Notre-Dame d’Amiens: A Gothic Cathedral in France
Site at a Glance
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- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- French
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page24 sections
History
Notre-Dame d’Amiens is a Latin Catholic cathedral in Amiens, France, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and serving as the seat of the Diocese of Amiens. The present Gothic building was begun in 1220 and became the principal church of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste parish of Amiens-centre. Its history is rooted in a succession of Christian sanctuaries and was transformed by the arrival of a relic reputed to be the head of John the Baptist.
Early Christian sanctuaries
The cathedral stands on a site used by successive Christian churches. A first church probably existed in the fourth century, although the early history is poorly documented and archaeological evidence for that building is lacking. Local tradition attributes the Christianization of Amiens in the late third or early fourth century to Firmin the Martyr and Firmin the Confessor. The historically attested Bishop Eulogius was present by 346.
Tradition also describes an early cathedral group made up of two churches. One was dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul and later became associated with Firmin the Confessor. The other was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Firmin the Martyr. These earlier buildings were destroyed by fires connected with the Viking invasion of 850 and by further fires in 1019 and 1107.
Romanesque cathedral and the Baptist relic
After a major urban fire, a Romanesque cathedral was built between 1137 and 1152 and consecrated in 1152. Its appearance is unknown because no description survives. The church nevertheless hosted an important royal event when Philip II of France married Ingeburge of Denmark there in 1193.
The cathedral’s importance changed sharply after Wallon de Sarton, a canon of Picquigny, brought a relic reputed to be the head of John the Baptist from Constantinople after the city’s sack during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Bishop Richard de Gerberoy received it ceremonially at Amiens on 17 December 1206. The relic drew pilgrims from across Europe, including people seeking relief from deafness, mutism, blindness, and epilepsy. Their visits also became a major source of revenue for the cathedral.
Lightning and fire destroyed the Romanesque cathedral in 1218, although plans for a new building may already have existed. The growing pilgrimage and the prosperity of Amiens created the conditions for a much larger church. The city’s wealth was closely connected with the cloth and woad trades. Woad production and trade enriched Amiens and its bishopric, while the axial chapel was originally linked to the cloth industry and known as Notre-Dame Drapiere.
Construction of the Gothic cathedral
Construction began in 1220, when Bishop Evrard de Fouilloy laid the first stone. Robert de Luzarches designed the project and directed it until 1228. Thomas de Cormont then took charge, followed by his son Renaud de Cormont, who directed the work until 1288.
The building proceeded unusually from west to east. Work began with the nave while the Romanesque choir remained in temporary use, and the nave was completed by 1236. Bishop Arnoul de la Pierre then initiated the choir, eastern end, and radiating chapels. Financial shortages slowed construction after 1240, but the ambulatory was complete before Arnoul was buried there in 1247.
Funding was affected by levies imposed to support the Seventh Crusade. Bishop Gerard de Conchy organized collections connected with the public display of relics of Saint Honore. A fire in 1258 destroyed the apsidal chapels, after which building resumed. The choir, including its vaults and high windows, was completed around 1269.
By 1288, under Bishop Guillaume de Macon, the upper transept and nave glazing, alterations to the choir and eastern end, a light roof structure, and the first transept spire had been completed. The labyrinth was also made that year under Renaud de Cormont. This date marks the completion of the principal medieval building campaign, although the upper parts of the west towers remained unfinished.
Eleven lateral chapels were added between about 1290 and 1375, even though they were not part of the original plan. The south tower was completed in the fourteenth century. The north tower required a massive counter-support because of the sloping ground, and its crown was completed in 1402.
