South Lateral Façade
This front has the bare, massive appearance of the 11th century buildings. The remarkable Roman arches, massive buttresses and blind doorway, framed by two primitive capitals with a wreath-shaped astragal, are apparently vestiges of constructions of an earlier date than those of Abbot Thierry.
The semi-cylindrical abutments are among the oldest of mediæval buttresses. They are crowned with cones or capitals, the greater part of which are devoid of decoration.
The West Front of St. Remi Church
Between its two towers, this gabled façade, the recesses and blind arcading of which form almost its sole decoration, is in strong contrast with the principal façade of the Cathedral. At once elegant and severe, like most of the monastic buildings of the 12th century, it lacks unity. All that part situated above the five windows of the first storey, including the rose-window, has been rebuilt in modern times. The very simple rose-window, between two lines of superimposed arcading, is protected, in the Champagne style, by a relieving-arch. The northern tower (on the left) was almost entirely rebuilt in the 19th century, on the lines of the old one. The simpler southern tower (on the right), with its arched windows and loopholes, is Roman of the 11th or 12th century. The pointed part of the façade is late 12th century, and dates from the time of the restorations by Pierre de Celle.
Three doors open on the nave. The central one is flanked by two columns with statues of St. Peter and St. Remi. The marble and granite columns came, no doubt, from some neighbouring Gallo-Roman building. These statues, with arms pressed close to their sides in the ancient stiff manner, are probably from the original basilicas.
