intention of reaching, if possible, the grace and symmetry of the
_Maison Carée_; the splendour of the temple of Diana; the majesty of the
_Tour Magna_; the grandeur of the arena; or possibly in some measure a
blend of all these ambitious results.
Instead, he built meanly and sordidly, though mainly by cause of
poverty.
The Church of the Middle Ages, though come to great power and influence,
was not possessed of the fabulous wealth of the vainglorious Roman, who
gratified his senses and beautified his surroundings by a lavish
expenditure of means, acquired often in a none too honest fashion.
The imperative need of the soul was for a house of worship of some sort,
and in some measure relative to the rank of the prelate who was to guard
their religious life. This took shape in the early part of the eleventh
century, when the cathedral of St. Castor was built.
Of the varied and superlative attractions of the city one is attempted
to enlarge unduly; until the thought comes that there is the making of a
book itself to be fashioned out of a reconsideration of the splendid
monuments which still exist in this city of celebrated art. To
enumerate them all even would be an impossibility here.
The tiny building known as the _Maison Carée_ is of that greatness which
is not excelled by the "Divine Comedy" in literature, the "Venus of
Milo" in sculpture, or the "Transfiguration" in painting.
The delicacy and beauty of its Corinthian columns are the more apparent
when viewed in conjunction with the pseudo-classical portico of
mathematical clumsiness of the modern theatre opposite.
This theatre is a dreadful caricature of the deathless work of the
Greeks, while the perfect example of _Greco-Romain_ architecture--the
_Maison Carée_--will endure as long as its walls stand as the fullest
expression of that sense of divine proportion and _magique harmonie_
which the Romans inherited from the Greeks. Cardinal Alberoni called it
"a gem which should be set in gold," and both Louis Quatorze and
Napoleon had schemes for lifting it bodily from the ground and
reëstablishing it at Paris.
_Les Arènes_ of Nîmes is an unparalleled work of its class, and in far
better preservation than any other extant. It stands, welcoming the
stranger, at the very gateway of the city, its _grand axe_ extending
off, in arcaded perspective, over four hundred and twenty feet, with
room inside for thirty thousand souls.
These Romans wrought on a magnificent scale, and here, as elsewhere,
they have left evidences of their skill which are manifestly of the
non-decaying order.
* * * * *
The Commission des Monuments Historiques lists in all at Nîmes nine of
these historical monuments over which the paternal care of the Ministère
de l'Instruction Publique et des Beaux Arts ever hangs.
As if the only really fine element in the Cathedral of St. Castor were
the façade, with its remarkable frieze of events of Bible history, the
Commission has singled it out for especial care, which in truth it
deserves, far and away above any other specific feature of this church.
Christianity came early to Nîmes; or, at least, the bishopric was
founded here, with St. Felix as its first bishop, in the fourth century.
At this time the diocese was a suffragan of Narbonne, whilst to-day its
allegiance is to the archiepiscopal throne at Avignon.
The cathedral of St. Castor was erected in 1030, restored in the
thirteenth century, and suffered greatly in the wars of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries.
These depredations have been--in part--made good, but in the main it is
a rather gaunt and painful fabric, and one which is unlooked for amid so
magnificent neighbours.
It has been said by Roger Peyer--who has written a most enticing
monograph on Nîmes--"that without prejudice we can say that the churches
constructed in the city _dans nos jours_ are far in advance of the
cathedral." This is unquestionably true; for, if we except the very
ancient façade, with its interesting sculptured frieze, there is little
to impress the cathedral upon the mind except its contrast with its
surrounding architectural peers.
The main plan, with its flanking north-westerly square tower, is
reminiscent of hundreds of parish churches yet to be seen in Italy;
while its portal is but a mere classical doorway, too mean even to be
classed as a detail of any rank whatever.
The façade has undergone some breaking-out and stopping-up of windows
during the past decade; for what purpose it is hard to realize, as the
effect is neither enhanced nor the reverse.
