The scaffolding fire of 1914 reached the belfry, bringing down the bells, which were broken in the fall.
The Lateral Façades and Chevet
The lateral façades of the Cathedral are of rare beauty. Nowhere have abutments and flying buttresses been so harmoniously employed as here. They are not merely supports, but form part of the decorative scheme of the nave, and ensure the harmony of the whole. Buttresses, finished off with pinnacles, serve as points of support for two superimposed flying-buttresses. The octagonal pinnacles are flanked with four small triangular pyramids and supported in front by two slender detached columns. Between the latter, under canopies, angels with outstretched wings carry the instruments of the Passion and various other emblems (see photo, p. [49]).
Skirt the Cathedral on the left, passing in front of the North Façade (see photo below), to reach the Northern Transept.
THE NORTHERN TRANSEPT IN 1919
The Northern Façade and Transept
The transept is pierced with broad bays, whose completion, as in all the windows of the Cathedral, consists of two twin arches surmounted by a six-leaved rose. The niches in the buttresses are ornamented with statues believed by some to represent Kings of France. At any rate, that of the buttress on the western front of the north-west tower greatly resembles the figure of St. Louis carved on the doorway of the church of St. Vincent at Carcassonne.
The carvings of the lower windows were either destroyed or damaged on September 19, 1914, at the same time as the stained-glass. The two towers which flank the crossings were left unfinished.