Notre-Dame de Reims (; French: [nɔtʁə dam də ʁɛ̃s] ; meaning "Our Lady of Reims"), known in English as Reims Cathedral (also spelt Rheims Cathedral), is a Catholic cathedral in the French city of the same name, the seat of the Archdiocese of Reims. The cathedral was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and was the traditional location for the coronation of the kings of France. The cathedral is considered to be one of the most important works of Gothic architecture. A major tourist destination, it receives about a million visitors annually. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.
The cathedral is thought to have been founded by the bishop Nicasius in the early 5th century. Clovis was baptized a Christian here by Saint Remigius, the bishop of Reims, about a century later. He was the first Frankish king to receive this sacrament. Construction of the present cathedral began in the 13th century and concluded in the 14th century. A prominent example of High Gothic architecture, it was built to replace an earlier church destroyed by fire in 1210. Although little damaged during the French Revolution, the present cathedral saw extensive restoration in the 19th century. It was severely damaged during World War I and was again restored in the 20th century.
Since the 1905 law on the separation of Church and state, the cathedral has been owned by the French state, while the Catholic Church has an agreement for its exclusive use. The French state pays for its restoration and upkeep.
History
5th century – the Merovingian Cathedral
The settlement of a tribe of Gauls called the Remes, named Durocortorum, had been recorded by Julius Caesar in his accounts of the Gallic Wars. During the High Roman Empire, it became the capital of a province extending to the delta of the Rhine, and in the 3rd century A.D. was capital of the Roman province known as Second Belgium. The first Christian church there was founded by the first bishop, Saint Sixtus of Reims between 250 and 300.
At the beginning of the 5th century, in the Merovingian period, the Bishop Nicasius transferred the cathedral its present location, the site formerly occupied by Gallo-Roman bath built by the Emperor Constantine. The new church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, anticipating the decision of the Council of Ephesus in 431 establishing her enhanced status. The new cathedral, with the plan of a square exterior and a circular interior, measured approximately 20 m (66 ft) by 55 m (180 ft). In the 1990s, the Baptistry of this original Merovingian church, directly under the present cathedral, was excavated and fragments of the old structure were brought to light.
Clovis I, the King of the Franks, was baptised there in about 496 A.D. by Saint Remigius (also known as Saint Remi). This was the event that inspired the long tradition of royal coronations at Reims.
9th century – the Carolingian cathedral
In 816, Louis the Pious, the King of the Franks and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, was crowned in Reims by Pope Stephen IV. The coronation and ensuing celebrations revealed the poor condition and inadequate size of the early cathedral. Beginning in about 818, the archbishop Ebbo and the royal architect Rumaud began to build a much larger church from the ground up on the same site, using stone from the old city ramparts.
The work was interrupted in 835, and then resumed under a new archbishop, Hincmar, with the support of Emperor Charles the Bald. The interior of the church was adorned with gilding, mosaics, paintings, sculptures and tapestries. On 18 October 862, in the presence of the Emperor, Hincmar dedicated the new church, which measured 86 m (282 ft) and had two transepts.
At the beginning of the 10th century, an ancient crypt underneath the original church was rediscovered. Under the archbishop Heriveus, the crypt (which had been the initial centre of the previous churches above it) was cleared, renovated, and then rededicated to the sainted bishop Remigius. The cathedral altar is still in the same place, directly over the crypt, where it has been for 15 centuries.
Beginning in 976, the archbishop Adalbero began to enlarge the Carolingian cathedral. The historian Richerus, a pupil of Adalbero, gives a very precise description of the work carried out by the archbishop:
"He completely destroyed the arcades which, extending from the entrance to nearly a quarter of the basilica, up to the top, so that the whole church, embellished, acquired more extent and a more suitable form (...). He decorated the main altar of the golden cross and enveloped it with a resplendent trellis (...). He lit up the same church with windows in which various stories were represented and endowed it with bells roaring like thunder."