A gaunt supporting buttress, or what not, flanks the tower on the south
and adds, yet further, to the incongruity of the _ensemble_.
In fine, its decorations are a curious mixture of a more or less pure
round-headed Roman style of window and doorway, with later Renaissance
and pseudo-classical interpolations.
With the interior the edifice takes on more of an interesting character,
though even here it is not remarkable as to beauty or grace.
The nave is broad, aisleless, and bare, but presents an air of grandeur
which is perhaps not otherwise justified; an effect which is doubtless
wholly produced by a certain cheerfulness of aspect, which comes from
the fact that it has been restored--or at least thoroughly furbished
up--in recent times.
The large Roman nave, erected, it has been said, from the remains of a
former temple of Augustus, has small chapels, without windows, beyond
its pillars in place of the usual side aisles.
Above is a fine gallery or _tribune_, which also surrounds the choir.
The modern mural paintings--the product of the Restoration period--give
an air of splendour and elegance, after the manner of the Italian
churches, to an appreciably greater extent than is commonly seen in
France.
In the third chapel on the left is an altar-table made of an early
Christian sarcophagus; a questionable practice perhaps, but forming an
otherwise beautiful, though crude, accessory.
[Illustration]
XV
ST. THÉODORIT D'UZÈS
The ancient diocese of Uzès formerly included that region lying between
the Ardèche, the Rhône, and the Gardon, its length and breadth being
perhaps equal--fourteen ancient leagues. As a bishopric, it endured from
the middle of the fifth century nearly to the beginning of the
nineteenth.
In ancient Gallic records its cathedral was reckoned as some miles from
the present site of the town, but as no other remains than those of St.
Théodorit are known to-day, it is improbable that any references in
mediæval history refer to another structure.
This church is now no longer a cathedral, the see having been suppressed
in 1790.
The bishop here, as at Lodève and Mende, was the count of the town, and
the bishop and duke each possessed their castles and had their
respective spheres of jurisdiction, which, says an old-time chronicler,
"often occasioned many disputes." Obviously!
In the sixteenth century most of the inhabitants embraced the
Reformation after the example of their bishop, who, with all his
chapter, publicly turned Protestant and "sent for a minister to Geneva."
What remains of the cathedral to-day is reminiscent of a highly
interesting mediæval foundation, though its general aspect is distinctly
modern. Such rebuilding and restoration as it underwent, in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, made of it practically a new
edifice.
The one feature of mark, which stands alone as the representative of
mediæval times, is the charming tower which flanks the main body of the
church on the right.
It is known as the "Tour Fenestrelle" and is of the thirteenth century.
It would be a notable accessory to any great church, and is of seven
stories in height, each dwindling in size from the one below, forming a
veritable campanile. Its height is 130 feet.
The interior attractions of this minor church are greater than might be
supposed. There is a low gallery with a superb series of wrought-iron
_grilles_, a fine tomb in marble--to Bishop Boyan--and in the transept
two paintings by Simon de Chalons--a "Resurrection" and a "Raising of
Lazarus."
The inevitable obtrusive organ-case is of the seventeenth century, and
like all of its kind is a parasitical abomination, clinging precariously
to the western wall.
The sacristy is an extensive suite of rooms which contain throughout a
deep-toned and mellow oaken wainscot.
For the rest, the lines of this church follow the conventionality of its
time. Its proportions, while not great, are good, and there is no marked
luxuriance of ornament or any exceeding grace in the entire structure,
if we except the detached tower before mentioned.
The situation of the town is most picturesque; not daintily pretty, but
of a certain dignified order, which is the more satisfying.
The ancient château, called Le Duché, is the real architectural treat of
the place.
XVI
ST. JEAN D'ALAIS
Alais is an ancient city, but greatly modernized; moreover it does not
take a supreme rank as a cathedral city, from the fact that it held a
bishop's throne for but a hundred years. Alais was a bishopric only from
1694 to 1790.