Later medieval and early modern changes
The building continued to serve as a setting for political and religious events. In 1264, Louis IX arbitrated the Dit of Amiens in favor of Henry III of England. The translation of relics and renewal of the Treaty of Paris took place there in 1279, and Edward III paid homage to Philip VI in the cathedral in 1329. Charles VI and Isabeau of Bavaria married there in 1385, followed by ceremonies involving French monarchs from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
In 1470, Charles the Bold established a camp at Saint-Acheul while attempting to seize Amiens. He reportedly forbade his artillery to fire on the cathedral after being impressed by its size. Louis XI attended Mass there in 1471 after Amiens was recaptured.
Serious cracking appeared in the crossing piers and parts of the eastern end in 1497. Pierre Tarisel responded in 1498 by installing a heated wrought-iron chain around the building. The chain tightened as it cooled and remains an important part of the cathedral’s historic strengthening. Further reinforcement was carried out at the choir entrance in 1503.
The choir stalls were made between 1508 and 1519. In 1528, lightning destroyed the first spire. The surviving lead-covered wooden spire was built between 1528 and 1533 and gilded in the following year. From the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, the confraternity of Notre-Dame du Puy enriched the cathedral with paintings, chapel enclosures, altarpieces, sculpture, liturgical objects, and other gifts, all emphasizing the Virgin Mary. The confraternity declined after 1647, after which donations of liturgical objects became increasingly common.
Reform, Revolution, and restoration
Major eighteenth-century changes followed Catholic reforms associated with the Council of Trent, the sixteenth-century council whose liturgical and disciplinary measures influenced Catholic churches. After a fire in the sanctuary, the medieval rood screen, which separated the nave from the choir, was demolished in 1755. A rocaille iron grille opened the choir visually, while the sanctuary received a new Baroque altar, sculpture, flooring, and furnishings. The expenditure exhausted financial resources and contributed to neglected maintenance.
During the French Revolution, the cathedral became a Temple of Reason and Truth in 1793 and a Temple of the Supreme Being in 1794. Catholic worship was restored by 1800. Sculptures were mutilated, fleurs-de-lis and crosses were removed, the statue of Saint Louis in the Green Pillar chapel was destroyed, and some furnishings and treasures were stolen or dispersed. Emergency work was undertaken by the architect Jean Rousseau and the roofer Bruno Vasseur.
Restoration began after the Revolution under Etienne-Hippolyte Godde and continued under Francois-Auguste Cheussey from 1821. Cheussey commissioned Theophile Caudron and Aime and Louis Duthoit to restore damaged sculpture, but resigned in 1848 after criticism of his methods. Eugene Viollet-le-Duc directed a controversial restoration from 1849 to 1874. He sought to recover a medieval appearance, while also introducing features not demonstrably present in the medieval building, including the gallery joining the west towers and additional Gothic-style sculpture. Notre-Dame d’Amiens was designated a French historic monument in 1862.
War, conservation, and heritage status
During the First World War, sandbag coffering protected the portals in 1915. Bombardment in 1918 damaged a buttress, the south choir aisle vault, paving, the triforium, organ bellows, a chapel vault, and a choir flying buttress. The organ and stained glass were removed, but many stored windows were destroyed in a Paris fire in 1920.
The cathedral escaped destruction during the German bombardments of 1940 and the Allied bombardments of 1944, although surrounding buildings were heavily damaged. Sandbags again protected the portals and choir stalls. A major restoration campaign took place from 1973 to 1980 under Andre Sallez and Alain Gigot. Since 1994, photonic and laser cleaning have been used to remove grime and reveal surviving traces of medieval polychromy. Exterior restoration continued into the twenty-first century.
Notre-Dame d’Amiens was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981 and again in 1998 as part of the French section of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela. Restoration of the west facade was completed in 2001, while further work was still continuing in 2019. In 2018, pastoral responsibility for the cathedral and its parish was entrusted to the Community of Saint-Martin.
Remains
Overall form and construction
Notre-Dame d’Amiens is a Latin-cross building oriented liturgically from east to west, with its axis inclined about 23 degrees south. It covers approximately 7,700 square metres and has an interior volume of about 200,000 cubic metres. The exterior measures 145 metres in length, while the interior measures 133.50 metres. The main vault rises 42.30 metres, the roof ridge reaches 56 metres, and the spire rises to 112.70 metres.
