Notre Dame de Reims Cathedral

MEDIEVAL STAINED GLASS WINDOWS
Very many of the medieval stained glass windows of the Cathedral of Reims have disappeared. Their history reminds us just how fragile are the few that, through great care and effort, remain to us today.

In addition to the damage wrought by time and weather, the windows suffered from sometimes deliberate destruction, and the hazards of war.

As early as the sixteenth century, the windows were the object of occasional restoration and, after the First World War, certain of the high windows were patiently reconstituted.

Today, the preserved windows form a beautifully coherent ensemble, and contribute to make this edifice a major reference in stained glass. The audacious design of the fine network of stone in the western rose window constitutes one of the most beautiful achievements of Gothic art, and the high windows of the choir are, by their iconographic narrative, an impressive demonstration of the power of the Church of Reims.

The windows of Marc Chagall

In 1974, Marc Chagall (1887-1985) created, with the collaboration of the Jacques Simon Workshop, three stained glass windows for the axial chapel of the Cathedral.

The realisation of these windows, which took six years (1968-1974), was made possible thanks to the donations of the Committee of Builders of Champagne-Ardenne, and a membership drive conducted by the Friends of the Reims Cathedral. The total cost was 300,000 Francs (€47,000).

Origins of the project

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From 1957, Marc Chagall regularly came to Reims, where he was working in collaboration with the Jacques Simon Workshop on the realisation of a certain number of important projects in France and internationally (the Metz Cathedral, the United Nations in New York, the church of Tudeley, the Rockefeller chapel (Union Church) at Pocantico Hills, etc.).

In November 1968, the Committee of Builders of Champagne-Ardenne, an association comprising a number of businesses, construction material dealers, contractors and architects of the region, decided to commission Marc Chagall to create stained glass windows in the Reims Cathedral to replace those made in the nineteenth century by Coffetier and Steinheil.

In 1971, Jacques Duhamel, then Minister of Culture, officially decided the placement for the windows to be in the axial chapel.

The Windows of Brigitte Simon

Born in Reims in 1926, Brigitte Simon first worked with her father, the master stained glass artist Jacques Simon, before moving to Paris where she met, and in 1949, married, Charles Marq.

In 1961, she created her first stained glass window for the Reims Cathedral, followed by works for the nave of Saint Philibert of Tournus, the collegial Notre Dame of Vitry-le-Francois and the cathedral of Nantes.

Between 1971 and 1981, she again created several windows for the Reims Cathedral, in the north and south arms of the transept.

• Monday: 8.00 and 19.00
• Tuesday: 8.00
• Wednesday: 8.00 and 19.00
• Thursday: 8.00
• Friday: 8.00 and 19.00
• Saturday: 8.00
• Sunday: 9.30 and 11.00

Wednesday: 17.30 to 18.30
Friday: 17.45 to 18.45

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: at 18.30

Every friday from 17.45 to 18.45.

ARCHITECTURE
With its Radiant Gothic façade of unequalled dimensions, its interior characterized by soaring vertical heights, the richness of its sculpture and the technical quality of its construction, the Cathedral of Reims remains one of the most beautiful examples of Gothic art.

Probably begun in 1211, its realisation continued through three centuries, but rests incomplete: spires that were initially planned for the tops of the towers were never built.

Construction Chronology: Three centuries of building

The first religious structure to be built on the Cathedral site was in the very beginning of the 5th century.

It was a modest edifice which was later rebuilt and enlarged, first during the Carolingian epoch (816-862), and then in the mid 12th century, in early Gothic style. It was damaged by fire in 1210, and the structures were completely razed shortly after.

The chevet of the Cathedral of Reims built in the second quarter of the 13th century

1211-1241: The building of the choir

It is generally believed, though still subject to some debate among historians, that construction on the existing monument began in 1211. The laying of the first stone by Archbishop Aubry de Humbert took place on May 6th of that year, one year to the day after the fire. The first phase was the building of the choir, the transept and the last spans of the nave, which were consecrated in 1241.

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1250-1300: Construction of the façade

Work on the western façade continued throughout the second half of the 13th century.

Studying the style of the façade (archival sources are missing), allows us to estimate that the portal areas were finished about 1270, and the upper part of the rose window at the end of the 13th century.

The central areas and those south of the Gallery of Kings were constructed above the rose window at the beginning of the 14th century.

A cathedral unfinished

Afterwards the work slowed. The north part of the Gallery of Kings and the two towers date from the 15th century. When Joan of Arc and Charles VII arrived for his coronation in 1429, the towers did not yet exist. These façade and transept towers were initially to be topped by spires, but a fierce fire, which destroyed the roof’s entire framework in 1481, made their realisation, and indeed the completion of the Cathedral, impossible. The bases for the spires were still partially visible in the 19th century.

SCULPTURE

If Gothic art attains, in the Cathedral of Reims, one of its most perfect expressions, it is thanks to both the exceptional use of new architectural techniques of the 13th century, and the harmonious union of architecture and sculpture.

The richness of this sculptural ensemble is renowned. Never before had artists so succeeded in bringing stone to life. The celebrated “Ange au Sourire” (Smiling Angel), the Saint Joseph, and the Servant, have become characters in their own right.

Although the statues seem to present a particularly unified expression of medieval thought, it is nevertheless not easy to comprehend what message was intended from the statuary of such a complex monument, or to distinguish a unique style in an edifice erected over a period of three centuries.