The cathedral of St. Jean is an imposing structure of that obtrusive
variety of architectural art known as "Louis Quinze," and is unworthy of
the distinction once bestowed upon it.
Perhaps it is due to the fact that the Cevenole country was so largely
and aggressively Protestant that the see of Alais did not endure. Robert
Louis Stevenson tells of a stranger he met in these mountain parts--that
he was a Catholic, "and made no shame of it. No shame of it! The phrase
is a piece of natural statistics; for it is the language of one of a
minority.... Ireland is still Catholic; the Cevennes still Protestant.
Outdoor rustics have not many ideas, but such as they have are hardy
plants and thrive flourishingly in persecution."
Built about in the façade of this unfeeling structure are some remains
of a twelfth-century church, but they are not of sufficient bulk or
excellence to warrant remark.
An advancing porch stands before this west façade and is surmounted by a
massive tower in a poor Gothic style.
The vast interior, like the exterior, is entirely without distinction,
though gaudily decorated. There are some good pictures, which, as works
of art, are a decided advance over any other attributes of this
church--an "Assumption," attributed to Mignard, in the chapel of the
Virgin; in the left transept, a "Virgin" by Deveria; and in the right
transept an "Annunciation" by Jalabert.
Alais is by no means a dull place. It is busy with industry, is
prosperous, and possesses on a minute scale all the distractions of a
great city. It is modern to the very core, so far as appearances go. It
has its Boulevard Victor Hugo, its Boulevard Gambetta, and its Lycée
Dumas. The Hôpital St. Louis--which has a curious doubly twisted
staircase--is of the eighteenth century; a bust of the Marquis de la
Fère-Alais, the Cevenole poet, is of the nineteenth; a monument of
bronze, to the glory of Pasteur, dates from 1896; and various other
bronze and stone memorials about the city all date and perpetuate the
name and fame of eighteenth and nineteenth-century notables.
The Musée--another recent creation--occupies the former episcopal
residence, of eighteenth-century construction.
The Hôtel de Ville is quite the most charming building of the city. It
has fine halls and corridors, and an ample bibliothèque. Its present-day
Salle du Conseil was the ancient chamber of the _États du Languedoc_.
XVII
ST. PIERRE D'ANNECY
The Savoian city of Annecy was formerly the ancient capital of the
Genevois.
Its past history is more closely allied with other political events than
those which emanated from within the kingdom of France; and its
ecclesiastical allegiance was intimately related with Geneva, from
whence the episcopal seat was removed in 1535.
In reality the Christian activities of Annecy had but little to do with
the Church in France, Savoie only having been ceded to France in 1860.
Formerly it belonged to the ducs de Savoie and the kings of Sardinia.
Annecy is a most interesting city, and possesses many, if not quite all,
of the attractions of Geneva itself, including the Lake of Annecy, which
is quite as romantically picturesque as Lac Leman, though its
proportions are not nearly so great.
The city's interest for the lover of religious associations is perhaps
greater than for the lover of church architecture alone, but, as the two
must perforce go hand in hand the greater part of the way, Annecy will
be found to rank high in the annals of the history and art of the
religious life of the past.
In the chapel of the Visitation, belonging to the convent of the same
name, are buried St. François de Sales (d. 1622) and Ste. Jeanne de
Chantal (d. 1641). The chapel is architecturally of no importance, but
the marble ornament and sculptures and the rich paintings are
interesting.
The ancient chapel of the Visitation--the convent of the first monastery
founded by St. Francis and Ste. Jeanne--immediately adjoins the
cathedral.
Christianity first came to Annecy in the fourth century, with St.
Emilien. For long after its foundation the see was a suffragan of the
ancient ecclesiastical province of Vienne. To-day it is a suffragan of
Chambéry.
