• Facebook
  • Twitter

Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

  • Home
  • My Books
  • Essays
  • Contact

Dreaming in Laon Cathedral, Northern France.

By Anita Mathias

Laon Cathedral (Facade)

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 (Arches above the right aisle)

Laon Cathedral (triforium and clerestory)

Laon Cathedral (triforium and clerestory)

Laon Cathedral choir. (Note the floor)

Laon Cathedral choir. (Note the floor)

 

 

Laon Cathedral (Medieval stained glass)

Laon Cathedral (Medieval stained glass)

Laon Cathedral (More recent 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.

Oxen memorialised at the top of Laon cathedral.

Dragon on the facade 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.

“The Holy Face” icon, Laon Cathedral.

A few more images of Laon Cathedral

Laon Cathedral (from a nearby cafe)
Bas relief above the main entrance.
Detail from the top of the pulpit (Laon Cathedral)

Laon Cathedral (main entrance)
Atlas (?) (Laon Cathedral)
Carved railing (Laon Cathedral)

 

More from my site

  • Faith like Stained Glass WindowsFaith like Stained Glass Windows
  • Picturesque Saarburg and the Saar River Bend (Photoblog)Picturesque Saarburg and the Saar River Bend (Photoblog)
  •  On Extra Baggage, Making Peace with Mistakes and Cutting Emotional Losses On Extra Baggage, Making Peace with Mistakes and Cutting Emotional Losses
  • Why I want to go to Tonle Batie, Cambodia with Tearfund   Why I want to go to Tonle Batie, Cambodia with Tearfund
  • Wandering through a Deserted Garden in Sicily, I Pray to Build Things Which LastWandering through a Deserted Garden in Sicily, I Pray to Build Things Which Last
Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter

Filed Under: In which I Travel and Dream Tagged With: Gothic Cathedrals, history of Gothic Cathedrals, icons, Laon Cathedral France, Travel

« Previous Post
Next Post »

Comments

  1. John Vagabond says

    August 10, 2013 at 5:22 pm

    A very much lighter touch than Notre Dame, similar to Rheims, I think. If memory serves, Laon was the archetype of them all.

    • Anita Mathias says

      August 11, 2013 at 7:54 pm

      Yes, indeed! It was one of the earliest. Haven’t been to Notre Dame since my twenties, seen Reims recently. Off to Geneva, tomorrow!

Sign Up and Get a Free eBook!

Sign up to be emailed my blog posts (one a week) and get the ebook of "Holy Ground," my account of working with Mother Teresa.

Join 0 Other Readers

Follow me on Twitter

Follow @anitamathias1

Anita Mathias: About Me

Anita Mathias

Read my blog on Facebook

Premier Digital Awards 2015 - Finalist - Blogger of the year
Runner Up Christian Media Awards 2014 - Tweeter of the year

Recent Posts

  • Writing and Prayer
  • For our griefs, failures, tears, Christ’s desire is “Let nothing, nothing be wasted”
  •  Finding Golden Hours in Dark Days (and Some Thoughts on Forgiveness)
  •  On Keys (of the Kingdom), and Knowing Where to Cast one’s Net
  • On Quitting Things…and Breaking Free
  • How to Enjoy a Big, Spacious, Open-hearted Life
  • Listening to your Body, Listening to your Life
  • On why God Permits our Weaknesses and Frailities to linger, and on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit–and its limits!
  • In Praise of Desert and Wilderness Experiences
  • It’s all God’s money: Thoughts on “the Cattle on a Thousand Hills”

Categories

My Books

    Amazon.com         Amazon.co.uk







Archive by month

Error: Access Token is not valid or has expired. Feed will not update.
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

There's an issue with the Instagram Access Token that you are using. Please obtain a new Access Token on the plugin's Settings page.
If you continue to have an issue with your Access Token then please see this FAQ for more information.

Instagram

Load More...Follow on Instagram

Google Ad

© 2019 Dreaming Beneath the Spires · All Rights Reserved.

»
«