Amiens - Cathedral

The construction of the "Cathédrale Notre-Dame d'Amiens" started in 1220, after a predecessor Romanesque church burnt down two years earlier. Unusual for medieval structures, the first architects are known here. Robert de Luzarches was the architect until 1228. He was followed by Thomas de Cormont until 1258. His son, Renaud de Cormont, acted as the architect until 1288.

Today Amiens Cathedral is the largest existing Gothic cathedral in France. There was a lot of competition between the cities and towns about the largest nave, the highest vaults. The long and relatively peaceful reign of Louis IX (aka "Saint Louis") brought prosperity to the region, so that Amiens could afford such a structure. The cathedral is 145m long (interior length 133,50m). The volume of the structure is about 200.000m³, Notre Dame de Paris has only about 100.000m³

The west front was built from 1220 to 1236, actually the building process started here. There are three vast deep porches, capped with the gallery of twenty-two over lifesize kings. During a cleaning process in the 1990s, it was discovered that the facade was originally painted in multiple colours. The south tower was completed in 1366, the north (higher) one in 1406.

Though the stained glass windows - some dating bak to the 13th century - were dismantled and stored away for safekeeping, much of the glass was lost during the Word War 1. When after the war many of the surviving windows were sent to Paris for restoration work, an accidental fire destroyed even more. However, there are still a few original stained-glass windows in the cathedral.