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Paradoxplace North and Centre France Photo Galleries Links to all French Cathedral and Abbey Photo Pages in Paradoxplace
The Story of the Cathédrale St-Julien, Le Mans
Back to Le Mans Photo Page Link to Cathédrale St-Julien photo page
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The architectural story of the Cathédrale St-Julien revolves around a series of building campaigns spanning 400 years between the mid 1000s to the mid 1400s.
The story reflects the experiences shared by many of the great cathedrals built during this cathedral and abbey building boom time in Europe - demolition of the pre-Norman cathedral, collapse of over ambitious vaulting in new buildings, the importance of having a popular shrine to attract pilgrim money, the crusades and hundred years' war, major fires, and the replacement of Romanesque with higher, lighter and more magnificent Gothic, which got permanently interrupted before completion by the drying up of funds for cathedral development.
Le Mans had the added early frisson of being the Plantagenêt cathedral - where Geoffrey and Matilda were married and where their son, England's first Plantagenêt King Henry II, was baptised.
The cathedral has a particularly well produced set of story boards telling its story ...........
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All original material on this site © Adrian Fletcher 2000-08 - The contents may not be hotlinked, or reproduced without permission
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