower soon caused serious deformations in the four supporting pillars of the crossing. The western pillars, unsupported by the nave, continued to move, but the eastern pillars, buttressed by the presence of the choir, were sheared allowing the bell tower and tower to collapse to the northeast. On Ascension Day, April 30, 1573, at 7 a.m., the gigantic mass of stone and wood fell in a tangle of rubble and dust, injuring a priest who was saying mass in the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. and seriously damaging the north. west corner of the choir. Plans to complete the western end were abandoned: the unfinished nave was braced to the west with huge buttresses and enclosed with a temporary timber wall.

In 1986, extreme swaying of the flying buttresses was noted during an intense wind storm. Work began on installing tubular metal braces to stabilize the system. And then panic over the cumulative movement of the building's western supports in the 1990s led to the installation of huge wooden braces on the transept arm and the large strut to support the western aisle piers on the north side. The future of this glorious cathedral remains uncertain.