11 juin 2007
Cathedral Saint-Etienne of Bourges
Six Cathedrals in France have as a Saint-Etienne owner:
Saint-Etienne cathedral of Auxerre, of Bourges, of Cahors, of Limoges, of Metz and Toulouse.
I would like just to specify, above all, which it is very difficult to find of the infos on Bourges. It is however one of the most important cathedrals of France. It is as if work were to only be done, or although information which it contains were not to be known. Ca makes me think of Notre-Dame of the spine in another style…
In 1195, Henri de Sully, archbishop of Bourges, make a donation in the chapter of the cathedral of Bourges.
This donation
will be the starting point of the construction of a new cathedral,
intended to replace the Romance cathedral, considered to be too small,
dating from the XI ème and XII7me
centuries, of which we do not know large thing. One knows only that
there was on the site a center of Christian worship since the III ème
century, at the time where the Roman city of Avaricum sheltered the
first Christian community of Gaule. Four buildings followed one another
on the place of the current cathedral: monumental crypts were set up by
Ursin saint with the III ème century, holy Palais, archbishop with the IV ème century, and Raoul de Turenne, archbishop with the IX ème
century. Gozlin, archbishop of royal blood (he was the brother of
Robert II the Piles), was the manufacturer of the first Romance
cathedral, at the beginning of the XI ème century.
Bourges, city royal since 1100, was located at the time with the southern limit of the royal field, with a few miles of Aquitaine, English possession. Besides the archbishop of Bourges had the title of Primacy of Aquitaine and its authority, often disputed, extended to Bordeaux.
This new
cathedral is the first Gothic building built in the south of the Loire,
and it appeared of great importance as well for the prestige of king de
France, as for that of the archbishop.
Figurehead of the capétien field vis-a-vis the South of France, the Saint-Etienne cathedral of Bourges was to be single in its design. It was thus decided to construct a building of great scale, comparable with Notre-Dame of Paris, and to innovate.
With this
intention, it was necessary to build beyond the old Gallo-Roman
enclosing wall on which had rested the Romance chorus and to overflow
in the ditches. The difference in level required the construction of a
base which anticipates the plan of the bedside exactly. It is the low
church which one wrongly calls the crypt.
Construction was undertaken since 1195, and in 1214 about half of the building (with a little more of the current chorus) was completed.
The plan of the new cathedral is simple, but harmonious. It is about the shape of basilica with vaults which surround the nave. What will make the new building remarkable, they are the prospect for the side walls and the unit of interior space. At the beginning, the archbishop Henri de Sully, seems to have taken as a starting point the the plan of Notre-Dame of Paris. But, he dies in 1199.
Its successor the archbishop Guillaume de Dangeon, former abbot
cistercian, takes a significant part in the development of the building
site and the definition of the iconographic program. The death of
Guillaume in 1209, soon followed its canonization, involves an surge of
gifts on behalf of faithful and pilgrims.
After an
interruption of ten years, the second construction campaign (carcass
work heavy castings of the nave and Western frontage) starts in 1225
and will continue until 1230. On this date the carcass work heavy
castings are finished.
Then, work of the frontage was carried out with the idle. In 1313, it was necessary to support the southern tower, in which cracks had appeared, by establishing enormous pillar-butting. It forever be possible, because of this brittleness, to establish to with it bells, from where its name of “deaf tower” or “the dumb woman” because it would have been imprudent, appears he, to make sound the bells inside… Other work of consolidation of the frontage was undertaken, and the northern tower was still unfinished at the time of the dedication of the cathedral on May 13, 1324.
Architects which succeeded the first Master of Bourges (which one is unaware of the name) knew to preserve the coherence and the apparent simplicity of the program, the absence of transept contributing to the effect of unit of space.
When one wanted to complete the northern tower, at the end of the XV ème century, this one collapsed, in 1506, and was rebuilt in harmony with the Gothic frontage although it comprises certain decorative elements Renaissance. It was called it “turn of butter”, because it was partly financed by the sums paid by the faithful ones and which were worth to them to be exempted of fast during the Lent.
The belfry contains 7 large bells: Louise, Célèstine, Martine, Daniel-Mathilde, Marie-Thérèse, Henri, Guillaume-Etienne or Large-Guillaume.
At the time of
the wars of religion, in 1562, Bourges having been taken by the
Protestants, the sculptures of the cathedral were seriously damaged.
The Western face
is broadest of the Gothic buildings of France (more than 40 m), with
five gates, all with double door, correspondents exactly with the five
naves, whose sculptures are particularly splendid. The central gate
offers to the glance the splendid scene of the last judgement.
The cathedral of
Bourges surprises as well by its absence of transept as by its double
side. This characteristic offers a continuous longitudinal prospect
that the traditional cut of a transept breaks elsewhere. The transverse
section offers a pyramidal profile. This original provision discovers a
unified interior volume.