The prestige of the Holy Ampulla, the sacred vial filled with myrrh with which French Kings were anointed, the fact that Clovis I had been baptised there, and the political power of the archbishop of Reims led to Reims becoming the regular site of the coronation of the French monarch, a tradition that was established with the coronation of Henry I of France in 1027. All but seven of France's future kings --Hugh Capet, Robert II, Louis VI, John I, Henry IV, Louis XVIII, and Louis Philippe I-- were crowned at Reims.
The cathedral hosted other royal ceremonies as well. On 19 May 1051, Henry I of France and Anne of Kiev were married in the cathedral. While conducting the Council of Reims in 1131, Pope Innocent II anointed and crowned Louis VII, the son of the ruling king Louis VI in the cathedral.
12th century – the Early Gothic cathedral
By the 12th century, the Carolingian cathedral was considered too small for the ambitions of the Archbishop, Samson of Mauvoisin (1140–1160). He preserved the existing nave and transept but rebuilt and enlarged the two ends of the cathedral. He demolished the west front and adjoining tower in order to build two matching flanking towers, in imitation of the Royal Abbey of Saint Denis outside of Paris, whose choir dedication Samson himself had attended a few years earlier. The new church was longer than the old cathedral, 110 m (360 ft). On the east end, he created a larger choir and a disambulatory and ring of radiating chapels. At the end of the century, the nave and the transept were still of the Carolingian style while the apse and façade were in the Early Gothic style.
13th–14th century – the High Gothic cathedral
On 6 May 1210, the partly Carolingian and partly Early Gothic cathedral was destroyed by fire, allegedly due to "carelessness." One year to the day afterwards, archbishop Aubrey laid the first stone of the new cathedral's chevet. The work on the new cathedral moved with exceptional speed, because Reims was one of the first buildings to use stones and other materials of standardised sizes, so each stone did not have to be cut to measure. In July 1221, the chapel at the east end of the cathedral entered use. In 1230, work began on the west front, indicating that the nave was nearly complete.
In 1233, a long-running dispute between the cathedral chapter and the townsfolk (regarding issues of taxation and legal jurisdiction) boiled over into open revolt. Several clerics were killed or injured during the resulting violence and the entire cathedral chapter fled the city, leaving it under an interdict (effectively banning all public worship and sacraments). Work on the new cathedral was suspended for three years, only resuming in 1236 after the clergy returned to the city and the interdict was lifted following mediation by the king and the pope. Construction then continued more slowly.
In 1241, the members of the Chapter were able to meet in the choir, showing that the vaults of the apse and the five last traverses of the nave on the east, where the stalls were located, were finished, but the nave was not roofed until 1299 (when the French king lifted the tax on lead used for that purpose). Work on the western façade did even not begin until 1252, and the portals were not completed until after 1260. Thereafter work moved from the west to the east, with the completion of the nave; the level of the rose windows was completed between 1275 and 1280. The roof of the nave and upper galleries were finished in 1299. A comparison of the roses of the western façade to the roses of the transepts demonstrates the temporal stylistic progress: the rose windows of the transepts are decorated by bar tracery, but all glass is inside the round frames – that is, a mix between Classic Gothic and High Gothic. In the rose windows of the western façade, however, the glass exceeds the round frames to fill the whole pointed-arched areas available (i.e. Rayonnant, an advanced form of High Gothic).
Unusually, the names of the cathedral's successive architects, succeeding each other until the completion of the cathedral's structural work in 1275, are known. A labyrinth built into floor of the nave at the time of construction or shortly after (similar to examples at Chartres and Amiens) included the names of these four master masons (Jean d'Orbais, Jean-le-Loup, Gaucher of Reims and Bernard de Soissons) and the number of years they worked there, though art historians still disagree over who was responsible for which parts of the building. The labyrinth itself was destroyed in 1779, but its details and inscriptions are known from 18th-century drawings. The clear association here between a labyrinth and master masons adds weight to the argument that such patterns were an allusion to the emerging status of the architect (through their association with the mythical architect Daedalus, who built the Cretan labyrinth of Minos). The cathedral also contains further evidence of the rising status of the architect in the tomb of Hugues Libergier (d. 1268, architect of the now-destroyed Reims church of St-Nicaise). Not only is he given the honour of an engraved slab; he is shown holding a miniature model of his church (an honour formerly reserved for noble donors) and wearing the academic garb befitting an intellectual.