The nave is 54 metres long. Its central vessel is 14.60 metres wide, its aisles are 8.65 metres wide, and the nave with its aisles measures 32 metres across. The transept is 70 metres long externally and 62 metres internally. The main structure is built chiefly from white cut chalk from the Turonian or Coniacian formations. Harder quartzite sandstone forms the foundations, where it resists ground moisture. Much of the stone came from Picquigny, Croissy, Domelier, and Bonneleau, and was carried by boat along the Somme. Nineteenth-century repairs to the upper facade used Lutetian limestone, while Belgian blue stone was used for the balustrade and parvis steps.
West facade and towers
Portals and sculpture
The west facade is a symmetrical harmonic facade with three deep porches corresponding to the nave and aisles. It has three principal elevations, two towers, a Gallery of Kings, a rose window, and a later Bellringers’ or Musicians’ Gallery. Four large buttresses divide and stabilize the facade, and their stepped retreats carry prominent pinnacles.
The central Portal of the Last Judgment, also called the Portal of the Beau Dieu, has a tympanum arranged in three registers. The lowest shows the resurrection of the dead and Saint Michael weighing souls. The middle separates the damned from the saved, while the upper register presents Christ in judgment with the Virgin, Saint John, and angels carrying the instruments of the Passion. On the central dividing pier, the Beau Dieu represents Christ teaching and blessing, holding a closed book while standing on a dragon and a lion. The jambs contain the Twelve Apostles and major prophets, with some identifications uncertain because their attributes were lost. Polylobed medallions below show vices and virtues.
Firmin and the Virgin portals
The north-west portal is dedicated to Firmin the Martyr. Its tympanum concerns the discovery of his body, while its jambs contain locally venerated saints and bishops, including Honore, Fuscien, Victoric, Ulphe, Firmin the Confessor, Domice, Sauve, Gentien, Ache, and Acheul. Quatrefoil medallions in the lower zone form an agricultural calendar that joins zodiac signs to seasonal rural work. This is known as the Picard Calendar or Zodiac of Amiens.
The south-west Portal of the Mother of God is dedicated to the Virgin. Its tympanum depicts her ancestors, death and Assumption, and Coronation. The trumeau statue shows the Virgin overcoming evil. The jambs portray the Annunciation, Visitation, Presentation in the Temple, the Queen of Sheba, Solomon, Herod, and the Magi. Lower reliefs include episodes from Genesis, the life of Christ, and the histories of Solomon and Herod.
Galleries and towers
The lower service gallery above the west portals dates from about 1235 and is commonly called the triforium, a gallery or arcade above the main arches. It is accessible and connected with the tower interiors. Above it, the Gallery of Kings contains twenty-two statues of uncertain identity, probably associated either with the kings of Judah or with French kings. The central eight figures are about 3.75 metres high and stand approximately 30 metres above the ground. The west rose window was rebuilt in the sixteenth century in Flamboyant Gothic style. A nineteenth-century Bellringers’ Gallery joins the towers above it and is backed by the Chamber of Musicians.
The towers are rectangular or barlong rather than square and are unequal in height. Each contains a small quadrangular stair turret with a spiral stair. The north tower is about 68.19 metres high and the south tower about 61.70 metres. The south tower has a sundial and an angel statue. The north tower is supported by the richly decorated Beau Pilier, whose nine fourteenth-century statues represent the Virgin, John the Baptist, Firmin, Charles V, his sons, Cardinal Jean de La Grange, Bureau de La Riviere, and Jean de Vienne.