The rather ordinary cathedral of St. Pierre has no great interest as an
architectural type, and is possessed of no embellishments of a rank
sufficiently high to warrant remark. It dates only from the sixteenth
century, and is quite unconvincing as to any art expression which its
builders may have possessed.
The episcopal palace (1784) adjoins the cathedral on the south.
[Illustration]
XVIII
CATHÉDRALE DE CHAMBÉRY
The city of Chambéry in the eighteenth century must have been a
veritable hotbed of aristocracy. A French writer of that day has indeed
stated that it is "the winter residence of all the aristocracy of
Savoie; ... with twenty thousand francs one could live _en grand
seigneur_; ... a country gentleman, with an income of a hundred and
twenty louis d'or a year, would as a matter of course take up his abode
in the town for the winter."
To-day such a basis upon which to make an estimate of the value of
Chambéry as a place of residence would be, it is to be feared,
misleading.
Arthur Young closes his observations upon the agricultural prospects of
Savoie with the bold statement that: "On this day, left Chambéry much
dissatisfied,--for the want of knowing more of it."
Rousseau knew it better, much better. "_S'il est une petite ville au
monde où l'on goûte la douceur de la vie dans un commerce agréable et
sûr, c'est Chambéry._"
Savoie and the Comté de Nice were annexed to France only as late as
1860, and from them were formed the departments of Savoie, Haute-Savoie,
and the Alpes-Maritimes.
Chambéry is to-day an archbishopric, with suffragans at Annecy,
Tarentaise, and St. Jean de Maurienne. Formerly conditions were
reversed, and Chambéry was merely a bishopric in the province de
Tarentaise. Its first bishop, Michel Conseil, came in office, however,
only in 1780.
The cathedral is of the fourteenth century, in the pointed style, and as
a work of art is distinctly of a minor class.
The principal detail of note is a western portal which somewhat
approaches good Gothic, but in the main, both inside and out, the
church has no remarkable features, if we except some modern glass, which
is better in colour than most late work of its kind.
As if to counteract any additional charm which this glass might
otherwise lend to the interior, we find a series of flamboyant traceries
over the major portion of the side walls and vaulting. These are garish
and in every way unpleasing, and the interior effect, like that of the
exterior, places the cathedral at Chambéry far down the scale among
great churches.
Decidedly the architectural embellishments of Chambéry lie not in its
cathedral.
The chapel of the ancient château, dating in part from the thirteenth
century, but mainly of the Gothic-Renaissance period, is far and away
the most splendid architectural monument of its class to be seen here.
_La Grande Chartreuse_ is equally accessible from either Chambéry or
Grenoble, and should not be neglected when one is attempting to
familiarize himself with these parts.
[Illustration]
XIX
NOTRE DAME DE GRENOBLE
It is an open question as to whether Grenoble is not possessed of the
most admirable and impressive situation of any cathedral city of France.
At all events it has the attribute of a unique background in the _massif
de la Chartreuse_, and the range of snow-clad Alps, which rise so
abruptly as to directly screen and shelter the city from all other parts
lying north and east. Furthermore this natural windbreak, coupled with
the altitude of the city itself, makes for a bright and sunny, and
withal bracing, atmosphere which many professed tourist and health
resorts lack.
Grenoble is in all respects "a most pleasant city," and one which
contains much of interest for all sorts and conditions of pilgrims.
Anciently Grenoble was a bishopric in the diocese of the Province of
Vienne, to whose archbishop the see was at that time subordinate. Its
foundation was during the third century, and its first prelate was one
Domninus.
In the redistribution of dioceses Grenoble became a suffragan of Lyon et
Vienne, which is its status to-day.
As might naturally be inferred, in the case of so old a foundation, its
present-day cathedral of Notre Dame partakes also of early origin.
This it does, to a small degree only, with respect to certain of the
foundations of the choir. These date from the eleventh century, while
succeeding eras, of a mixed and none too pure an architectural style,
culminate in presenting a singularly unconvincing and cold church
edifice.