The stained glasses of the cathedral of Bourges are for a share of the XIII ème century; to the XVI ème century, one added new stained glasses, carried out by the artist berruyer Jean Lecuyer. (Wikipédia)
Study symbolic system of the cathedral Saint -Etienne of Bourges
Measurements on the ground give:
121,60 meters length, 40,50 meters of width, 37,15 meters height.
Esoteric metrology gives to dimensions known as pythagoricians:
399 feet (overall length), 333 feet (length of the nave), 133 feet (interior width). The foot is clunisien (0,3048 M)
The cut in transversal presents a équilateral triangle of 133 feet and 2 inches on side and 123 feet 4 inches height.
Us here in the tetraktys of Pythagore.
The absence of transept gives to the nave an impressive length 13 spans, uninterrupted, 3 levels in height (large arcades, vitraillé triforium, and high windows), a radiating chorus with 5 vaults. http://medieval.mrugala.net/Roman/Bourges/Bourges.html
The site of the cathedral was used since strong a long time. The Gallic ones were already installed there. The aevnsa quotes a black virgin in Bourges. No account, no trace however.
Three large earth currents cross under the left side of the cathedral, one moving towards Saint Jacques of compostelle, another towards the Mount Holy Odile and Srasbourg and another towards Marseilles. (the side aisles north and south, built between 1225 and 1250, follow two of these currents)
In the crypt, the
tellurism is very powerful, especially in the northern part. I remember
to have visited it, a long time ago, with Henri Blanquart. It seems to
to me that while entering the crypt by the left, the sculptures teach
the way with the visitors: a centaur for example, aims with its arc the
place where the pélerin must go to feel and use as well as possible the
forces of the building…
There is normally a “small crypt” under the chorus, which is not “the
large crypt”, badly named since on the level of the ground and opened
by the stained glasses on outside.
The palate Jacques Heart
“A valiant heart nothing impossible…”
The palate is in the old town of Bourges.
It is made mention, under the palate, of an entry of an underground grid leading to the “room of holy water”. The other entries would be located under the Lallemand hotel and in the crypt of the cathedral…
Jacques Heart:
French businessman, it sent his vessels in almost all the parts of
the world then known, and acquired in little time the most considerable
fortune of Europe. He tied trade with the countries of Raising, Spain,
Italy, and establishes counters in Avignon, Lyon, Limoges, Rouen, Paris
and Bruges. Its activities were multiple (banks, changes, mines,)
Charles VII appointed it his banker (treasurer of its saving), the ennoblit. He entrusted several diplomatic missions to him, and had more once recourse to his purse: in 1448, Jacques Cœur lent 200.000 ecus of gold to him. He fills of the official loads (Master of the currencies in 1436, banker of the king in 1439, adviser of the king in 1442) and contributed to the cleansing of the currencies.
He made build a sumptuous palate in Bourges, as well as colleges in Paris, Montpellier and Bourges.
Jacques Heart being very jalousé for his great fortune, his enemies
and his envieux managed to lose it. After the death of Agnes Sorel who
protected it, Charles forgot his services and gave up it with the greed
of the courtiers, who shared his skins.
Shown imaginary crimes, it is stopped for embezzlement and is condemned to death. It escapes in 1454, after 3 years of prison and is run away in Rome, the pope Calixte III giving him the command of part of the fleet which it had armed against the Turks. Jacques Cœur falls sick during the countryside, and dies in Chio, in 1456.
Its memory was rehabilitated by Louis XI. (Wikipédia)
Jacques Cœur had set up an important organization for the construction of his palate:
The control of work is ensured by two “men him”, Pierre Jobert and Jacquelin Collet, helped from 1447 of Guillot Trépan.
The control
of work is carried out by people of experiment who had worked with the
construction of the palate of the duke Jean de Berry. It is in the
mobility of Beauneuveu and Dammartin that this building site is held,
but the right man for the job is Colin the Picardy one, “Master of
works of the king”, it lives in Bourges since 1413.
For the frames, very important, the person in charge names Jean of Blois.
Wood will come from the forest of Blois, but also from Aubigny, whereas the stones, in a traditional way in Bourges come from Vallenay, Saint Florent and of course of Charly for the carved stones.
For the decoration part, sculpture or héraldite, there is not a doubt that Jacques Coeur took part in certain choices. http://jacques-coeur.bourges.net/le%20palais%20Jacques%20Coeur.htm
Many works were
published on the symbolic system alchemist of the palate, in particular
the book of Fulcanelli. I do not know large thing of large-work. I let
myself carry by my felt for the various photographs which I could take.
I remembered vaguely that the snail belonged to the symbols, and that
the palate had a sculpture of an alchemist… I believe that I had it…