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the more beautiful the descent

A wall now traces its original layout onto the ground, offering visitors a glimpse into its religious and architectural past.

The Cathedral of Beauvais is one of the most important Gothic churches in France 🇫🇷!

Behind the cathedral you can still find a piece of the city fortifications dating from the 4th century, originally 1370 meters long and with 18 towers. The wall is decorated with cubic stones in the Pastoreaux pattern, which can be found similarly on the remains of the historic Roman city wall around Cologne. In the Middle Ages, the wall served to demarcate the episcopal district.

It is always nice to meet old friends again, especially when it happens unexpectedly. When you enter the wonderful but only half-finished cathedral of Beauvais, you are greeted by the famous image of St. Peter from St. Peter's Basilica. This fits with the building's claim: the highest Gothic vault, the highest church tower, the largest church in France. However, it is a Gothic Babel: the vault and tower collapsed, and that was the end of money and Gothic architecture. The cathedral is a huge torso, the nave of which is a comparatively tiny Romanesque building that stands lost in front of the huge, centuries-old temporary dividing wall that the nave was supposed to replace.

The collegiate church of Saint Barthelemy, founded in 1037, was secularized during the French Revolution and converted into a residential building. After war damage and demolition, the preserved choir today reminds us of the former building.

The cathedral beckons. Curious, you want to rush into the interior, but the entrance is worth slowing down. The huge portal rises high into the sky. There are no religious figurines here: one wonders whether this is a financial consequence of the failed construction of the tower of Beauvais or whether the iconoclastic French Revolution has struck. Instead, the tendrils hide many mythical creatures and monsters worth seeing, waiting to be discovered. A somewhat threatening fairy-tale world. Behind them are the enormous carved doors, which are unparalleled with their sculptural Gothic scenes. And finally, Peter himself welcomes you into the church. You know him: an image of the famous statue in St. Peter's Basilica, which illustrates the claim of the cathedral's builders: Amiens was supposed to have the largest church in France, but unfortunately the over-high vaults and the world's highest over-high tower collapsed and inside, massive wooden struts hold up the fragile statics. A Gothic Babel. But the cathedral also holds the record as a torso: the highest vaults are 48.5 metres high.

Beauvais Cathedral was the most ambitious cathedral building project in France. Construction began in 1247 and the aim was to build nothing less than the largest church with the highest vault. Unfortunately, construction technology was not yet advanced enough. The towering choir was finished in 1275 and partially collapsed in 1284. The vaults, which were then built with no less ambition, reached 48.5 metres and are the highest Gothic cathedral vaults ever. Instead of a nave, the highest tower in the world was built over the crossing, 153 metres high. It was completed in 1569 and was the highest building in the world for four years, then the tower collapsed too. After that, money and Gothic architecture ran out and the church remained a gigantic torso. A slated wall closes off the church behind the crossing to the planned nave; the comparatively tiny Romanesque nave still stands here. This is probably how Cologne Cathedral looked before further construction in the 19th century. You enter the church through the wonderful south façade with its magnificent carved doors, past a statue of Peter, which is a replica of Peter in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and are overwhelmed by the feeling of space. The vault rises infinitely high, huge, bright windows bathe the room in bright light. The blue of the windows in the chapel ring of the apse glows mysteriously. Between the enormous pillars of the transept, powerful wooden auxiliary structures support the sensitive statics (which have now held for 700 years). Interestingly, the crossing pillars are different: one pillar, which may have survived the tower's collapse, has the familiar, diversely sharply contoured Gothic appearance, three pillars have distinctly round profiles. We are lucky enough to experience a baptism service and see the church "in operation". But it is a space of peace and contemplation: only a few visitors find their way to this building, which makes it all the more impressive. And there is another marvel that amazes visitors: a tower-sized astronomical clock from the 19th century, which displays an almost incalculable variety of astronomical data on numerous, beautifully designed dials.