This apse is one of the earliest religious edifices in France, in which flying buttresses were employed. The latter, very simple in design, rest on outside fluted columns detached from the wall of the apse. This is one of the last examples of fluting, as applied to columns, the process disappearing generally with the introduction of pointed architecture, only to reappear at the Renaissance. The persistence of this fluting is doubtless explained by the influence of the many specimens of Roman architecture which Rheims had preserved. =The Doorway of the Southern Transept= Although the transept dates from the 11th century, its southern façade was built in 1480 by Robert de Lenoncourt. The doorway, which bears the Lenoncourt arms, comprises only one door, divided by a pillar with statues of St. Remi and the Virgin. The deep vaulting of the door is ornamented with vine-foliage. At the base, in the supporting walls, are statues of St. Sixtus and St. Sinicius (the first missionaries to Rheims) bare-footed, clothed in long embroidered mantles and holding books. In the vaulting above the head-covering of the missionaries are eight groups of statuettes representing episodes in the Life and Passion of Jesus. Tourists who follow the Itinerary on page 95, come out by the Rue St. Julien, in front of the doorway of the south transept. The latter is between the ruined apse (_on the right_) and the south lateral façade (_on the left_). [Illustration: SOUTHERN TRANSEPT OF ST. REMI CHURCH] [Illustration: DOORWAY OF THE SOUTHERN TRANSEPT (_see photo, p. 104_)] The 15th century leaves of the door are composed of wood panels in blind arcading, ornamented with flowering clover. On the buttresses which frame the doorway are five statues of saints, including St. Remi, St. Benedict, and St. Christopher carrying a kneeling Jesus on his shoulder. The tympanum of the gable above the great flamboyant window is arranged on a Gothic pediment. Its decoration represents the _Assumption of the Virgin and her crowning in Heaven_. On the top of the pediment, and crowning the whole, is St. Michael trampling Satan underfoot. The whole of the doorway is a beautiful example of Flamboyant Gothic. Its rich carvings and delicate ornamentation are in striking contrast with the severity of the rest of the building. At the intersection of the transept, there was formerly a wooden spire, built in 1394, which was pulled down as unsafe in 1825, by order of those who had charge of the arrangements connected with the consecration of Charles X. On the right-hand side of the transept, and also in the north transept, are small semi-circular chapels. =South Lateral Façade= This front has the bare, massive appearance of the 11th century buildings. The remarkable Roman arches, massive buttresses and blind doorway, framed by two primitive capitals with a wreath-shaped astragal, are apparently vestiges of constructions of an earlier date than those of Abbot Thierry.