The cathedral of Oviedo was built on the ruins of a previous church in 1388. The western façade has a noble balustraded portico, rich in ornamentation. The most interesting piece of antiquity here is the Camera Santa or chapel of San Miguel, the second oldest Christian building after the Moorish invasion, being built in 802, as a receptacle for sacred relics. This holy of holies is lit by magnificent silver lamps, and the devout kneel before a railing while the relics are exhibited every morning. These relics are enclosed in superb silver workmanship of various designs. In a small case is kept the santo sudario or shroud of our Saviour, which thrice a year and each Good Friday, if a bishop preaches, is displayed from a balcony. There is also a venerable cross, a thousand years old, inclosed in magnificent filigree work. At Oviedo there is an ancient church of San Miguel. On July 25th each year a great procession is seen of the peasants with their offerings of cows and heifers going to this church, the horns being gaily decorated with ribbons. They go to Mass on that day, and it is looked forward to as their chief religious event.
NOTRE DAME AND LA SAINTE CHAPELLE, PARIS.
The cathedral of Notre Dame, begun in 528, to commemorate the gratitude of Childebert on his recovery from sickness, replaced another at its side, and was in turn replaced in 1163 by the present structure. It is remarkable for now containing the crown of thorns given by St. Louis and the nail of the true cross. The crown of thorns was brought there from La Sainte Chapelle, which was built by St. Louis as a shrine worthy to contain it. This exquisite chapel, without visible aisles or transept, was begun in 1242 and finished in 1247. One of the little tourelles at the side of the shrine still contains the actual wooden stair which was ascended by St. Louis when he went to take from its tabernacle the crown of thorns, which he and he alone was permitted to exhibit to the people below through a large pane of glass purposely inserted and always movable in the end window of the apse. It is recorded that when St. Louis was in Paris he would rise to pray three times in the night, always approaching the altar on his knees. This chapel was called by the old chronicler St. Louis’s arsenal and tower of defence against all the ills of life. The head of the saintly King was afterwards brought hither from St. Denis at the instance of Philip the Fair.
CHURCHES AT MARSEILLES AND STRASBURG.
On the rocky hill of Notre Dame de la Garde, above the harbour of Marseilles, is a Romanesque church, in which is a shrine with a famous image of the Virgin, carved in olive wood, and of great antiquity. All the sailors and fishermen in the Mediterranean venerate this object, and hang their offerings on the walls and roof. All kinds of objects connected with shipwrecks, plagues, storms, cholera, panics, are here represented. At Strasburg the cathedral, begun in 1015, is a noble Gothic edifice, the tower of which is 468 feet above the pavement. There is a circular window 48 feet in diameter, and rising to the height of 230 feet. The interior has much richly painted glass. There is also a famous clock in the south transept, dating from 1354, which shows the hour, day of the week, month, and year, and many other epochs, besides clockwork figures, with mechanism for moving puppets and images.
CHARTRES CATHEDRAL.
The cathedral of Notre Dame at Chartres, magnificent and strongly built, attracts the visitor by its two tall but unequal bell-towers and spires. It is vast and elegant, and excels in painted glass and its three rose windows. The tower and spire are the finest of their period in France, the steeple being 339½ feet high without the cross. Above the Porte Royale or central door is the image of Christ in an oval, with the symbols of the four evangelists, and below these are the fourteen prophets, and in the arches above are the twenty-four elders playing on musical instruments. The church is a storehouse of painted glass, above one hundred and thirty windows being rich with splendid ornamentation, the rose windows being thirty or forty feet in diameter. The choir has double aisles and many bas-reliefs of Scriptural subjects. Outside of the screen which separates the choir from the aisles is a series of Gothic sculptures of events in the life of Christ and the Virgin in forty-five compartments, surrounded with elaborate tracery and tabernacle work begun about 1514. The execution has been compared to point lace in stone, some of the sculptured threads being not thicker than the blade of a penknife. This was the earliest and chief church in France dedicated to the Virgin, and was resorted to by countless pilgrims. The sacred image dating from the time of the Druids stood in the crypt. The famous relic of the Sancta Camisia given by Charles le Chauve is here. And the celebrated black image of the twelfth century, after having been crowned with a bonnet rouge during the Revolution, is still a subject of adoration.
THE CATHEDRAL OF AMIENS.
The cathedral of Amiens, one of the noblest Gothic edifices in Europe, was begun in 1220, about the same time as Salisbury, but the spire is 422 feet, being 20 feet higher than Salisbury. Yet owing to the loftiness of the roof of the nave, this great height does not strike the beholder. The interior is one of the most magnificent of spectacles, owing to this great height of the roof, which is about double the usual height of English cathedrals. The area of the cathedral is also larger than that of any other cathedral in France, and is only surpassed by that of St. Peter’s at Rome, and by Cologne. At the crossing of the transept, three magnificent rose windows of elaborate tracery and rich stained glass, and about 100 feet in circumference, make this cathedral unique. The head of St. John the Baptist, brought from Constantinople at the time of the Crusades, has always been prized as an invaluable relic, and is deposited in the side chapel dedicated to St. John. Several other heads of St. John existed before the Revolution in other churches of France, but this was deemed the genuine one. Since the Revolution, however, the skull has been reduced to the frontal bone and upper jaw. The choir and its elegantly groined roof, resting on compressed lancet-pointed arches, are of great beauty, and there are one hundred and ten stalls of elaborately carved woodwork, showing the finest invention and execution. This carved work was done or finished in 1528.
THE CATHEDRAL OF RHEIMS.