Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3: France and the Netherlands, Part 1
History
Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3: France and the Netherlands, Part 1
France -- Description and travel; Netherlands -- Description and travel
Now walk up the right aisle. The first chapel is the Baptistery,
containing the font and a modern statue of the boy Baptist. Third
chapel, St. Antony of Padua. The fourth chapel contains a curious Holy
Sepulcher, with quaint life-size terra-cotta figures of the 16th
century. Fifth chapel, a gilt châsse. Notice the transepts, reduced to
short arms, scarcely, if at all, projecting beyond the chapels. From
this point examine the exquisite Renaissance tracery of the rood-screen
and staircases. Then pass under the fine Renaissance door, with lovely
decorative work, into the ambulatory. The Choir is in large part
Gothic, with late flamboyant tracery. The apparent triforium is
continued round the ambulatory.
The splendid gilded shrine in the second choir-chapel contains the
remains of Ste. Geneviève, or what is left of them. Candles burn
perpetually around it. Hundreds of votaries here pay their devotions
daily to the Patroness of Paris. The shrine, containing what is alleged
to be the original sarcophagus of the Saint (more probably of the 13th
century) stands under a richly-gilt Gothic tabernacle, adorned with
figures legibly named on their pedestals. The stained-glass window
behind it has a representation of a processional function with the body
of the Saint, showing this church, together with a view of the original
church of Ste. Geneviève, the remaining tower, and adjacent houses,
historically most interesting. The window beyond the shrine also
contains the history of Ste. Geneviève--her childhood, first communion,
miracles, distribution of bread during the siege of Paris, conversion
of Clovis, death, etc.
Indeed the long sojourn of the body of Ste. Geneviève in this church
has almost overshadowed its dedication to St. Stephen, several
memorials of whom may, however, be recognized by the attentive
visitor--among them, a picture of his martyrdom (by Abel de Pujol) near
the entrance to the choir. The Protomartyr also stands, with his
deacon's robe and palm, in a niche near the door of the sacristy, where
left and right are frescoes of his Disputation with the Doctors, and
his Martyrdom. The chapel immediately behind the high altar is, as
usual, the Lady Chapel. The next contains a good modern window of the
Marriage of the Virgin.
Examine in detail all the windows; one of the mystic wine-press is very
interesting. Votive offerings of the city of Paris to Ste. Geneviève
also exist in the ambulatory. Curious frescoes of the martyrdom of the
10,000 Christians on Mount Ararat on the north side. The best view of
the choir is obtained from the north side of the ambulatory, opposite
the shrine of Ste. Geneviève. In the north aisle notice St. Louis with
the Crown of Thorns. Stand again in the center of the nave, near the
entrance, and observe the curious inclination of the choir and high
altar to one side--here particularly noticeable, and said in every case
to represent the droop of the Redeemer's head on the cross.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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