Rouen (France) -- Description and travel; Rouen (France) -- History
The large window at the extreme end of the north aisle is also very
fine. At the top is a woman in a car triumphing. Below, on the left,
are Adam and Eve. Next to them is the Devil, and Death, whose swarthy
skin is wrapped in a winding-sheet that seems to belly in the blasts
of Hell. The story of Job that is painted in the first window on the
left in the north aisle, also came from old St. Godard. And all this
wealth of stained glass is shown off wonderfully well in a church
that is not too large to lose its full effect, and is planned with
only a few light columns in the interior to impede the view of all of
them from the centre of the nave.
To three other of the many ecclesiastical buildings of Rouen can I
direct you before closing this Chapter of Churches with the Cathedral
that is mother of them all: St. Eloi, St. Vivien, and the Abbaye de
St. Amand. As you walk northwards from the river into the town up the
Rue St. Eloi, the church from which it takes its name shows a fine
south door that closes the perspective of the street. The design of
the west entrance is bold and good, but the queerly mathematical plan
of the Rose window above it, with its three triangles crossing in the
circle, has not a very happy effect. The church now is little but the
ruins of what was once a magnificent building and is used as the
"Protestant Temple." The whole of the Place St. Eloi is worthy of a
closer inspection than can be gained by merely walking through it,
which you will be tempted to do at much too fast a pace on learning
that the Rue du Panneret at its north-east angle leads directly to the
Maison Bourgtheroulde in the Place de la Pucelle. Another
characteristic little square is the Place St. Vivien which cuts the
Rue Eau de Robec in two portions. If you are lucky enough to be there
on a twenty-ninth of August you will see the famous Fete St. Vivien in
full blast, with booths and merry-go-rounds, and travelling theatres,
even a "Theatre Garric a 8 heures, Nouveau Spectacle!" But do not go
on into the further recesses of the Eau de Robec without looking at
the church, and give your keenest glances to the fine square tower
with its octagonal spire that is classed among the Monuments
Historiques. Of the ancient Abbaye de St. Amand there is perhaps less
left than of any of the ecclesiastical buildings in this chapter. Its
origin has been described already (see p. 71), and the gable with its
buttressed wall that you can see best in the Rue St. Amand from the
Place des Carmes are almost the only stones remaining of an
institution that once took a very prominent part in the ecclesiastical
ceremonies of Rouen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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