Battlefields -- France -- Guidebooks; France -- Guidebooks; Marne, 1st Battle of the, France, 1914
In the fourteenth century the four towers were surmounted by wooden
spires covered with lead, painted and gilded. To the fifteenth century
belongs the beautiful porch in the Flamboyant style which precedes
the south door of the twelfth century. The Revolution destroyed three
of the four spires in order to utilise the lead, and mutilated the
sculptures of the doors. Notre-Dame was completely restored about 1852.
The steeple of the north tower of the west front was reconstructed,
but the towers of the apse remained despoiled of the elevated pyramids
which gave to Notre-Dame a very characteristic silhouette recognisable
in the centre of the old engraving reproduced on _p. 198_.
[Illustration: PORCH AND SOUTH TRANSEPT OF NOTRE-DAME]
The south porch, visible in the opposite photograph, was built in
1469. The bay is surmounted by an angular pediment, and the gable is
ornamented by graceful arcading in the Flamboyant style.
The south front of the transept (photograph opposite) which adjoins the
Gothic porch, is a fine piece of work in the Romanesque style, with its
round arches and its sculptured rose-windows. The little thirteenth
century sun-dial on the buttress in the middle-front below the windows
is worthy of note. It is one of the oldest known.
The interior of Notre-Dame is simple and dignified (see below and on
p. 203). It has been completely restored. The pillars which support
the arcades are those of the early Romanesque church (see photograph
p. 205). Their capitals are finely sculptured. Above the lower arcades
runs a gallery which opens on to the choir and nave by means of bays
composed of twin lights. A little triforium separates this gallery from
the higher windows (see below).
[Illustration: CHOIR OF NOTRE-DAME]
The windows of the aisles of Notre-Dame are filled with beautiful
sixteenth century stained glass, which at the beginning of the war was
taken down and put away for fear of damage from air-raids. We reproduce
a panel from one of them, which represents the donor kneeling in prayer
to Saint Martha, her patron saint, who is trampling under foot the
"Tarasque," a mythical monster of Tarascon. The saint is subduing it by
sprinkling it with holy water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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