Even after the structural work had been completed in 1275, a lot of work remained to be done. The Gallery of Kings on the west front, and the octagonal upper towers were not finished until the 1460s. Documentary records show the acquisition of land to the west of the site in 1218, suggesting the new cathedral was substantially larger than its predecessors, the lengthening of the nave presumably being an adaptation to afford room for the crowds that attended the coronations.
The towers, 81 m (266 ft) tall, were originally designed to rise 120 m (390 ft). The south tower holds just two great bells; one of them, named "Charlotte" by Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine in 1570, weighs more than 10,000 kg (10 t).
Following the death of the infant King John I, his uncle Philip was hurriedly crowned at Reims, 9 January 1317.
During the Hundred Years' War's Reims campaign the city was under siege by the English from 1359 to 1360, but the siege failed. In 1380, Reims Cathedral was the location of Charles VI's coronation and eight years later Charles called a council at Reims in 1388 to take personal rule from the control of his uncles.
15th–16th century
After Henry V of England defeated Charles VI's army at the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415, most of northern France including Reims fell to the English. They held Reims and the cathedral until 1429, when it was captured by Joan of Arc, allowing the dauphin Charles to be crowned king on 17 July 1429. For her feat – a turning point in the Hundred Years' War – Joan is memorialized at Reims Cathedral with two statues: an equestrian statue outside the church and another within the church.
On 24 July 1481, a fire caused by the negligence of workers covering the high wood-and-lead flèche (spire) that was being constructed over the transept destroyed the part of the spire's framework, the cathedral's central bell tower, and the galleries at the base of the cathedral roof, while dripping molten roofing lead caused further damage. However, recovery was quick with kings Charles VIII and Louis XII making donations to the cathedral's reconstruction. In particular, they granted the cathedral an octroi of the Gabelle salt tax. In gratitude, the new roof was adorned by fleur-de-lis and the royal coat of arms "affixed to the top of the façade". However, this work was suspended before the arrows were completed in 1516. The upper galleries of the nave were completed in 1505. These were so expensive that the remaining planned projects, including a 170-meter-tall (560 ft) bell tower over the transept, spires on the west front and the planned upper towers flanking the transept, were never built.
Following the death of Francis I, Henry II was crowned King of France on 25 July 1547 in Reims Cathedral.
17th–18th century
The 18th century saw the first major reconstruction inside the cathedral. Between 1741 and 1749, the lower windows and the medieval furniture, the principal altar, the choir stalls, and the choir screen were all replaced with furnishings more in keeping with the theological requirements and taste of the era. The sculpture of the portals was also restored.
In 1793, during the French Revolution, the cathedral was closed and briefly turned into a storehouse for grain, and then for a time into a pseudo 'temple of reason'. Most of the remaining furniture and funeral monuments were destroyed, the reliquaries in the treasury melted down for the gold, and the bells melted down to make cannon. Mobs hammered much of the sculpture of the grand portal and the more evident symbols of royalty, such as the fleur-de-lis emblems, and the royal Hand of Justice were burned. However, most of the medieval sculpture survived relatively intact.
19th century
With the restoration of the French monarchy after the downfall of Napoleon, the practice of royal coronations at Reims resumed, but only briefly. The last king of France to be crowned there was Charles X in 1825. His reign was deeply unpopular in Paris, and he was overthrown in the Revolution of 1830 and replaced by a constitutional monarch, Louis Philippe I, who was sworn in at the Parliament in Paris rather than crowned in Reims.
A series of restoration projects were carried out in the later 19th century, focusing first on the gables and statues on the west front (1826–30), and then the upper galleries, windows and towers (1845–60), under Jean-Jacques Arveuf. In 1860 He was replaced by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who modified the gallery of the choir and the apse closer to their original medieval appearance. He was succeeded by two more architects, Eugene Millet and Victor Ruprich-Robert, who took considerable liberties in remaking the galleries of the nave in a more imaginative 13th-century Gothic style. In 1888. they were followed by Denis Darcy and Paul Gout, who followed more closely the historic architecture, particularly in the restoration of the west rose window.