Nave, transept, and structural supports
The nave has six rectangular bays with quadripartite barlong vaults, while its aisles have square bays. Its three-part elevation consists of large arcades, a blind triforium, and a clerestory, the upper window zone of the church. Round arcade piers are surrounded by four engaged colonnettes that rise toward the vaults. The nave represents mature, or Classical, Gothic. Flamboyant Gothic appears in the west and transept rose windows, the upper north tower, the Beau Pilier, parts of the choir enclosure, and the choir stalls.
The nave flying buttresses were built around 1230 in two levels. A flying buttress is an exterior arch that transfers the outward thrust of a vault to a separate pier, allowing thinner walls and larger glazed openings. The upper channels carry rainwater toward gargoyles, which function as outlets. Choir buttresses built around 1260 are single-level structures with two flights, while additional buttresses were added in the fifteenth century after the earlier system proved insufficient.
The transept has three bays and an aisle on each side of both arms. Each arm has arcades, a triforium, and a clerestory arranged in three levels, together with a large rose window. Four massive piers support the crossing, which is covered by a star vault. The south facade rises nearly 60 metres and contains the Saint-Honore, or Golden Virgin, Portal. Its tympanum presents the life of Saint Honore, including his consecration, miracles, the procession of his relics, and Christ’s Crucifixion. The original thirteenth-century Golden Virgin, about 2.30 metres high, was moved indoors in 1980 and replaced outside by a cast.
The north transept facade is more restrained and contains the Portal of Firmin the Confessor. Its tympanum is occupied by a small window rather than sculpture. Above it, two levels of glazing surround a large Rayonnant rose window reinforced externally by three stone arches in an inverted five-pointed-star design. The north transept also contains four Flamboyant stone niches showing Christ and the merchants in the four divisions of the Temple of Jerusalem. Other reliefs depict the legend of Saint James the Great and the magician Hermogenes, with a partly erased inscription.
Choir, chapels, and enclosure
Choir and eastern chapels
The choir has four rectangular bays, double aisles, and a seven-sided apse. Its ambulatory, a passage around the choir or apse, is double around the rectangular choir and single around the apse. It opens onto radiating chapels, including the larger axial chapel. Unlike the nave, the choir’s triforium is open, and its high windows have six lancets rather than four.
The chevet, the eastern end of the church including the apse, ambulatory, and radiating chapels, has three levels of windows, massive buttresses, open double-flight flying buttresses, gables, pinnacles, gargoyles, and statues. Its radiating chapels have narrow windows nearly fifteen metres high. The axial chapel has seven windows separated by six buttresses, while the other chapels have two or three. The radiating chapels include Notre-Dame of Pity, Saint Quentin, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Theudosia, Notre-Dame Drapiere or the Little Parish chapel, the Sacred Heart, Saint Francis of Assisi, and Saint Eloi. Their windows generally have two lancets and a trefoil, while the axial chapel is 15.25 metres deep.
The axial Notre-Dame Drapiere chapel resembles the contemporary Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. It contains the tombs of Bishop Simon de Gonçans and canon Thomas of Savoy, whose fourteenth-century monuments rest on bases decorated with mourning figures. The Chapel of Saint Theudosia was remodeled in 1853 after Bishop Antoine de Salinis brought relics attributed to Aurelia Theudosia from Rome. The Duthoit brothers made its neo-Gothic shrine and altar, while its nineteenth-century windows depict Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie, Pope Pius IX, and Salinis.
Choir screen and stalls
A Baroque wrought-iron grille encloses the choir. Jean Veyren made it between 1755 and 1768 from designs by Michel-Ange Slodtz. It replaced the medieval rood screen and much of the early sixteenth-century stone choir enclosure. Surviving sections of that earlier enclosure contain polychrome scenes from the lives and relic traditions of Firmin and John the Baptist. The southern portion shows Firmin’s arrival, preaching, baptism, arrest, execution, rediscovery, exhumation, and translation. The northern portion depicts John’s birth, preaching, baptism of Christ, confrontation with Herod, imprisonment, execution, and the history of his relics.
