Notre-Dame of Laon

From Freepedia

Image:Laon2.jpg The cathedral of Notre-Dame of Laon is one of the most important examples of Gothic architecture of the 12th and 13th centuries, ranking with the cathedrals of Sens and Notre Dame of Paris. It is located in Laon, Picardy, France. As Laon lost its bishopric at the Revolution, the cathedral has ever since been the parish church of Laon.

It dates from the 12th and early 13th centuries, an early example of the Gothic style that originated in Northern France. The former cathedral burned in the communal insurrection, 1112, occasioned by the revocation of the commune's charter. The present reconstruction began with a choir about 1160 and was finished as far as the east side of the transept by 1174. In a second campaign, whichstarted about 1180, the nave was built, and completed after 1205. Then the choir was replaced by the greatly lengthened present choir in 1215.

The building is cruciform, and the choir terminates in a straight wall instead of in an apse. Of the seven planned towers flanking the facades, only five are complete to the height of the base of the spires, two at the west front, with life-size figures of oxen beneath the arcades of their upper portion, one at each end of the transept and a square central tower that forms a lantern illuminating the crossing. Image:Laon-cathedral.jpg The west front, with three porches, the centre one surmounted by a fine rose window, ranks next to that of Notre-Dame at Paris in the purity of its Gothic style. The cathedral has stained glass of the 13th century and a chancel screen of the 18th century.