20th century – First World War and restoration
On the outbreak of the First World War, the cathedral was commissioned as a hospital, and troops and arms were removed from its immediate vicinity. On 4 September 1914, the XII Saxon corps arrived at the city and later that day the Imperial German Army began shelling the city. The guns, located 7 km (4.3 mi) away in Les Mesneux, ceased firing when the XII Saxon Corps sent two officers and a city employee to ask them to stop shelling the city.
On 12 September, the occupying German Army decided to place their wounded in the cathedral over the protests of the Abbe Maurice Landrieux, and spread 15,000 bales of straw on the floor of the cathedral for this purpose. The next day French soldiers under General Franchet d'Esperey re-entered the city, but German wounded were left in the cathedral.
Six days later, a shell exploded in the bishop's palace, killing three and injuring 15. On 18 September a prolonged bombardment began and on the 19th shells struck the "forest" of wooden timbers under the lead-covered roof, setting it on fire, and completely destroying the roof. The bells melted, windows were blown out, and the sculpture and parts of the walls were damaged. The lead in the roofing melted and poured through the mouths of the stone gargoyles, damaging, in turn, the adjoining bishop's palace. Images of the cathedral in ruins were shown during the war by the indignant French, accusing the Germans of the deliberate destruction of buildings rich in national and cultural heritage, while German propaganda blamed the deaths of prisoners on the French, who at gunpoint prevented them fleeing the fire. Single shells continued to strike the ruined building for several years, despite repeated pleas by Pope Benedict XV.
At the end of the war, it was proposed to keep the cathedral in its damaged state as a monument to victims of the war, but this idea was finally rejected. A major restoration project began in 1919, led by Henri Deneux, chief architect of the service of French historic monuments. The restoration received major funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, and sometimes made use of modern techniques and materials, including prefabricated reinforced concrete, to strengthen the structure. In the 1920s, the foundations of the earlier church from the Carolingian period were discovered under the cathedral and excavated. The work was completed and the cathedral was reopened in 1938.
Restoration work on the church has continued since 1938, repairing the damage caused by the war and by pollution. In 1955 Georges Saupique made a copy of the Coronation of the Virgin, which can be seen above the cathedral entrance and with Louis Leygue copied many of the other sculptures on the cathedral façade. He also executed a statue of St Thomas for the north tower.
Beginning in 1967, many of the statues from the exterior, such as the smiling angel, were moved to the interior of the Tau Palace for protection, and replaced by copies.
The Franco-German reconciliation was symbolically formalized in July 1962 by French president Charles de Gaulle and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, where, in 1914, the Imperial German Army deliberately shelled the cathedral in order to shake French morale.
The cathedral, former Abbey of Saint-Remi, and the Palace of Tau were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1991.
On his 74th Pastoral Visit, Pope St. John Paul II visited Reims on 26 September 1996 for the 1500th anniversary of the baptism of King Clovis. While there, the Pope prayed in the same chapel where St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle celebrated his first Mass in 1678.
On 8 October 2016, a plaque bearing the names of the 31 kings crowned in Reims was placed in the cathedral in the presence of Archbishop Thierry Jordan and Prince Louis-Alphonse, Duke of Anjou, the main of the three pretenders to the French throne.
Timeline
c. 250–300 – Saint Sixtus of Reims is recorded as the first bishop of Reims
314 – A Cathedral of the Holy Apostles, built by Bishop Bétause, recorded at site of the Church of Saint-Symphorien
420 – Bishop Nicasius builds a new cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, at the present site
496 – Clovis the King of the Franks, is baptised by Bishop Remi
816 – King Louis the Pious is crowned in the cathedral
848 – Construction of new cathedral begins
862 – New cathedral consecrated
1140–1160 – Archbishop Samson rebuilds the west front and the choir
1208 – First stone of new cathedral placed by Archbishop Aubry de Humbert
1241 – Completion of the choir, apse, east part of nave, north portal and most of transept
1252 – Land obtained for the new west front