Velay roman: cathédrale Notre-Dame du Puy-en-Velay
During my last day of shooting in Le Puy-en-Velay (March 9, 2023), after I completed what I had meant to photograph in the cloister, I went into the cathedral next door for a couple of additional shots.
The Notre-Dame cathedral of Le Puy is one of the very rare almost entirely Romanesque cathedral remaining in France. Many others have been seriously remodeled during the Gothic age or later, and while Le Puy was not immune to such “improvements”, in particular in the 19th century, those were carried out in the spirit of the Romanesque architecture. Far from having come to us unaltered (alas!), the cathedral presents at least a Romanesque appearance throughout, even though not all its parts are genuinely Mediæval.
This is the Saint John porch, which opens into the northern arm of the transept. It was built in the late 1100s. It is a part of the cathedral that is rarely shown, and even more rarely discussed. Its elongated tympanum showed, obviously, Christ and two angels at the top, and the Last Supper below. Both sculptures have been severely hacked away during the French Revolution.
The part that remains 100 percent genuine and untouched is the door: not only are the ironworks pure 12th century, but the door panels are wood covered with... vellum parchment! Hence the unusual and stunning color.
The portal is recessed under a deep arch that supports clerical lodgings above (among which the apartment of the Dean of Canons I have showed a few days ago). Thus, it was always well protected from the elements, which is certainly the main reason why that splendid door came to us almost unscathed after almost 800 years.
Velay roman: cathédrale Notre-Dame du Puy-en-Velay
During my last day of shooting in Le Puy-en-Velay (March 9, 2023), after I completed what I had meant to photograph in the cloister, I went into the cathedral next door for a couple of additional shots.
The Notre-Dame cathedral of Le Puy is one of the very rare almost entirely Romanesque cathedral remaining in France. Many others have been seriously remodeled during the Gothic age or later, and while Le Puy was not immune to such “improvements”, in particular in the 19th century, those were carried out in the spirit of the Romanesque architecture. Far from having come to us unaltered (alas!), the cathedral presents at least a Romanesque appearance throughout, even though not all its parts are genuinely Mediæval.
This is the Saint John porch, which opens into the northern arm of the transept. It was built in the late 1100s. It is a part of the cathedral that is rarely shown, and even more rarely discussed. Its elongated tympanum showed, obviously, Christ and two angels at the top, and the Last Supper below. Both sculptures have been severely hacked away during the French Revolution.
The part that remains 100 percent genuine and untouched is the door: not only are the ironworks pure 12th century, but the door panels are wood covered with... vellum parchment! Hence the unusual and stunning color.
The portal is recessed under a deep arch that supports clerical lodgings above (among which the apartment of the Dean of Canons I have showed a few days ago). Thus, it was always well protected from the elements, which is certainly the main reason why that splendid door came to us almost unscathed after almost 800 years.