THE GOTHIC GLORY OF AMIENS
SOUTH PORTAL OF AMIENS CATHEDRAL
The statue of the Virgin which stands in the portal replaces that of St. Honoré, which was moved to the north transept. The carvings about the south portal are taken from the life of St. Honoré.
NAVE OF AMIENS CATHEDRAL
It is from a side view, however, that Amiens shows at its best the true glory of Gothic architecture. Nearly five hundred feet long and over two hundred feet to the ridge line of the roof, it rises high above the buildings of the city in which it stands, a symbol of the supremacy of spiritual over earthly things. To be sure it has its faults. The towers are too low and the central spire is of awkward shape; but the huge windows, with their tracery in geometric patterns, occupying the entire space between the buttresses, and these buttresses themselves with their soaring arches spanning the aisle roofs below, afford an unsurpassed example of beauty of design combined with the utmost structural daring. Moreover, the interior is even more imposing. Lofty piers and pointed arches separate the nave from the aisles. Slender shafts carry the ribs of the huge vaults of stone forty-three feet in span, which seem suspended in air one hundred and forty feet from the pavement below. In the support of these vaults lies the keynote of Gothic architecture. Though they seem hung as if by magic over walls of glass, with very little masonry for their support, their weight and thrust are borne by the sweeping arcs of the exterior flying buttresses and the huge piers of masonry from which they rise beyond the side aisle walls. Viewed from a central point, the majestic sweep of the nave, the soaring height of the eastern apse, the wondrous window of the northern transept, and the maze of piers and arches and chapels, all unite to produce a glorious whole which cannot be surpassed in any monument of any age.
SALISBURY'S SIMPLE BEAUTY
If the interior of Amiens personifies in the highest degree the majesty and glory of Christian faith, the spire of Salisbury may be said to embody its hope and aspiration. Rising four hundred and four feet from the ground, this spire has few to rival it in all the world. Other cathedrals might dispute its claim to first place among spires; but none is set upon a church so fine. That Salisbury is the most beautiful cathedral in England is not claimed. As was the case in France, so here, there are too many churches, each with its own distinctive points of beauty, for anyone to be the finest of them all.
