THE PLACE DU PARVIS
On the right: The Law Courts. In the centre: The Theatre. On the left: The Grand Hôtel. In centre of Square: Statue of Joan-of-Arc.
Looking towards the Cathedral, the tourist will see on the right the ruins of the Hôtel du Lion d'Or and of the Hôtel de la Maison Rouge.
INNER COURTYARD OF THE LION D'OR HÔTEL. (Cliché A.S.)
The latter was completely destroyed. Above the door was the inscription: "In the year 1429, at the consecration of Charles VII., in this hostelry—then called the 'Striped Ass'—the father and mother of Jeanne d'Arcq were lodged at the expense of the Municipality." In reality only the father of Joan-of-Arc lodged there.
It was at the Hôtel du Lion d'Or (photo opposite) and at the Grand Hôtel (No. 4 in the Rue Libergier, which opens out in front of the statue of Joan-of-Arc) that the Field-Marshal French stayed in August, 1914, and later General von Zuchow, commanding the Saxon troops which entered Rheims on September 4, 1914.
On the right of the Cathedral are the ruins of the Archbishop's Palace (see plan, p. [33]). A general view of them is seen in the photograph on p. [48].
The Archbishop's Palace
Of the three buildings which surrounded every Cathedral in the Middle Ages—the bishop's palace, the cloister of the canons, and the house set apart for the sick and poor (Hôtel-Dieu)—only the archbishop's palace existed at Rheims in 1914. It extended all along the south lateral façade of the Cathedral, on the site of the ancient abode of St. Nicaise, which had replaced a Roman palace. Of the ancient building erected by the successors of St. Nicaise down to the 13th century, there remained only the graceful two-storied chapel, doubtless contemporary with the chevet of the Cathedral. The round entrance tower, known as Eon's tower (from the name of the heretic who was imprisoned there in the 12th century), and the great bronze stag placed in the middle of the courtyard by Archbishop Samson in the 11th century, still existed in the 17th century, but about that time the one was demolished and the other melted down. This stag, into which on feast-days wine was poured, which flowed out again by the mouth, was a beautiful specimen of the art of the old metal-founders of Rheims.