The Largest Cathedral of France
Discover a cathedral twice as big as Notre Dame de Paris, Amiens cathedral.
When you hear of Notre Dame, you probably think of Paris and maybe Quasimodo.
However, there are nearly 100 cathedrals in France, and about 25 are called Notre Dame, French for Our Lady.
Notre Dame de Paris is magnificent, as explained in "Notre Dame, A Story Of Genius, Survival And Wonder."
Yet Amiens' cathedral is twice the size of Paris's and barely gets three percent of the number of visitors!
If you visit Notre Dame of Amiens, you will most likely have the biggest cathedral in France, nearly all to yourself...
We need a two-part story to understand the gigantism of Amiens cathedral.
Making sense of the size of Amiens' cathedral
As the architectural drawings above show, the ridge of Notre Dame's roof would just about fit inside Amiens' cathedral.
While Amiens' cathedral exterior dimensions are not massively different from Paris' Notre Dame, its astonishing interior height means that in terms of volume, it would contain two Notre Dame cathedrals...
Plain English translation:
If you pumped air inside both cathedrals as you would in a tire, Amiens' cathedral would take twice the amount as Paris' cathedral.
That's how vast the interior space is.
Only one medieval cathedral's interior reaches higher—Beauvais—but it did collapse and is unfinished.
So, in terms of cathedrals that have been completed, Amiens is the largest cathedral in France.
It is not just the size that is impressive, but also the fact that a small city of only 15,000 inhabitants built the largest cathedral in France.
Building the largest cathedral at a record speed
The stonework was completed in 50 years—most of it was done in about 25 years.
From start to finish, it only took 85 years to build the Notre Dame of Amiens cathedral.
To understand the scale of the achievement, let's compare like for like, that is 'Gothic' style cathedrals:
- Milan's cathedral—about twice as big—needed five centuries of construction.
- Cologne's cathedral—twice as big—took 630 years of construction.
- Washington DC’s National Cathedral took 83 years to construct.
National Cathedral and Amiens are somewhat similar in size: Washington’s exterior dimensions are wider, while Amiens's vaults are 37 feet higher.
This is not a competition. It is about contemplating the ratio of ambition: a small city—15,000 inhabitants—who decide to build the largest cathedral of its time.
Washington DC's cathedral was built in the 20th century using modern construction techniques in the capital of the wealthiest nation on Earth.
Today's equivalent would be if Nantucket built a cathedral as big as Washington's.
But doing it without steel beams, concrete, and modern machinery.
Now that the ambition and speed behind Amiens' cathedral start to make sense, it is time to discuss the geniuses who designed that monument.
Amiens' architects are honored inside the cathedral
Only a handful of labyrinths remain in French cathedrals. Explaining why there are labyrinths inside cathedrals is for another story.
Let us admire what the center of Amiens' labyrinth depicts:
- Evrard, the bishop.
- Louis VIII, the King of France.
- Master Robert de Luzarches, the genius architect who designed the cathedral.
- Master Thomas de Cormont.
- Master Renaud de Cormont, Thomas' son.
Amiens' architects share space in the cathedral’s center with the King and the Bishop, which is quite an honor.
Who is Robert de Luzarches, the architect of Amiens' cathedral?
Unfortunately, we know close to nothing about Robert de Luzarches.
Yet, the evidence of his genius is in front of one's eyes: how unified the design of Amiens' cathedral is, as if drawn by one hand.
This results from its construction speed and the first architect's imaginative powers.
Robert de Luzarches conceived the cathedral's design, scale, and foundations, and his two colleagues completed his dream.
One wonders why anyone would spit on the graves and names of the architects who built Amiens and the other great cathedrals.
Without realizing it, whenever someone says 'Gothic,’ it is precisely what they do.
Gothic is an insult
Repeating the word slanders medieval architects as if they were Goth barbarians who built monuments during a Dark Age of ignorance.
Visit Amiens cathedral and judge for yourself if it is dark and looks like it was built by ignorant barbarians.
Drum roll:
Imhotep, the architect of the first Egyptian pyramid, was so revered that he eventually became a god.
We do not need to go that far with the cathedral architects.
Still, one may add Robert de Luzarches to the list that includes Iktinos and Kallikrates—architects of the Parthenon—and Michelangelo—architects of the Vatican's dome.
That of geniuses.
Blue gold - how a small city could afford a gigantic monument
How blue became the color of the Virgin Mary and France itself is for another story.
In the 1200s, blue was a highly sought-after and expensive color.
Amiens traded in this valuable blue dye, and thanks to that 'blue gold'’ it could afford to build the largest cathedral of its time.
Colored statues
We'll discuss stained glass windows and statues in the second part of the story, but let us not forget that most of Amiens' cathedral statuary, including some of its color and gilding, survives.
Steel reinforcements
One needs to contemplate the challenge facing medieval architects. They set out to create skyscrapers using stone instead of steel beams, as we do today.
They aimed to build as high as possible, with a heavy material—stone—and as few walls as possible to open the cathedral's interior to sunlight, transforming it into a gigantic colored light box.
That meant stretching the physical limits of stone, which is why flying buttresses prevent cathedrals from tumbling to the ground.
The only French cathedral with vaults higher than Amiens collapsed a dozen years later.
Cracks appeared around 200 years after Amiens’ cathedral was completed.
The clever and expensive solution was adding steel beams to reinforce critical areas.
Like its smaller sister in Paris, Notre Dame of Amiens is an Iron Lady.
If you wonder what happened to the stained-glass windows and how Amiens' cathedral survived the bombings of both WW1 and WW2, the answer comes with the second part of this story.
Guillaume! Thanks for another interesting read! Amiens is only one structure on a long list of immovable art works I still have on my bucket list…if you‘re looking for a fun read with references to Amiens and many more pieces of art inspired by Abbot Suger and his followers, take a look at this (all conclusions to be taken cum granu salis!!!):
The
TEMPLAR TREASURE
An Investigation
TOBIAS DANIEL WABBEL
Fascinating. Now on my list as well.