St. Ouen.—A great northern church in which a similar development is displayed, but whose leading ideas belong to the old French system, is the Church of St. Ouen at Rouen. The arrangement is that of a nave with three aisles, a transept with side-aisles on the western side, a choir with three aisles and chapels on each side between the buttresses, a polygonal apse, and a chevet of five chapels. The west front has two towers. The diagonal position of these towers is peculiar. A slender elegance charac terizes the details, and all parts are clothed with a rich display of forms.
In general, the fourteenth century did not produce that wealth of architectural monuments which distinguished the thirteenth. The works of the thirteenth sufficed for the needs of the following centuries, and only gave them the opportunity here and there to continue what was commenced, to add chapels, and, above all, to devote themselves to the decoration of the churches with altars, lecterns, and pulpits. Many cloisters—among them those of the Cathedral of Bordeaux and of the Abbey of Mont St. Michel—were completed in the fourteenth century. Finally we have a great series of secular structures—dwellings, castles, and palaces—which had their origin in this century. Chief among these are the two palaces of the Louvre and the Hotel St. Paul, built at Paris by Charles V.
Palaces: The Augustus had in 12o4 erected the Louvre as a strong castle in front of the walls of the city. St. Louis prepared it for habitation, but Charles, with his architect Raimond du Temple, entirely rebuilt it. Of this new structure a magnificent stair case formed the part which was most admired, as until then stairs had been regarded simply as a means of ascent, and not as a part calling for a grand architectonic expression.
The Hotel St. Paid was chiefly destined for grand festivities. The
principal room was the great banqueting-hall, called the Salle Charle magne, and besides this there were several courts—among them, one for tournaments—extensive gardens, and a menagerie. Like the Louvre, the structure was destroyed in the sixteenth century.
The Papal Palace at Avignon, built in the fourteenth century and for the most part still in existence, rivalled these royal palaces. Bene dict XII. built the northern part (1336); Clement VII., the southern part. Innocent VI. finished the structures of his predecessors, together with the upper chapels, and Urban V. (1362-137o) had the principal court hewn out of the rock and erected the eastern wing. The struc ture had a number of towers and was surrounded by outworks, so that it formed a perfect fortress; but in its interior it contained splendid dwelling-apartments and state-rooms. The principal entrance was on the western side, and on the south was the grand staircase, consisting of straight flights and landings. The chapel, a lofty vaulted hall about jo metres (164 feet) iu length, adjoins the staircase. The great banquet ing-hall was in the northern wing, and all the halls were richly deco rated with wall-paintings and other adornments.
The Chateau of Pierrefonds, near Compiegne, at once a strong castle and a comfortable habitation, belongs to the fourteenth century. Of ancient origin, it was rebuilt in 139o. It forms a somewhat irregular rectangle, with round towers at the angles and semicircular ones in the centre of each side; it is surrounded by a ditch and encloses a court. Living-rooms, banqueting-halls, and structures for defence and for service form an exceedingly picturesque whole. The smaller but equally pictur esque Chateau de Sully, on the Loire, is of the same period.