Laon Cathedral (Facade)
I’ve long wanted to see Laon Cathedral in Northern France, which featured in the Cathedrals of Europe course I took at Oxford University’s Continuing Education.
It was an enchanted sacred space, with Gregorian chant echoing through it.
Funny, when I am in a Gothic cathedral, I think of it as my soul’s natural home.
Laon Cathedral (Arches above the right aisle)
Laon Cathedral (triforium and clerestory)
Laon Cathedral choir. (Note the floor)
Laon Cathedral (Medieval stained glass)
Laon Cathedral (More recent stained glass)
These Gothic cathedrals built during medieval Europe’s building boom were sublime expressions of a community’s devotion. Entire towns and villages, men, women and children worked together to haul massive slabs of granite uphill, (often in silence, eye-witnesses say) to construct these noble edifices to the glory of God.
The gargoyles outside Laon Cathedral, unusually, memorialize the noble oxen who hefted the granite up the steep hill to the cathedral.
Oxen memorialised at the top of Laon cathedral.
Dragon on the facade of Laon Cathedral..
An icon of Jesus in Laon has made it a place of pilgrimage. I didn’t particularly care for the icon, but it did express one feature of the Messiah as mentioned in Isaiah, “He had no beauty that we should desire him.”
“The Holy Face” icon, Laon Cathedral.
A few more images of Laon Cathedral
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- Laon Cathedral (from a nearby cafe)
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- Bas relief above the main entrance.
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- Detail from the top of the pulpit (Laon Cathedral)
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- Laon Cathedral (main entrance)
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- Atlas (?) (Laon Cathedral)
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- Carved railing (Laon Cathedral)
A very much lighter touch than Notre Dame, similar to Rheims, I think. If memory serves, Laon was the archetype of them all.
Yes, indeed! It was one of the earliest. Haven’t been to Notre Dame since my twenties, seen Reims recently. Off to Geneva, tomorrow!