- Sens Cathedral
Sens Cathedral, Cathedral of St. Étienne or
St. Stephen 's Cathedral, Sens ("Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Sens") is aRoman Catholic cathedral inSens ,Bourgogne . One of the earliest Gothic buildings inFrance , it was begun in 1140 and belongs mainly to the 12th century, but was not complete until early in the 16th century. The architecture of its choir influenced, through the architectWilliam of Sens , that of the choir ofCanterbury Cathedral .The building is noted more for its solidity than beauty of proportion or richness of ornamentation. The west front is pierced by three portals; that in the middle has good sculptures, representing the
Parable of the Ten Virgins and the story of St Stephen. The right-hand portal contains twenty-two remarkable statuettes of the prophets, which have suffered considerable injuries. Above this portal rises the stone tower, decorated with armorial bearings and with statues representing the principal benefactors of the church. The bells in thecampanile by which the tower is surmounted enjoyed immense reputation in the Middle Ages; the two which still remain, "La Savinienne" and "La Potentienne", weigh respectively 15.3 tons and 13.8 tons. The left portal is adorned with twobas-relief s, Liberality and Avarice, as well as with the story ofJohn the Baptist . The portal on the north side of the cathedral is one of the finest examples of French 16th-century sculpture; that on the south side is surmounted by magnificent stained-glass windows. Other windows of the 12th to the 16th century are preserved, some of them representing the legend ofThomas Becket ofCanterbury .Among the interior adornments are the tomb of Louis, Dauphin of France (son of
Louis XV ) and his consort,Marie-Josèphe of Saxony , one of the works ofGuillaume Coustou the Younger , andbas-relief s representing scenes from the life of CardinalAntoine Duprat ,chancellor of France andarchbishop of Sens from 1525 to 1535. The mausoleum from which they came was destroyed at theFrench Revolution .The cathedral treasury, one of the richest in antiquities in France, contains a fragment of the
true cross presented byCharlemagne , and the vestments of Thomas Becket. The treasury is now kept at a museum.It was in the cathedral of Sens that St Louis, in 1234, married
Marguerite of Provence , and five years later deposited the crown of thorns.References
*
External links
*
* [http://france-for-visitors.com/images/supersize/sens-cathedral-gothic.jpgPictures of Sens Cathedral]
* [http://www.ebc.f2s.com/tours/sens2002/SensNT_110.jpgPictures of Sens Cathedral]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.