Cathedral at about the same time, or perhaps a few years later, the choir of the Cathedral of Bourges was built. This exhibits two aisles with a series of chapels, small but of original design. The inner aisle is also in this case higher than the outer, and has a triforium, as in the centre aisle, occupying the height of the lean-to roof of the lower outer aisle. The arrangement of the buttresses is heavy. Three flying buttresses from the wall of the central aisle are concentrated upon a single buttress in that of the inner side-aisle, and from this three flying-buttresses placed one over another spring to the pinnacle, which rises over the wall of the outer aisle to almost double its height. Beautiful though this mag nificent arrangement makes the interior, and thongh grand is the high aspiring arcade of the middle aisle, with its slender columns and its per spectives through the two side-aisles, yet the complicated system of flying-buttresses makes the exterior heavy and unsatisfactory.
Cathedral of ROlfC11.—The ground-plan of the Cathedral of Rouen is of the same period, though a few of the older portions of the choir have been retained. Normandy had always its peculiar local school, and thus the ground-plan of this church displays many peculiarities. Besides the three-aisled principal choir, two lateral choirs open into the three-aisled transept, while around the principal choir only two of the Romanesque chapels are preserved, the place of the central three being occupied by a Gothic chapel of several bays. The arrangement of a gallery under the arcade of the nave is especially singular. The openings leading to this are pierced at about the half of the height of the arches, on the upper surface of which the broad gallery is carried, and since it was essential not to pierce the pillars, the separate parts of this gallery are connected with one another by portions which are carried around the pillars upon elegantly-constructed corbels projecting from them into the side-aisles. Many parts of the building belong to a late period.
Cathedral of Rheims. —The old Cathedral of Rheims was completely destroyed by a conflagration in 1211, and in 1212 the foundation of a new structure was laid, which was placed under the direction of Robert de Coucy. As in all these great edifices, the construction lasted through so long a series of years that manifold modifications were made in the plans before the edifice was finished as we now see it. The nave and transept have three aisles; the choir has five. The chevet has five radiating chap els, which, according to the manner of the age, arc semicircular instead of polygonal, and are tolerably massive in structure. The pillars are
circular, with four circular attached shafts at equidistant points. A capi tal crowns the whole and supports the arcade on two sides, the vaulting of the side-aisles on a third, and on the fourth a cluster of five shafts, which ascend the wall of the middle aisle (Al 29, fig. 8). The system of buttresses belongs to a later period. The facade is arranged like that of the cathedral at Paris, and has three very richly embellished portals, which, decorated with conventional foliage, terminated by pointed gables, and adorned with a multitude of statues, form a rich frontal to the body of the building. The upper portion of the towers is less harmonious; it was probably intended to be terminated with spires similar to those shown in Figure 3.
The Cathedral of Rheims shows also gradations in architectural devel opment that were brought about during the long course of its erection, and to which Robert de Coucy himself probably contributed very little. It may be noticed that Robert brought the choir to the height of the chapels and erected the side-aisles of the nave, with the exception of the last bay, which lie scarcely commenced. He probably left the work about 123o; the erection of the principal choir may have been continued about 1240, and the western bay of the nave begun about the same time. The facade WaS probably completed, much as we now see it, about the opening of the fourteenth century, but much was added to it in the fifteenth.
Cathedral of old Cathedral of Amiens was destroyed by fire in 121S, and in 1220 the present building was begun under Robert de Luzarches. The nave was first taken in hand. Robert could only have laid the foundations, for a few years later we find the architect Thomas de Cormont at work. He raised the nave rapidly, and it may have been finished by his son. Iii 1246 it stood completed, together with the stone central tower and the chapels of the choir. These were damaged in 125S by a fire, which caused a delay in the works; so that the choir was not completed until r2SS. The facade, which was without doubt altered many times and was still worked upon in the fifteenth century, has not the harmony expressed by those parts which were erected iu the middle of the thirteenth century. The section of the nave (//. 29, fig. 9) shows a simple system of abutments imposing by its mass. In 1527 lightning destroyed the stone central tower, and in its place was erected the elegant spire of wood and lead which is still the delight of the lovers of art.