CAIN KILLS ABEL
Notre-Dame de Vaux
(historical monument)
(See map inserted between pp. [198]-[199])
NOTRE-DAME
Like the cathedral, Notre-Dame dates back to Carolingian times. In the eleventh century it possessed no transept, but included a semi-circular apse flanked by two towers, on the site of which rise the two present ones (see p. [205]), which date from the twelfth century and recall those of the cathedral. There remains of the twelfth century Romanesque church, besides almost the whole of the transept, the south door under the porch, the pillars and the aisles of the nave, as well as the ground floor of the west front.
In 1157 Notre-Dame collapsed, and was partly reconstructed. The apse was rebuilt with three radial chapels. In the nave and choir the round arches of the tribunes and arcades were replaced by pointed ones: the walls were raised in height and pierced by windows, below which was established a triforium (photo below). Gothic vaulting in the nave and transept replaced the wooden roof. The two storeys and the pinnacle of the west front, between the towers, belong also to this period.