Fig. 14.—Paray-le-Monial, Abbey Church.
The developed system of Bourgogne may be seen to advantage in the abbey church of Paray-le-Monial (Saône-et-Loire) (Figs. 14, 15), which dates from the early twelfth century and is thus only slightly later than Cluny itself. Its nave is wider and loftier than any yet seen in which a tunnel vault was used, though not equal in size to that at Cluny, which was thirty-two feet wide and ninety-eight feet high. All the structural arches are pointed, but those used for windows, doors and decoration are still round headed.[98] The clerestory, while it has only moderately large windows, is so high above the ground as to render the support of the vaults above it exceptionally difficult. This difficulty was overcome, first by giving the vault a pointed section and thus reducing the thrust; second, by building as light a web as possible and covering it with a wooden roof; third, by using tie-rods of wood or metal, running along near the impost of the vault in the thickness of the walls, thus to a certain extent concentrating the pressure upon the piers; and, finally, as has already been stated, by carrying the exterior walls of the church to a point considerably above the window heads [(Fig. 15)], thus obtaining a downward pressure which offsets the outward thrusts.
Fig. 15.—Paray-le-Monial, Abbey Church.