Reims Cathedral
The kings of France were crowned here for almost six hundred years. The west front is full of sculpture, the smiling angel being the most famous, and the portal tympana are replaced by glass. The cathedral was badly damaged in the First World War and became a symbol of what had been destroyed.
The previous cathedral burned in 1210, and in 1211 the foundation stone of the new one was laid. According to the labyrinth that was once in the floor, Jean d’Orbais was the first master builder, followed by Jean le Loup, Gaucher de Reims and Bernard de Soissons. The choir was finished in the 1240s, and work on the nave and west front continued through the rest of the 13th century and into the 14th. The towers reached their present height only in the 15th century. The cathedral was dedicated to Mary and was the place where the kings of France were anointed and crowned, since according to tradition Clovis had been baptised in Reims around the year 500.
The west front is one of the richest of the Gothic, with several thousand sculptures. Instead of stone panels above the portals, Reims has glass, so that the façade is pierced. Among the figures at the portals is the smiling angel, whose gentle and personal expression was new in sculpture. High up on the façade stands a gallery of kings. Even the inside of the west wall is covered with sculptures in niches. Reims was the first great cathedral where the windows were given tracery, an ornament of slender stone bars dividing the window, a device that spread across Europe. The nave is about 38 metres high.
During the First World War the cathedral was shelled by German artillery, and in September 1914 the roof and the scaffolding caught fire. Pictures of the burning cathedral went around the world. The restoration took decades and was partly paid for by the Rockefeller family. The roof was given a new concrete frame. In 1974 Marc Chagall installed new stained-glass windows in the choir. The cathedral became a World Heritage Site in 1991 together with the archbishop’s palace and the abbey church of Saint-Remi. It is a memorial to French history and to the work for peace after the world wars.