Bayeux - Cathedral

The cathedral "Notre-Dame de Bayeux" is the seat of the Bishop of Bayeux. It was the original home of the Bayeux Tapestry, that by now can be seen in the "Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux".

As seen on the Bayeux Tapestry, it was here that William the Bastard forced Harold Godwinson to take the oath, the breaking of which led to the Norman conquest of England. So William got "the Conqueror".

The preceding carolingian cathedral burnt down in 1047 and soon after the construction of the church seen today started. The cathedral got consecrated in 1077 by power-hungry Odon de Bayeux, who was William´s half-brother, well known warrior and bishop here. Of course, William was present during the consecration, as then he was Duke of Normandy and King of England.

At that time the building was not completed, the construction site was seriously damaged twice by fire during the 12th century and, when the walls of the nave were built (1180) the style changed from Romanesque to Gothic.

The cathedral got pillaged by Huguenots during the Wars of Religions, during the French Cathedral this was a "Temple de la Raison".
Renovation and restauration of the cathedral started mid 19th century under the direction of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.

The structure of the nave is still Romanesque, so are many decorating carvings.

Here is a dwarf with a pot-belly and a very strange beard. As this cathedral is one of the focal points of the House of Normandy´s power demonstration, it may well be, that this dwarf is a caricature of the late English King Sven I ( aka "Sweyn Forkbeard", "Svend Tveskæg", "Sven Gabelbart", "Barbe Fourchue"), son (and opponent) of Danish King Harald Bluetooth. Sven was English King for only 40 days, he died in 1014.

So this dwarf may stand for danish claims in England, wiped out by William the Conqueror in 1066.