Hospitals like that of St. Jean at Angers (late twelfth century), or those of Chartres, Ourscamps, Tonnerre, and Beaune, illustrate how skilfully the French could modify and adapt the details of their architecture to the special requirements of civil architecture. Great numbers of charitable institutions were built in the middle ages—asylums, hospitals, refuges, and the like—but very few of those in France are now extant. Town halls were built in the fifteenth century in some places where a certain amount of popular independence had been secured. The florid fifteenth-century Palais de Justice at Rouen (1499–1508) is an example of another branch of secular Gothic architecture. In all these monuments the adaptation of means to ends is admirable. Wooden ceilings and roofs replaced stone, wherever required by great width of span or economy of construction. There was little sculpture; the wall-spaces were not suppressed in favor of stained glass and tracery; while the roofs were usually emphasized and adorned with elaborate crestings and finials in lead or terra-cotta.
DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. These same principles controlled the designing of houses, farm buildings, barns, granaries, and the like. The common closely-built French city house of the twelfth and thirteenth century is illustrated by many extant examples at Cluny, Provins, and other towns. A shop opening on the street by a large arch, a narrow stairway, and two or three stories of rooms lighted by clustered, pointed-arched windows, constituted the common type. The street front was usually gabled and the roof steep. In the fourteenth or fifteenth century half-timbered construction began to supersede stone for town houses, as it permitted of encroaching upon the street by projecting the upper stories. Many of the half-timbered houses of the fifteenth century were of elaborate design. The heavy oaken uprights were carved with slender colonnettes; the horizontal sills, bracketed out over the street, were richly moulded; picturesque dormers broke the sky-line, and the masonry filling between the beams was frequently faced with enamelled tiles.
FIG. 127.—HOUSE OF JACQUES CŒUR, BOURGES.
(After Viollet-le-Duc.)
The more considerable houses or palaces of royalty, nobles, and wealthy citizens rivalled, and in time surpassed, the monastic buildings in richness and splendor. The earlier examples retain the military aspect, with moat and donjon, as in the Louvre of Charles V., demolished in the sixteenth century. The finest palaces are of late date, and the type is well represented by the Ducal Palace at Nancy (1476), the Hotel de Cluny (1485) at Paris, the Hotel Jacques Cœur at Bourges (Fig. 127), and the east wing of Blois (1498–1515). These palaces are not only excellently and liberally planned, with large halls, many staircases, and handsome courts; they are also extremely picturesque with their square and circular towers, slender turrets, elaborate dormers, and rich carved detail.
MONUMENTS: (C. = cathedral; A. = abbey; trans. = transept; each edifice is given under the date of its commencement; subsequent alterations in parentheses.) Between 1130 and 1200: Vézelay A., ante-chapel, 1130; St. Germer-de-Fly C., 1130–1150 (chapel later); St. Denis A., choir, 1140 (choir rebuilt, nave and trans., 1240); Sens C., 1140–68 (W. front, 13th century; chapels, spire, 14th); Senlis C., 1145–83 (trans., spire, 13th century); Noyon C., 1149–1200 (W. front, vaults, 13th century); St. Germain-des-Prés A., Paris, choir, 1150 (Romanesque nave); Angers C., 1150 (choir, trans., 1274); Langres, 1150–1200; Laon C., 1150–1200; Le Mans C., nave, 1150–58 (choir, 1217–54); Soissons C., 1160–70 (choir, 1212; nave chapels, 14th century); Poitiers C., 1162–1204; Notre Dame, Paris, choir, 1163–96 (nave, W. front finished, 