The choir stalls were made from blond oak between 1508 and 1519 by Arnould Boulin, Antoine Avernier, and Alexandre Huet. Of the original 120 stalls, 110 survive, including 62 high and 48 low stalls. More than 4,000 carved figures decorate them, and the parts were joined with mortise-and-tenon joints rather than nails, screws, or bolts. Their canopies rise about 13.50 metres, and the two principal seats were reserved for the king and the dean. The carvings show biblical narratives, the life of the Virgin, trades and daily life in Picardy, pilgrims, clergy, artisans, animals, and fantastic creatures. About 2,200 fleurs-de-lis decorate the backs. Removed during the Revolution, they were recreated by Leon Lamotte between 1949 and 1952.
Sanctuary and ambulatory monuments
The eighteenth-century Baroque sanctuary contains a main altar and the Gloire Eucharistique, designed by Pierre-Joseph Christophle and executed by Jean-Baptiste Dupuis. Installed in the mid-eighteenth century, it combines gilded sculpture, clouds, rays, angels, a Eucharistic dove, and statues of the Virgin and Saint John in a composition more than fifteen metres high.
The ambulatory contains the mausoleum of Guilain Lucas by Nicolas Blasset, with the Weeping Angel leaning on a clepsydra and a skull. Other monuments include the tomb of Gerard de Conchy, the heart monument of Charles de Vitry, the tomb of Jean de Sachy and Marie de Revelois, and the monument of Antoine de Baillon. In the Chapel of Saint Eloi, eight sixteenth-century paintings of Sibyls commissioned by Adrien de Henencourt in 1506 were restored in 1853 and 1977. The chapel also provides access toward the Chapel of the Maccabees and the treasury.
Nave chapels and devotional furnishings
The eleven lateral chapels occupy the spaces between the nave buttresses. They include the former Saint Agnes or Saint Bridget chapel, the former Saint Louis or Notre-Dame de la Paix chapel, the Bakers’ and Pastrycooks’ chapel of Saint Honore, the former Saint Michael or Saint Crispin chapel, the former Saint John the Evangelist chapel, the former Saint John the Baptist or Savior chapel, Saint Christopher, Notre-Dame of Good Help, Notre-Dame of Foy or the Annunciation, the Assumption or former Saint Nicholas chapel, and Saint Stephen or former Saint Lawrence chapel.
The chapels contain works by Nicolas Blasset, Jean-Baptiste Dupuis, Jacques-Firmin Vimeux, Pierre-Joseph Christophle, Louis Duthoit, and other artists. These include the marble Annunciation in Notre-Dame of Foy, the Assumption in the former Saint Nicholas chapel, and statues and altarpieces of Saint Stephen and Saint Margaret. The Saint-Sauve crucifix is a polychrome and gilded oak sculpture about 2.70 metres high and 2.46 metres wide. Restoration research dates it to the second quarter of the thirteenth century, and it contains two relics of the True Cross.
On the north side of the nave stands a Baroque pulpit installed in 1773 by Jean-Baptiste Dupuis and Pierre-Joseph Christophle. It is painted and gilded, supported by personifications of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and surmounted by an angel holding a Gospel and pointing upward. At the entrance to the nave, bronze effigies of Bishops Evrard de Fouilloy and Geoffroy d’Eu were cast in single pieces during the first half of the thirteenth century. Each is supported by six lions. Evrard’s effigy includes priests, angels, and creatures symbolizing evil, while Geoffroy’s includes comparable demonic figures.
Roof, spire, pavement, and glazing
The roof is covered with nailed slate and has a lead crest. Dendrochronology dates the choir roof structure to about 1288 and the nave and transept structures to about 1311. The light framework uses trusses spaced roughly 3.75 metres apart, and much of the roofing was renewed between 1980 and 2007.
