Sens Cathedral

The Cathedral Saint -Etienne in Sens French Yonne department ( Burgundy region) is the first Gothic Cathedral, at about the same time as the chorus of about 130 kilometers northwest of Sens nearby Abbey Church of Saint -Denis ( consecrated in 1144 ) from about 1140 / was built in 45. It is dedicated to Saint Stephen ( Etienne ).

Architectural History

Responsible for the first three early-Gothic churches, the abbey church of Saint- Denis, the cathedral of Sens and the predecessor of the current cathedral of Chartres were Abbot Suger of Saint- Denis and the bishops Henry of Sens ( Henri Sanglier ) and Gottfried or Godefroi of Chartres. They were friends and shared the same beliefs.

Although present for the Cathedral of Sens not so accurate building data such as St. Denis, St. Denis is sometimes denied their generally recognized rank as the first Gothic building and take the view of the choir of Sens had been started a few years before St. Denis. In St. Denis comes only the lower part of the choir from the early 12th century, during the chorus of Sens from 1140/45 was built without interruption of construction " in a train " and in 1168 was nearly completed. Long and transept of Sens came later. It is true that St. Etienne in Sens is the first Gothic cathedral, because St. Denis was not a cathedral but an abbey church.

Open triforium

At the end of the Romanesque architecture began - as a preform of a triforium - undim a small column -arm position on the wall strip above the arcade zone, so no proper walkway into the wall inside, but put on the wall, be careful. Here Sens continues and develops an "open triforium ".

A triforium is a walkway in the wall, which is open to the nave towards. That the triforium of Sens here has no land and therefore is not a pure running gear, plays only a minor role. The triforium has an architectural form has a long history. It's basically about making the area between the lower arch openings and the top row of windows. Here was for centuries on the other side of the wall, the roof of the nave, which leaned there. In the early Christian churches inside the wall strip was used to bring paintings or mosaics, as they have been preserved, especially in Ravenna.

A triforium could be used in many ways. As the name " walkway " suggests you could walk along here and check, for example, the roofs of the side aisles. It could accommodate and the like children's choirs will also find at church gatherings and mystery plays.

Splitting of the wall

The development of Western architecture began with the simple scheme: An interior is bounded by a wall, and its visible surface is called a wall. In the beginning there was on the wall at the bottom the arcade floor, then a wall strip, which was covered with mosaics and frescoes above was to expose the window Gaden. Here in the early Gothic architecture in Sens from 1140 now starts from this simple wall of a room boundary to make something highly dramatic. It splits the wall gradually in two layers.

The result is something that Hans Jantzen has called with a famous phrase, the " diaphanous structure " - you could translate it with " translucent wall." Here something similar is sought as in the resolution of the wall in huge windows. The inner layer of the wall was to be a vehicle of expression, similar to the work of the façade of St. Denis in the case.

To the question of how this idea could be have been developed at the splitting of the wall, there are several theories, all of which suffer from the fact that there are no documents for this state of affairs and it is here necessarily rely on assumptions.

" Mainly in northern France ( Francia ) is taking place in the development of the elevation basilica nave and chancel wall. Here attempts are made in the second half of the 12th century to provide a scaffold limbs in front of an ever more resolved wall. It shows a structural commitment to an optical line scaffolding in front differentiated space reason. " Zweischaligkeit already existed in the Romanesque style.

It was in this splitting of the wall it, thereby making the nave wall to a particular image area by behind her a kind of hollow layer gave rise, acting as a foil. And the triforium here in Sens is a precursor to it. The next historic Cathedral of Noyon will extend this principle very much.

Late Gothic transept

Sens was originally a three-aisled basilica without transept. The transept, which can be seen today, was drafted in the early 14th century and thereafter ( and in the time of the turn of the century from the 15th to the 16th century), ie from the end of the Gothic, when you could build such huge tracery windows.

A look directly into the window area and the vault of the transept demonstrated here, to what degree of wall dissolution, the late Gothic period has come. The tracery has evolved into its final style stage, the so-called Flamboyant - style, so the flame-shaped style.

The suppression of the wall in favor of increasingly large window was not without dangers and has also suffered some setbacks. It has happened that such giant window arch pressure could no longer be collected and collapsed. But such immense glass surfaces of course provided an opportunity to let the light that is colored by the glass to flow into a hitherto unknown intensity in the interior. The Gothic is not only gone here to the limit of what is technically possible.