1235; trans. fronts, and chapels, 1257–75); Chartres C., W. end, 1170; rest, mainly 1194–98 (trans. porches, W. rose, 1210–1260; N. spire, 1506); Tours C., 1170 (rebuilt, 1267; trans., portals, 1375; W. portals, chapels, 15th century; towers finished, 1507–47); Laval C., 1180–85 (choir, 16th century); Mantes, church Notre Dame, 1180–1200; Bourges C., 1190–95 (E. end, 1210; W. end, 1275); St. Nicholas at Caen, 1190 (vaults, 15th century); Reims, church St. Rémy, choir, end of 12th century (Romanesque nave); church St. Leu d’Esserent, choir late 12th century (nave, 13th century); Lyons C., choir, end of 12th century (nave, 13th and 14th centuries); Etampes, church Notre Dame, 12th and 13th centuries.—13th century: Evreux C., 1202–75 (trans., central tower, 1417; W. front rebuilt, 16th century); Rouen C., 1202–20 (trans. portals, 1280; W. front, 1507); Nevers, 1211, N. portal, 1280 (chapels, S. portal, 15th century); Reims C., 1212–42 (W. front, 1380; W. towers, 1420); Bayonne C., 1213 (nave, vaults, W. portal, 14th century); Troyes C., choir, 1214 (central tower, nave, W. portal, and towers, 15th century); Auxerre C., 1215–34 (nave, W. end, trans., 14th century); Amiens C., 1220–88; St. Etienne at Chalons-sur-Marne, 1230 (spire, 1520); Séez C., 1230, rebuilt 1260 (remodelled 14th century); Notre Dame de Dijon, 1230; Reims, Lady chapel of Archbishop’s palace, 1230; Chapel Royal at St. Germain-en-Laye, 1240; Ste. Chapelle at Paris, 1242–47 (W. rose, 15th century); Coutances C., 1254–74; Beauvais C., 1247–72 (rebuilt 1337–47; trans. portals, 1500–48); Notre Dame de Grace at Clermont, 1248 (finished 1350); Dôl C., 13th century; St. Martin-des-Champs at Paris, nave 13th century (choir Romanesque); Bordeaux C., 1260; Narbonne C., 1272–1320; Limoges, 1273 (finished 16th century); St. Urbain, Troyes, 1264; Rodez C., 1277–1385 (altered, completed 16th century); church St. Quentin, 1280–1300; St. Benigne at Dijon, 1280–91; Alby C., 1282 (nave, 14th; choir, 15th century; S. portal, 1473–1500); Meaux C., mainly rebuilt 1284 (W. end much altered 15th, finished 16th century); Cahors C., rebuilt 1285–93 (W. front, 15th century); Orléans, 1287–1328 (burned, rebuilt 1601–1829).—14th century: St. Bertrand de Comminges, 1304–50; St. Nazaire at Carcassonne, choir and trans. on Romanesque nave; Montpellier C., 1364; St. Ouen at Rouen, choir, 1318–39 (trans., 1400–39; nave, 1464–91; W. front, 1515); Royal Chapel at Vincennes, 1385 (?)-1525.—15th and 16th century: St. Nizier at Lyons rebuilt; St. Séverin, St. Merri, St. Germain l’Auxerrois, all at Paris; Notre Dame de l’Epine at Chalons-sur-Marne; choir of St. Etienne at Beauvais; Saintes C., rebuilt, 1450; St. Maclou at Rouen (finished 16th century); church at Brou; St. Wulfrand at Abbeville; abbey of St. Riquier—these three all early 16th century.—Houses, Castles, and Palaces: Bishop’s palace at Paris, 1160 (demolished); castle of Coucy, 1220–30; Louvre at Paris (the original château), 1225–1350; Palais de Justice at Paris, originally the royal residence, 1225–1400; Bishop’s palace at Laon, 1245 (addition to Romanesque hall); castle Montargis, 13th century; castle Pierrefonds, Bishop’s palace at Narbonnne, palace of Popes at Avignon—all 14th century; donjon of palace at Poitiers, 1395; Hôtel des Ambassadeurs at Dijon, 1420; house of Jacques Cœur at Bourges, 1443; Palace, Dijon, 1467; Ducal palace at Nancy, 1476; Hôtel Cluny at Paris, 1490; castle of Creil, late 15th century, finished in 16th; E. wing palace of Blois, 1498–1515, for Louis XII.; Palace de Justice at Rouen, 1499–1508.
[20.] Consult especially articles Architecture, Cathédrale, Chapelle, Construction, Église, Maison, Voûte.
[21.] Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française, vol. ii., pp. 280, 281.
[22.] See Ferree, Chronology of Cathedral Churches of France.