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Germans in France -
saint quentin cathedral
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Germans in France -saint quentin cathedral |
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francenew : cathedral
giants - Amiens and Beauvais paying
at the péage (toll station) Germans in France
on first arriving in France - driving
Transbordeur
bridges in France and the world 2: focus on Portugalete, Chicago, Rochefort-Martrou
France’s
western isles: Ile de Ré
Pic
du Midi - observing stars clearly, A64 Gustave
Eiffel’s first work: the Eiffel passerelle, Bordeaux
a
dream unfulfilled - the transporter bridge [pont transbordeur],
Bordeaux Ile
de France, Paris: in the context of Abelard and of French
cathedrals
France’s western isles: Ile de Ré France’s western iles: Ile d’Oleron
Marianne - a French national symbol, with French definitive stamps the calendar of the French Revolution
Pic
du Midi - observing stars clearly, A64 Carcassonne,
A61: world heritage fortified city
the
forest as seen by francois mauriac, and today
mardi gras! carnival in Basque country what a hair cut! m & french pop/rock |
la Basilique de St. Quentin - St. Quentin cathedral[Note this building is not the seat of a bishop, so it cannot rightly be called a cathedral. It is a basilica that holds the relics of St Quentin.] Building la Basilique de St. Quentin was began in 1195 and continued for 300 years. The city was besieged in 1557 by the Spanish. In 1871, St. Quentin was captured by the Germans during the Franco-German War. Germans occupied the city on 28th August 1914, after which there were many battles with Allied troops fighting in this locality during 1914, 1917 and twice in 1918. One British soldier here was the war poet Wilfred Owen. St Quentin was finally liberated on 1st October 1918. On 15th August 1917, the cathedral was set on fire and by the next afternoon all that was left was the outer walls. German newspapers claimed that the fires had been started by French gunfire. However, the 15th was relatively calm in this region with few bombardments. On the other hand, German troops had been seen pillaging the city of St. Quentin, including their officers being party to wholesale removal of stolen goods, including coal, factory equipment, wine and mattresses (for wool). By 1918, the cathedral was almost completely destroyed, except the exterior walls.
The damage to the cathedral was considerable: the vaulting of the central nave had collapsed completely, the flying buttresses were partially destroyed, there were numerous breaches in the walls and buttresses, while some masonry threatening to collapse could precipitate large falls, and the state of the bell tower was particularly worrying. After the war, the Basilique de St. Quentin was restored.
The task of restoration was given to Emile Brunet, chief architect of the Historic Monuments Service, sometimes known as “the cathedral man” for his knowledge of ancient building techniques. At first, German prisoners of war cleared about 3,000 cubic metres of cut stone and rubble. Unfortunately, not being adequately supervised, they further damaged carvings and decorations. The most urgent consolidations of masonry was done by specialised workers, parts from damaged sculptures being put aside carefully for later restoration. In order to protect the stone of the building from the weather until the roof was replaced, a temporary framework of eaves was placed on the top of the remaining walls, onto which 5,000 square metres of fibro-cement and Ruberoid sheeting was spread. The restoration took twenty-five years. |
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 Floor plan of the Basilique de St Quentin, drawn by Emile Brunet. The red dots mark 93 bore holes made by the Germans for holding explosives in order to destroy the building. |
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| email abelard@abelard.org © abelard, 2010, 29 May the address for this document is http://www.abelard.org/france/germans_in_france-stquentin.php |