Facade

The facades of Gothic cathedrals have been just like the towers rebuilt frequently, and not always to their advantage. Some have been defaced by Bauunglücke and poorly reconstructed. One such example has Sens. 1267 plunged the south tower of the facade, and damaged them. After you have the window is not true to the original, but replaced in accordance with the now in the late 13th century in force ideals of High Gothic. The large tracery window in the middle and on the right are not from 1140. Only the left of the façade there is a form that comes from the original construction.

Interior

And even here in the interior you have to imagine a lot different than it was built in 1140. In 1230, the Sens vault and the whole clerestory have been renewed and - just like with the facade - adapted the then new construction plans. At the time of the cathedral there was no tracery. The first window tracery was 1215/20 in Reims. You have to replace in mind these windows with simple lancet windows, and then you have a fairly accurate idea of ​​how an early Gothic cathedral looked inside.

The owner of Sens, Archbishop Henri Sanglier, was close to the then reform order and ordered for his new cathedral a relatively simple floor plan, in comparison to the then magnificent buildings of the Cluniac no chaining various parts of the room wanted, but the divided unit space. The initial state of the church had no transepts and no chapels.

Sens is still far from the delicate " frame construction " of the High Gothic. Here we have an emphasis on the severity of the wall, the area still remains unformed in many places. The lower support system in Sens has resemblance to the Roman canon. Some specialist authors therefore expect Sens not to Gothic.

Romance is here especially on the lower floor that after every two pair of columns follows a powerful so-called clustered columns. Such a succession of columns and pillars is called an alternation of supports. A bunch of pillars is a pillar, which is completely surrounded by submitted half and three- quarter columns. The so-called services rise high above the capitals of intervening columns. The term service first appeared in the weekly bills of the Prague Dombaus 1372/78 as " dinst " on. This designation was 1843/45 introduced by Georg Gottfried Kallenbach in the architectural history literature. And these services go at the top of the vault ribs over so that one continuous line from the bottom facing upwards: Column - Service - arch rib on the one hand and clustered columns / Siphon - arch rib on the other. Taking the extension of this system to the outside with the flying buttresses and buttresses added, we have the typical linear support system of Gothic front of us.

Connected to the alternation of supports is a special way to compose the nave of the church from individual departments. Since there is in the former architecture differences. There are Romanesque churches whose nave is arched with a single so-called metric ton, about a curved surface without subdivisions. Here in the early Gothic style, it is a development of a six-part vault - like here in Sens - give rise to a four-piece. And that has to do with the fact that changes the rhythm of the room. In the High Gothic period there will be no more alternation of supports, but only uniform forms - and its vaults are thus four-piece, the rhythm is faster ( Chartres Cathedral ).

In Sens in the early Gothic style is still working with a column change and with six-part vaults - the rhythm is still solemnity, measured. The six-part vaults are in the longitudinal direction separated by so-called transverse arches or straps. A Gewölbegurt is nothing more than a particularly pronounced rib. The straps are just about the clustered piers, in between are the pillars on which the services and the normal ribs climb, so that overall a six -part vaults.

Sens acts in some respects still the "Romance ". The abundance of light is here become not a structural principle, the windows were small. This underlines once again the uniqueness of Suger's St. Denis.

Organ

The great organ in the gallery was built in 1734 by the organ builder Mangrin, and finally restored by the organ builder Boisseau - Cattiaux. The instrument has 48 registers, four manuals and pedal. The Spieltrakturen and Registertrakturen are mechanical.

The choir organ was built in 1855 by the organ builder Daublaine - Callinet. The instrument has 15 stops on two manuals and pedal. The play and Registertrakturen are mechanical.

Bells

In the south tower four bells, including the two Bourdon, which were cast from Gaspard Mongin - Viard in Auxerre. Their names are a tribute to the first two bishops of Sens, Saint Savinien and St Potentien. Furthermore, there are three bells for the Uhrschlag, which are fixedly mounted in the bell tower above the tower. The largest was donated by the king and proposes the full hours, the two smaller ones were donated by citizens of the city of Sens and show the quarter hours.

Dimensions of the Church

• Outer Length: 122 meters
• Internal length: 113,50 meters
• Height of the nave: 24.4 meters
• Width of the nave: 15.25 meters

William of Sens

An architect, " William of Sens ", built around 1175 in England in Canterbury the local choir new, which he commenced the first phase of English Gothic, the Early English. Thomas Becket had been taken in Sens with great hospitality, which circumstance has probably due to the appointment of the builder of Sens for the construction of Canterbury. Under the supervision of William Sens ' has the monk Gervase of one - written few surviving contemporary accounts for the construction of Gothic cathedrals, the so-called " Gervase report " - next to the Abbot Suger.