CATHEDRAL
(Photo L. L.)
The Cathedral has had a very eventful history. It dates from the Carolingian times, and was destroyed in 963, when the town was taken by Robert of Vermandois. It was rebuilt, only to be destroyed again in 1138 by a fire, caused by lightning. It was once more rebuilt and enlarged, but in 1230 a similar disaster overtook it. The rebuilding this time took many years to accomplish, for at the beginning of the fifteenth century the nave was unfinished and the western doorway not yet begun.
NORTH TRANSEPT OF THE CATHEDRAL
In 1520 there was set up in the north tower of the transept (see photo below) a wooden spire covered with lead and richly ornamented, about 310 feet in height. In 1628 the two final bays of the nave were completed and the western doorway entirely built (photo above). Unfortunately, its style jars with the Gothic of the rest of the church. In 1668 the cathedral was struck by lightning for the third time; the spire fell and drove in the vaulting and the crypt. After another restoration, the two towers of the transept were embellished with stone spires, which were reconstructed in 1821, but, later, removed. In 1850 the south front of the transept was entirely rebuilt. In 1862 all the sixteenth century chapels in the aisles off the nave were done away with. Quite recently the two towers, together with the doorways of the transept, have been restored.
On the whole the cathedral is an imposing edifice. We have seen above that the west front dates from the seventeenth century and is in the Classical style. Corinthian columns and pilasters flank a Gothic rose-window. A balcony runs along each storey, and a pediment surmounts the whole. A much damaged bas-relief above the entrance-door represents the stoning of Saint Stephen. The long nave, with its lines of elegant flying-buttresses, rejoins the transept, of which the north front (photo opposite) is the most interesting. The southern one was completely rebuilt in the nineteenth century.
