Clermont-Ferrand: Notre Dame Du Port.
The Rue des Notaires leads down from the cathedral to the Place de la Poterne, where there is a good view of the surrounding mountains.
The large block of buildings passed on the right includes the Palais de Justice, the Hôtel de Ville, and the prison. The second street beyond these buildings, the Rue du Port, leads down to [Notre Dame du Port], built in 578, destroyed by the Normans in 853 and restored in 866, according to the inscriptions on the tablet in the N. transept. The exterior is decorated with blind arches, mouldings, and dental friezes, while the apse and its radiating chapels have besides patterns in mosaic. From the intersection of the transept rises an octagonal tower.
In the interior the roof is waggon-vaulted with no groining. Round the nave are fourteen piers with attached columns, having on their capitals sculptured figures of men, animals, and plants. The chancel is surrounded by columns of the same kind, on which rest arches more or less stilted according to the width of the space. The triforium is massive and on short columns. All the glass is modern, excepting in the window behind the high altar and in each of the windows in the S. and N. ends of the chancel, which date from the beginning of the 13th cent.
Below the chancel is the crypt, supported on twelve massive columns. Over the altar is a miracle-working image, about 6 inches high, of Mary and child Jesus, found at the bottom of the well, 18 ft. deep, in 578, when the foundations of the first church were being laid. The well, which is covered, is in front of the altar. Its water is endowed with miraculous properties. The walls are lined with expressions of gratitude for favours obtained by praying to this tiny representative of the woman Mary.
It was within the walls of the upper church, when Pope Urban II. and Peter the Hermit were exhorting their hearers in 1096 to undertake the first crusade, that the whole assembly, as if impelled by an immediate inspiration, exclaimed with one voice, “It is the will of God!” which words became the signal of battle in all the future exploits of the Crusaders.
The open space behind the statue of General Desaix leads to the wide Rue Lagarlaye and to the Boulevard du Taureau, in which is situated the Académie or College of Clermont, containing, besides the class-rooms, the picture gallery, the museum of natural history, and the Public Library founded by Massillon when bishop of this diocese.
Clermont-Ferrand: Botanic Gardens.
Behind the Academy are the [Botanic Gardens], in which a considerable part is wisely devoted to the training, grafting, and pruning of fruit trees and vines. Attached is the École de Pisciculture, with tanks and a small aquarium. Near the Academy is the Hôtel Dieu.
Tolerable wine is made at Puy-de-Dome, but it is generally cold and flat, and does not sit easily on the stomach.