Photos of the Beautiful Medieval Gothic Beauvais Cathedral

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Photos of the Beautiful Medieval Gothic Beauvais Cathedral and its Gothic Statues & Art, France. Photos by photographer Paul E Williams.    (TIP – use the icons below the slideshow for thumbnail photos and info)

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Photos of the Medieval Gothic Beauvais Cathedral, Statues & Art

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Photos of the medieval Gothic Cathedral of Saint Peter of Beauvais, France.

Beauvais cathedral The Highest Gothic Vault

Beauvais cathedral has the highest Gothic choir in the world at 48.50 m under vault. Work was begun on Beauvais cathedral in 1225 under count-bishop Milo of Nanteuil, with funding from his family, to replace the Romanesque cathedral which had burnt down.

By 1272 the choir of the new gothic Beauvais cathedral had reached higher than Amiens cathedral and was set to become not only the tallest but the biggest cathedral in Christendom. The ambitions of the medieval masons took Beauvais cathedral beyond the known limits of architectural engineering. This lead eventually to the collapse of the cathedral in the 13th century.

Gothic Beauvais CathedralCollapses

This set back meant that It wasn’t until 1569 that a central tower was completed taking the height of Beauvais cathedral to an incredible 153 m (502 feet) high. This record was held until 1573 when the tower collapsed and work never recommenced. Beauvais cathedral remains unfinished to this day.

The Half Finished Gothic Beauvais Cathedral

Today Beauvais cathedral is rather a strange looking building. Its main entrance is through a spectacular southern entrance. When viewing the cathedral from this southern aspect to the right of the gothic doorway is the choir, almost completely hidden by high flying buttresses. To the left of the south entrance can be seen the remaining end of the romanesque basilica the gothic cathedral was meant to replace.

Visual Difference Between Gothic & Romanesque

Beauvais cathedral demonstrates the dramatic differences in scale between the Romanesque and the Gothic. What is left of the tiny Romanesque Basilica is dwarfed by the later Gothic choir. This demonstrates perfectly the huge jump forward in building technology the Gothic represented.

The Great Gothic Pioneers

Beauvais cathedral also demonstrates that medieval masons were pioneers achieving great feats by trial and error. The design of Beauvais cathedral is flawed and has constantly needed interventions to stop it collapsing. Today it has to be braced internally to stop it falling down. The north transept now has four large wood-and-steel lateral trusses at different heights These were installed during the 1990s to keep the transept from collapsing. In addition, the main floor of the transept is interrupted by a much larger brace that rises out of the floor at a 45-degree angle. This brace was installed as an emergency measure to give additional support to the pillars that, until now, have held up the tallest vault in the world.