Bishop Hardouin died eight days after the destruction of the town and
church in 962, and the pious and able Vulphard was appointed in his
stead. The people of Chartres set themselves with undaunted energy to
rebuild their town, and they seized the opportunity of making their
houses more substantial, and of enlarging their churches. Look at the
tenth-century remains of Notre-Dame and S. Père, and judge how massive
was the material they used. Their houses, of course, were still made
mostly of wood. Vulphard devoted himself to the business of constructing
a new cathedral, which should be more beautiful than any yet conceived.
The martyrium is the kernel of the crypt of Notre-Dame. The latter half
of the tenth century was the period of vast crypts, and Vulphard, not
content with merely renewing the martyrium of Gislebert, added a broad
ambulatory round it, enclosed with a strong circular wall, which was
broken by three advanced chapels. This was intended to make the
martyrium, as the depository of the treasure and the Veil, safe from all
accidents. We shall see presently how well it fulfilled its purpose. The
church itself was extended westwards as far as the line marked now by
the labyrinth in the pavement of the nave. Two great piers were inserted
in the martyrium to support the raised choir.
In order to understand the growth of the Cathedral, which is in itself,
to the eye that can see, an almost complete history of Christian
architecture, it is necessary to form some idea of the church which
Vulphard built. For in size and site it approached the modern building.
If we count the circular portion embracing the martyrium, and connected
by stairs with the main building, it must have been over 100 yards long,
and in breadth at least thirty, including the Chapel of
Notre-Dame-de-Sous-Terre on the one side, and the sacristy on the south.
But the nave and the aisles--the floor of which was on a level with that
of Notre-Dame-de-Sous-Terre--were together only as broad as the modern
nave by itself.
Like the tenth century Church of S. Martin-au-Val, the choir was raised
ten or twelve steps above the nave, and was surrounded by an ambulatory.
There was a double transept: and it may be that we can trace it in the
recesses which now form the Chapels of S. Savinian, S. Potentian and
the Saints Forts on the one side, and the Chapel of S. Clement on the
other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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