The erstwhile Benedictine abbey ( abbaye ) church of St Ouen in Rouen, Normandy, is one of the jewels of Gothic architecture. many bishoprics would be honored to have such a church service as a cathedral but in Rouen, it plays a secondary function to the Cathédrale Notre-Dame. Both churches are high Gothic with peer lengths but the nave of St Ouen higher and longer than that of the cathedral. The former abbey church is less laden with decorations making the purity of its Gothic lines even easier to appreciate. St Ouen is largely used as an exhibition and concert venue – its Aristide Cavaillé-Coll organ is one of the best-known and most-recorded organ pipe organs in the earth .
The Abbey Church of St Ouen in Rouen
St Ouen in Rouen © zigazou76 The High Gothic Église St-Ouen was the church of the erstwhile Abbey of St Ouen in Rouen, Normandy. The abbey was established in the seventh hundred and was one of the richest and largest in Normandy during the 14thcentury. This allowed the abbots to try and outdo the bishops by building a new Gothic church even larger than the Rouen Cathedral, which was under construction at the same fourth dimension .
The construction of the Gothic church of St Ouen, to replace a Romanesque structure damaged by ardor, started in 1318 – roughly a hundred later than the cathedral. The church was therefore built in the High Gothic from the begin but like the cathedral, the Hundred Years War interfered and construction dragged on until the 16thcentury. The western façade was not completed during the Middle Ages.
The abbey was closed permanently during the french Revolution. The city politics moved into the abbey buildings, while the church itself served temporarily as a weapons factory. The church service, and its brilliant stained-glass windows, largely survived in good condition to the award. The Neo-Gothic western façade added during the nineteenth hundred probably did more aesthetic damage than wars and revolts .
The Benedictine abbey of St Ouen has a recorded history since around AD 1000. however, its history has been described as everyday .
The Gothic Church of St Ouen in Rouen
structure of the Gothic Church of St Ouen started in 1318, at a time that the abbey was at its most powerful. It thus felt able to compete with the bishop ’ s cathedral, which has by then been under construction for over a hundred, in size .
The abbey church of St Ouen is thus 137 meters long in sum with the nave 80 meter long, 26 meter broad, and soaring to 33 m high vaults. Rouen Cathedral is besides 137 m with the nave measuring 60 m long, 24.2 thousand wide, and 28 megabyte high gear .
The brilliant cardinal tower topped by a ducal crown was at 86 m besides for long grandiloquent than the cathedral steeple, which took the record as the tallest church in France only in 1876 .
Both St Ouen and Notre Dame are triple-nave basilica built by and large in the High Gothic. however, as is obvious from a comparison of the floor plans, the nave of St Ouen is not adorned by side chapels. The transept of both churches protrude lone slenderly and both have impressive central towers over the cross .
As befits an abbey church, St Ouen has far fewer decorations both on its outside and inside than the cathedral. This allows the well-adjusted proportions and the purity of the Gothic lines to be shown off at its best without distraction .
The Exterior of St Ouen in Rouen
The western façade of St Ouen is its optical weak topographic point. Money ran out and the façade was left uncompleted for three centuries .
During the mid-19th hundred, a Neo-Gothic façade was added – the city accepted the cheapest proposal by Henry Grégoire, who claimed inhalation from Cologne Cathedral, and finished the job using cheaper stone dissimilar to the remainder of the church. The strongest criticism came for the western façade hiding the watch of the brilliant cardinal tower. lone the rosette is from the sixteenth hundred but with modern glass .
The rest of the outside is pure Gothic smasher. To the north of the nave, the remains of one side of the cloisters can still be seen future to the Hôtel de Ville .
The main entrance to the church is at the south transept through the Porche des Marmousets, where the vault appears to hang in mid-air on two keystones rather than pillars .
The real beauty is the chevet ( easterly side ) with typical High Gothic flying buttresses and pinnacles. Note how the radiate chapels of the ambulatory have their own person roof .
The central tugboat rises 86 megabyte and in contrast to the cathedral without a lantern. The lower sections are square but it is topped off by an octangular crown, which has been called the ducal crown of Normandy.
Read more: Maritime search and rescue – Documentary
The Interior of St Ouen
The inside of St Ouen is light, brilliantly, reasonably plain but with fantastic proportions and charming stained-glass windows. Unlike the cathedral, sculptures and early decorations are limited here. The church is no longer a functioning religious build and largely used for exhibitions and concerts .
The architects used the golden intend of 1:3 in the construction of the nave : the piers are 11 molarity apart and the sour to the 33-m high vaults .
Three levels of windows allow light to flood in. the lower side-aisle windows are not blocked by promote chapels while the double row of clerestory windows often uses clear and frost looking glass to allow more unaccented in .
bring on the Gothic cathedral started from the chancel, which was completed between 1318 and 1339. It has 11 chapels with some of the wall paintings from the fourteenth century. The gild grilles closing off the chancel are from the mid-18th century .
Stained-Glass Windows in St Ouen
St Ouen has a improbable collection of historic stained-glass windows. In 1939, Jean Lafond had the prevision to remove most historic stained-glass windows from historic buildings and churches in Rouen for safekeeping until after the second World War. As a leave, lone two sections of stained-glass windows in St Ouen are not original while Rouen Cathedral has a few windows from 1210 despite bombs blowing much of the cathedral glass out in 1944 .
The oldest stained-glass windows are in the choir and date from the initial build period 1318 to 1339. only the scenery of the crucifixion by Max Ingrand is advanced ( center, upper windows ) .
The two rosettes in the transept are fifteenth century : in the north the celestial hierarchy and the confederacy the Tree of Jesse. The large Flamboyant Gothic rose window in the western façade is the original from the sixteenth hundred but the glass is from 1992 .
The clerestory windows in the nave are by and large 16th-century originals. The windows in the north show figures from the Old Testament while the south has New Testament apostles and late bishops or saints .
The Cavaillé-Coll Organ in St Ouen
St Ouen has an Aristide Cavaillé-Coll harmonium that is structurally unaltered since its initiation in 1890. Both the organ and the Crespin Carlier ( 1630 ) box it is installed in are listed historic monuments .
The electric organ is frequently used for concerts and is one of the most-recorded organs in the earth. See Soar Above for more on this brilliant instrument and links to assorted recordings – many with adorable video recording of St Ouen .
Opening Hours of the Abbey Church of St Ouen
The Abbatiale Saint-Ouen is closed on Monday and Friday. On all other days, the church is open from 10 am to noon and 2 to 5 prime minister ( closing 6 autopsy from April to October ). Admission is unblock .
The church service of St Ouen is no longer used for even church service services.
The pleasant gardens around the church and behind the Hôtel de Ville have a bid area for small children and many louche trees .
Joan of Arc was tied to the stake in the cemetery of St Ouen on May 23, 1431, but recanted and was sentenced to life in prison. A workweek by and by, she was famously burned in the opposite end of town .
Rouen and much of Normandy had many monasteries and big churches constructed during the Middle Ages. Rouen has respective other Gothic churches, including Rouen Cathedral with the highest church steeple in France. The Romanesque abbey of St Martin de Boscherville and the ruins of Jumièges is a brusque drive to the west of Rouen while France ’ south largest gothic church – Amiens Cathedral – is besides in the area .
For More on St Ouen also See:
- Photos of St Ouen on Flickr.
- Gotik-Romanik – Historic and modern photos of St Ouen.
- Patrimoine Histoire – lots of photos (in French).
- Rose Window – The Medieval Stained Glass Photographic Archive with 341 images of all the stained-glass windows in St Ouen.
- Soar Above on the Cavaillé-Coll organ with links to recordings.