Cathedral Saint-Vincent de Chalon

The first centuries of Chrétienté were going to make of the people of France, people builders of Cathédrale S. a flowering which was going to produce with Châlon-sur-saône, in the orbit of Cluny, of the buildings which survived the destruction of time and the men.

The main thing of these buildings is, the cathedral Saint-Vincent .

Origin

The origin of this cathedral remains very vague. One speaks about. What one knows, it is that the first church was built on the old Gallo-Roman rampart and that it occupied the place of an ancient temple. And this is confirmed by the discovery of a votive statue of Mercure in the sanctuary of the cathedral in 1776, of a furnace bridge dedicated to the god Mars behind the bedside in 1850 and of the supposed effigies of Marc-Aurel found with the Deanery in 1908.

The primitive church that holy Agricole had increased, was destroyed by the Sarrasin S and was rebuilt by Charlemagne which convened a great council in there 813 (meanwhile, the church which was placed under the patronage of Saint Etienne was placed, towards 542, under the patronage of Saint Vincent.

Actually, the cathedral which one can describe as contemporary was built between 1090 and 1522. One owes the chronology of it with the Salis abbot (death in 1970), who knew very of Saint-Vincent and which had devoted part of its life to bore the mysteries of them. From this chronology results two principal periods from them: the Romance age and the Gothic age.

With regard to the Romance age , it was divided in three building sites.

the first building site will last of 1090 with 1100 from where there remains the vaults with southern and northern absidioles.
the second building site, will last of 1120 with 1130 of which there remains the ground floor of the chorus and the arms of the transept.
Towards 1150 the third started: there remain about it the pillars and the arcades of the central nave and the two sides.

the Gothic age was more important than the Romance age, since it results four building sites from them. It will last of 1220 with 1522 where one built about 1220:

the apse of the chorus,
the vault of transept crossing,
the vault of the bedside
the chapter house.

Towards 1310 one built the walls of the nave. From 1380 to 1429 the building site of the vaults of the nave and walls of the cloister started. And of 1400 to 1522 one built the vaults of the sides, the vaults and the cloister.

The history of the construction of the cathedral Saint Vincent was long and complex. It constitutes, to some extent, a summary of the architectural and religious history of the Burgundy.

Description

Old Diocese of Chalon-sur-Saône, the Saint-Vincent cathedral rises in the middle of the old city.

The western frontage, which is drawn up with the top of the market of the Saint-Vincent place and which dates from the 19th century, was the first to adopt the neo-gothic style (it replaces that, which was destroyed and which comprised a Romance bell-tower). Composed of a porch in terrace (work of Lebas), it is surmounted pinion of the central nave with openwork pink.

This frontage is as flanked of two symmetrical, high square towers 42 meters, of the blazing Gothic, as Antoine Chenavard (architect Lyon be born) proposed in 1827, because the two old towers, started to crumble. These two turns, which are with the right ends and left of the frontage, are crowned of sixteen statues of the owners of the districts and the chalonnaises communes (Saint Georges, Saint Laurent, Saint Vincent, Saint Jean, Sainte Marthe, Saint Paul). These statues were carved by a certain Etienne de Saptes.

Outside, still, with regard to the transept, its end is bored by a Gothic small door, surmounted of a tympanum. A garden, surrounds the bedside and skirts the Romance northern absidiole, then circumvents the absidiole major gothic script. While the cloister (of blazing style and with the columns carrying of the trefoil arches) and the presbytery (remains of the senior of the canons of Vincent saint), stuck one to the other, skirt the collateral south of the cathedral.

This building is composed of three naves (of which a central nave), of a projecting transept, a chorus and a sanctuary. And for Andre Salis, “ same dimensions are symbolic systems as well as the structure. Here the length interior is of 62 meters 93; the total width of 21 meters 39; the central nave is 32 meters 55 length, 10 meters 24 broad. These dimensions expressed in local measurements of the XIe century, appear multiples of the crowned figures seven (for the lengths) and three (for the widths). ”.

Precisely in the central nave, which is composed of blazing piles (grooved pilasters, imbedded columns and profiled bases), were assembled on gothic arches, sitting on Romance pillars (dating from second half of the 12th century) of the beams with posts. On the first floor, a Triforium (a gallery) with full balustrade, is visible, and makes it possible to circulate in the thickness of the walls. Between the beams with Gothic columns supported on the Romance capitals, each span comprises five blind arcades at trefoil top.

Then on the second floor, a second gallery, the coursière, at openwork balustrade of Quatrefoil, is updated. When with the vault, which is with more than 24 meters of the ground, it on is intersecting ribs and is supplemented by an axial vein, the Lierne. The nave is thus completed after seven crossed spans, by an architectural curiosity: a large interior pink. Gothic, it is bored with the top of the Romanesque arch, which separates the central nave from the transept (it is a vestige of time when the nave, still Romance, covered of a flat ceiling, was lower than the transept). This crossed arc, one arrives in the transept crossing.

This crossing is composed of pillars and Romanesque arches, as well as Gothic vault. Initially, it was to be enlightened by three faces: in the west, lit by the pink, and in north and south, lit by two surmounted geminated bays of a Oculus, but which today are walled. When with the arms of the transept, they have two spans.

The transept crossing crossed, one arrives at the chorus, which is overcome by two steps. Like the transept crossing, it has pillars and Romanesque arches, more refined. The triforium, which had stopped with the transept crossing, begins again. But this time, it is air and nearer to the tops of the arcs. And each span comprises three bays whose gothic arches are carried by cylindrical piles.

With regard to the second gallery, on the level of the chorus, it was originally without balustrade, but with the courses of the 14th century it is seen adding on its southern part an openwork balustrade of quatrefoil. When with the Gothic vaults, they are reinforced by two important arcs at the entry of the chorus and that of the sanctuary.

To reach this last, it is enough to cross three steps. It is entirely Gothic, because the semicircular apse, was replaced by this apse with five sides. The three windows of the ground floor are framed of two posts. And a tapestry, placed in 1965, coming from Brussels, and going back to 1510, comes to decorate the splendor of this sanctuary. High 6 meters 75 and broad 7 meters 15, it represents three biblical images and of the Eucharistie.

The two collateral ones are marked out vaults of which each one evokes the piety of this time of enthusiasm which saw them building.

the first vault, northern side, was built in 1424 by Oudot de Malsin which dedicated it to Saint Michel and Sainte Catherine.
the blazing Gothic second of style date of 1440.
While the third associates blazing it and style of the Renaissance; it was built in 1522 by the notable ones chalonnais and carries the twenty-four escutcheons of these founders families.
the two last vaults are more modest. Southern part, the Romance style prevails. Indeed this collateral is remarkable by these stone grids which characterize the Burgundian style (that one in particular also finds with Saint-Gengoux-the-National). It as should be noted, as the fifth vault of this collateral is decorated of a splendid fresco of the Burgundian school of the end of the 15th century.

Restoration

The cathedral Saint Vincent of Châlon-sur-saône is classified historic building since 1903 (its two turns, being, they also, classified historic buildings since November 25th, 1991 (more than 2 million euros were spent since 1984 for the restoration).

The splendor of the Saint-Vincent cathedral is not limited to architecture. Thus the capitals of Saint-Vincent are the subject of very excavated studies. One of them deserves a particular attention. Placed at the top of the Stoup, and passes by the most Western expression of the Callisthène.

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