Cathedral Saint-Etienne de Toul
The Saint-Etienne cathedral of Toul is a catholic church of Gothic style
Structure
The frontage of the Cathédrale is a blazing masterpiece of the Gothic style .A Gothic Cloister, the larger second of France, and two vaults of the Renaissance are next to the cathedral.
Dimensions:
- height of the turns of frontage: 70 m,
- length: 98 m,
- width of the frontage: 37 m,
- transept: 50 m,
- height of the vault: 32 meters.
In spite of a construction on more than three centuries, the building (except frontage) presents a great homogeneity of style:
- at the 13th century was built the chorus, the Transept and the part is Cloître;
- at the 14th century, 4 Travée S of the Nef are built starting from the transept;
- at the 15th century is completed the Nef and the splendid frontage blazing in 1496;
- at the 16th century, two vaults rebirths are built near the transept:
- the vault and all the Saints,
- sublimates it vault of the Bishops with his ceiling-vault punt without any structure of maintenance - closed since 50ans, on standby of restoration.
The Revolution will make some notable damage, but a bombardment of the second world war will destroy the roof and the organ.
An important restoration campaign starts in the years 1980
To note: the presence of two unfinished turns of aspect which frame the chorus, does one of the turn of it had crumbled its construction shortly after. This translated a Rhenish influence probably inherited the Romance cathedral. One also finds this novel-Rhenish on other Lorraine religious buildings or Champagne Plan.
History
Primitive cathedrals
- In second half of the 5th century was built the first cathedral, under the term of Saint Etienne and Notre-Dame. The episcopal group included/understood in the beginning three basilicas: one devoted to the Virgin, the second with Etienne saint, and the third, which was used as Baptistère, with Jean-Baptiste saint.
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963 - 967: construction of the Romance cathedral by the bishop holy Gerard (33e bishop of Toul) on the site of the three basilicas of the 5th century which will form nothing any more but one building.
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11th century and 12th century the cathedral undergoes various rebuildings with probably establishment of a novel-Rhenish Plan.
Gothic cathedral
The construction of the general structure of the current building will take three centuries, the Romance building being progressively destroyed Gothic construction.-
1221 : Pose first stone of the current cathedral devoted to Saint Etienne by the bishop Eudes de Sorcy. Work starts with CH œur by taking again part of the foundations of the Romance building. The chorus is completed in 1235.
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1331 - 1400: Construction of the transept, and the 5 last spans of the nave by progressive destruction of the Romance nave. Construction of the cloister by Pierre Perrat (death in 1400) and of the porch Is.
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1400-1460 : interruptin of work during the war enters the duke of Burgundy and the duke of Lorraine.
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1460 : The chapter of the cathedral being addressed to the pope and to king de France received from the pope a gift of 1 000 pounds and of the king 1 500 pounds, this allows the resumption of work:
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1475 - 1496: end of the construction of the frontage and the turns
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About 1530, the bishop Hector d' Ailly (1524-1532) order the vault of the Bishops in collateral Nord.
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1532 : order vault of All the Saints by the cantor Jean Forget, of Renaissance style. The dome is carried out in horn-the eye by using the processes of prospect for Jean Pèlerin says Viator, canon of the cathedral.
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1561 : The upper floor of the Southern tower of the bedside collapses. The canons make cut down the upper floor of the Northern tower of the bedside by safety.
Later modifications
- 1625 - 1725: The apse is decorated with marbles.
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1648 : Official fastening of évêché of Toul in France
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18th century:
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19th century:
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20th century:
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the seat of the diocese of Nancy and Toul having been transferred to Nancy in 1790, the cathedral of Toul belongs from now on to the commune which assumes the heavy responsibility of restore the interior of the building. Work of restoration continues still today:
Organ of the cathedral
The cathedral had an organ at least since the 14th century. He knew several installation successive. Starting from 1740, the canons of the cathedral addressed themselves to several factors in order to build a large instrument on the platform, to replace the precedent, which dated from the 16th century: François Thierry, Charles Cachet and Jean-Andre Silbermann was thus requested. They entrusted finally the market in 1751 to Nicolas Dupont, which then built the organ of the Saint-Jacob church of Lunéville, and of which they had been able to appreciate work on the spot. The reception of work took place on July 14th 1755. The sculptures of the dresser were carried out by Athanase Lacourt, of Toul. The instrument had four keyboards and forty and one play. The first holder was Jean-Baptiste Ours (1732-1807), author of a Livre of handwritten organ . As he had written in his estimate written in 1751 for the canons, the ambition of Nicolas Dupont had been to equip the cathedral with comparable instrument a “with the greatest number of large the organ of France, in which one will find the plays to play all the verses which can be done according to the good taste of the tems, and to be able to diversify them during a whole office, without being obliged to repeat same the meslanges twice”.The instrument of Nicolas Dupont, several times modified thereafter, was completely destroyed on June 20th, 1940 in the fire of the cathedral, and was replaced by an instrument due to Curt Schwenkedel, inaugurated in 1963.
See too
Bibliographical references
On the building
- Marie-Claire Burnand, Gothic Lorraine , Paris, 1989 ( monuments of Gothic France ), p. 310-321.
- Jacques Cabbages, the cathedral of Toul before the 13th century , Yearly of the East , n°6, 1955, p. 99-143.
- Alain Villes, the Cathedral of Toul: history of a large Gothic building in Lorraine , Toul, 1983.
On the organ
- Gustave Clanché, music, chorus, low-chorus of the cathedral of Toul (historical documents) , Toul, 1936.
- Olivier Douchain, “Fifteen years of history of the organ to the cathedral of Toul (1744-1755)”, Yearly of the East , 1971, p. 157-205; same author, “laic organists of the diocese of Toul to the S”, Research on the traditional French music , T. 20,1981, p. 77-181, T. 21,1983, p. 43-117 and T. 22,1984, p. 164 ‑ 218
- Organ of Lorraine: Meurthe-et-Moselle , to dir. Christian Lutz and Rene Depoutot, Metz, 1990, p. 410 ‑ 420.
- Jean-Luc Gester and Damien Vaisse, “Jean-Baptiste Ours, organist of Toul, and his Book of organ ”, Toul-native Studies , n° 109,2004, p. 29-39; article republished with some complements in the Organ loft. French-speaking Switzerland review , T. 57/1, 2005, p. 10-23.
Internal bonds
- List of the bishops of Toul
- Pierre Cléreau
External bonds
- Card on the site Structurae.de
- Presentation of the cathedral
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