Friday, May 31, 2013

Noyon Cathedral

Those (Tawana, Wes) following us on the Cathedral trail know that the next stop would be Noyon, another transitional Gothic. Noyon is in the Oise, WWI country, still not very far from Paris. Vicki's distant and dubious relation, Robert Louis Stevenson, praised Noyon's cathedral in his An Inland Journey.
West facade; the symmetry ends here...there
are many out-buildings, including a large
refectory adjacent to the north side of the west
porch; Noyon is pretty old for a Gothic,
mid-12th






















There's hardly a grain of sculpture at Noyon;
all removed, presumably by the masses
during the Revolution; except for a few
gargoyles





















Knave view; note alternating piers and columns; the vault
originally was of the earlier six-part style, with the alternating
arrangement; after a fire way back in 1293, it was replaced
with the by-then standard four-part

















Elevation: interesting! relatively large aisles,
galleries, blind triforium, smallish clerestory
windows; we've seen few Gothics with
galleries. one of the first Romanesque
features to go






















Perhaps Noyon's most interesting facet is its
use of rounded transept ends; virtually all
Romanesques and Gothics have rounded
apses--that's how the Romans built their
basilicas, which the Christians mostly copied;
this is the north transept; rounded






















There's some nice-looking glass, but it's not
what you come here for..it's the architecture



















Looking from altar back to the west














Apse and altar view


















Interesting  (to me) sculpture department: Joan of Arc was
converted from witch to saint only in the 20th century; well,
yes, she spent several hundred years merely as a martyr;
the sculpture here presumably depicts a "sacred
conversation" involving her and the then-pope and his
assistants; life-sized too


















Ditto; she was canonized in 1920; the English
might have objected, but they no longer had
privilege of the floor; so to speak; that's a joke,
son


















We are now in the cloister adjoining the church and
refectory, admiring a very old well and then noting that the
arches supporting the vaulting above are listing seriously 
to port; we decided to move on to the cathedral's exterior

















From the south; note the severe right angles
on the towers; Noyon has plenty of  integral
buttresses, but flying buttresses only at the
apse I think





















High on the south-side apse, about the only exterior
sculpture remaining















This is/was the chapter library, adjoining the cathedral; built
of wood, resting on a wall; dated 1506; personally, I like
storing my books in less fire-prone situations; but this one
has indeed stood the test of time

















Carving on a library pier; no termites, either


















The old-fashioned way...paving a drive-way in Noyon














A pretty town; most of it post-WWI...

















1 comment:

Tawana said...

We have watched people paving streets or sidewalks in several European countries...painstaking, backbreaking work, but the end result is beautiful.