Amiens (Somme) - Intérieur de la Cathédrale - Le Choeur
The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale published by B.F. and printed by Catala Frères of Paris.
Amiens
Amiens is the chief city of Picardy, in the valley of the River Somme, and is just over 100 km north of Paris.
Amiens Cathedral
The Gothic Cathedral of our Lady of Amiens is the tallest complete cathedral in France, with the greatest interior volume (estimated at 200,000 cubic metres).
According to this estimate, the cathedral could comfortably accommodate well over sixty billion marbles. (Yes, billion, not million!) This number of marbles, laid end to end, would produce a line 900,000 km long - it would encircle the earth 22 times, or stretch to the moon and back nearly two and a half times. It's a big building!
The vaults of the nave are 42.3 metres high, and the curved central entrance arch is over 50 feet (15.24 m) high.
Work on the cathedral started in 1220 and was mostly finished by 1266. The floors include a number of designs, including a swastika. The labyrinth was installed in 1288.
The cathedral contains what is alleged to be the head of St. John the Baptist, a relic brought back from Constantinople.
You can find out what happened to one of his fingers by searching for the tag 65SJD88. There are bits of him all over the place! In fact the Great Mosque in Damascus also claims to hold the head of John the Baptist.
The West Front of the Cathedral
The west front of the cathedral was built between 1220 and 1236. It shows an unusual degree of artistic unity. Its lower tier with 3 vast deep porches is capped with a gallery of larger than life-size kings which stretches across the entire façade beneath the rose window.
The immense rose window has a diameter of 43 feet (13 m).
Above the rose window is an open arcade - the Galerie des Sonneurs. A sonneur is a player of traditional music, primarily in Brittany, typically playing a clarinet or the Breton bagpipe.
John Buchan
In the 1919 book Mr. Standfast by John Buchan (1875-1940), the character Richard Hannay describes the cathedral as being:
"The noblest church that the
hand of man ever built for God".
Amiens (Somme) - Intérieur de la Cathédrale - Le Choeur
The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale published by B.F. and printed by Catala Frères of Paris.
Amiens
Amiens is the chief city of Picardy, in the valley of the River Somme, and is just over 100 km north of Paris.
Amiens Cathedral
The Gothic Cathedral of our Lady of Amiens is the tallest complete cathedral in France, with the greatest interior volume (estimated at 200,000 cubic metres).
According to this estimate, the cathedral could comfortably accommodate well over sixty billion marbles. (Yes, billion, not million!) This number of marbles, laid end to end, would produce a line 900,000 km long - it would encircle the earth 22 times, or stretch to the moon and back nearly two and a half times. It's a big building!
The vaults of the nave are 42.3 metres high, and the curved central entrance arch is over 50 feet (15.24 m) high.
Work on the cathedral started in 1220 and was mostly finished by 1266. The floors include a number of designs, including a swastika. The labyrinth was installed in 1288.
The cathedral contains what is alleged to be the head of St. John the Baptist, a relic brought back from Constantinople.
You can find out what happened to one of his fingers by searching for the tag 65SJD88. There are bits of him all over the place! In fact the Great Mosque in Damascus also claims to hold the head of John the Baptist.
The West Front of the Cathedral
The west front of the cathedral was built between 1220 and 1236. It shows an unusual degree of artistic unity. Its lower tier with 3 vast deep porches is capped with a gallery of larger than life-size kings which stretches across the entire façade beneath the rose window.
The immense rose window has a diameter of 43 feet (13 m).
Above the rose window is an open arcade - the Galerie des Sonneurs. A sonneur is a player of traditional music, primarily in Brittany, typically playing a clarinet or the Breton bagpipe.
John Buchan
In the 1919 book Mr. Standfast by John Buchan (1875-1940), the character Richard Hannay describes the cathedral as being:
"The noblest church that the
hand of man ever built for God".