The surviving spire has an oak framework covered with gilded lead. Built between 1528 and 1533, it weighs about 500 tonnes and used approximately 71 tonnes of lead. Lead statues of Christ, Saint Paul, Firmin, John the Evangelist, the Virgin and Child, John the Baptist, James the Great, and Peter decorate it, together with gargoyles, chimerae, fleurs-de-lis, and commemorative lead plaques. Gargoyles discharge rainwater, while chimera statues are decorative monsters placed on balustrades and buttresses. Groups of musician kings appear around the Chamber of Musicians and above the buttresses of the axial chapel.
The nave pavement includes varied geometric designs and an octagonal labyrinth in the fifth bay. Its course is approximately 234 metres long. Medieval pilgrims followed the black line on their knees as a penitential or devotional journey. The central stone, dated 1288, shows a cross oriented to the cardinal directions and the figures of Robert de Luzarches, Thomas and Renaud de Cormont, and Bishop Evrard de Fouilloy. The present stone is a copy, while the original is in the Musee de Picardie.
Only part of the original medieval stained glass survives. Thirteenth-century panels remain in the chapels of Saint Quentin, Saint Theudosia, Saint Francis of Assisi, and Saint Eloi, as well as in the choir chapels. The axial choir window includes the Virgin, angels, and a reference to Bishop Bernard of Abbeville’s offering in 1269. Other windows depict saints, apostles, prophets, and bishops. The north transept rose is Rayonnant, while the south rose, made around 1489 and 1490, is Flamboyant and includes angels. The west rose is also Flamboyant and was restored in 1991. Twentieth-century glazing includes Art Deco windows made by Jean Gaudin in 1932 and 1933 after designs by Jacques Le Breton.
Organ, bells, treasury, and associated buildings
Organ and bells
An organ existed by the fifteenth century. The surviving Flamboyant wooden gallery relates to an instrument installed between 1442 and 1449. The present case and pipes include sixteenth-century fabric and later additions. The organ was rebuilt or restored by Pierre Le Pescheur, Charles Dallery, John Abbey, Aristide Cavaille-Coll, Edmond Alexandre Roethinger, and Charles Acker. It was removed during the bombardments of 1918 and reinstalled in 1936.
The cathedral has nine bells. The north tower contains the 1736 bourdon Marie, weighing about 4.5 tonnes, and Firmine-Mathilde, cast in 1903 and weighing about 3.6 tonnes. The south tower contains four smaller swinging bells, including a 1609 bell decorated with Saint Martin, John the Baptist, and impressions of sage leaves from casting, together with three bells cast in 1833. Fixed clock bells include an hour bell from 1546 and quarter- and half-hour bells cast in 1588.
Treasury and relics
The treasury contains the surviving frontal and upper jaw attributed to the skull of John the Baptist, kept in a reliquary near the sacristy, as well as a separate presumed cranial fragment displayed in the north transept. The original reliquary was destroyed during the Revolution. A reconstruction made in 1876 by Placide Poussielgue-Rusand incorporates original rock crystal.
Other associated relics include those of Firmin the Martyr, Firmin the Confessor, Honore, Domice, Ulphe, Theudosia, and Antoine Daveluy. The treasury was dispersed in 1793 and later reconstituted through donations and deposits. Its notable objects include the early thirteenth-century Paraclet Cross, the Paraclet Crown Reliquary, the Paraclet Vase Reliquary, the shrine of Saint Firmin, the arm reliquary of Saint Christopher, and the fourteenth-century shrine of Saint Fursy. Several of these objects originated at other religious institutions before being transferred to Amiens.
Former chapter room and precinct buildings
The former chapter room, now the Chapel of the Maccabees, stands south of the choir and contains the sacristy and treasury. It has a ship-shaped wooden vault and an early fifteenth-century Flamboyant wooden gallery. North of the choir, the nineteenth-century Chapel of the Catechisms was built by Viollet-le-Duc. The former episcopal palace and other canonical buildings once formed part of the cathedral precinct.
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