The "pointed" tabernacle, which is the chief interior feature, is of the
middle fifteenth century, and indeed the general effect is that of the
late Middle Ages, if not actually suggestive of still later modernity.
The tomb of Archbishop Chissé, dating from 1407, is the cathedral's
chief monumental shrine.
To the left of the cathedral is the ancient bishop's palace; still used
as such. It occupies the site of an eleventh-century episcopal
residence, but the structure itself is probably not earlier than the
fifteenth century.
In the _Église de St. André_, a thirteenth-century structure, is a tomb
of more than usual sentimental and historical interest: that of Bayard.
It will be found in the transept.
No mention of Grenoble could well ignore the famous monastery of _La
Grande Chartreuse_.
Mostly, it is to be feared, the monastery is associated in mundane minds
with that subtle and luxurious _liqueur_ which has been brewed by the
white-robed monks of St. Bruno for ages past; and was until quite
recently, when the establishment was broken up by government decree and
the real formula of this sparkling _liqueur_ departed with the migrating
monks.
The opinion is ventured, however, that up to the time of their
expulsion (in 1902), the monks of St. Bruno combined solitude,
austerity, devotion, and charity of a most practical kind with a
lucrative commerce in their distilled product after a successful manner
not equalled by any religious community before or since.
[Illustration: S. Bruno]
The Order of St. Bruno has weathered many storms, and, during the
Terror, was driven from its home and dispersed by brutal and riotous
soldiery. In 1816 a remnant returned, escorted, it is said, by a throng
of fifty thousand people.
The cardinal rule of the Carthusians is abstemiousness from all
meat-eating; which, however, in consideration of their calm, regular
life, and a diet in which fish plays an important part, is apparently
conducive to that longevity which most of us desire.
It is related that a certain Dominican pope wished to diminish the
severity of St. Bruno's regulations, but was met by a delegation of
Carthusians, whose _doyen_ owned to one hundred and twenty years, and
whose youngest member was of the ripe age of ninety. The amiable
pontiff, not having, apparently, an argument left, accordingly withdrew
his edict.
Of all these great Charterhouses spread throughout France, _La Grande
Chartreuse_ was the most inspiring and interesting; not only from the
structure itself, but by reason of its commanding and romantic situation
amid the forest-clad heights of the Savoyan Alps.
The first establishment here was the foundation of St. Bruno (in 1084),
which consisted merely of a modest chapel and a number of isolated
cubicles.
This foundation only gave way--as late as the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries--to an enlarged structure more in accord with the demands and
usage of this period.
The most distinctive feature of its architecture is the grand cloister,
with its hundred and fifteen Gothic arches, out of which open the sixty
cells of the sandalled and hooded white-robed monks, who, continuing St.
Bruno's regulation, live still in isolation. In these cells they spent
all of their time outside the hours of work and worship, but were
allowed the privilege of receiving one colleague at a time. Here, too,
they ate their meals, with the exception of the principal meal on
Sundays, when they all met together in the refectory.
The _Église de la Grande Chartreuse_ itself is very simple, about the
only distinctive or notable feature being the sixteenth-century
choir-stalls. At the midnight service, or at _matins_, when the simple
church is lit only by flaming torches, and the stalls filled with
white-robed _Chartreux_, is presented a picture which for solemnity and
impressiveness is as vivid as any which has come down from mediæval
times.
The chanting of the chorals, too, is unlike anything heard before; it
has indeed been called, before now, angelic. Petrarch, whose brother was
a member of the order, has put himself on record as having been
enchanted by it.
As many as ten thousand visitors have passed through the portals of _La
Grande Chartreuse_ during the year, but now in the absence of the
monks--temporary or permanent as is yet to be determined--conditions
obtain which will not allow of entrance to the conventual buildings.
No one, however, who visits either Grenoble or Chambéry should fail to
journey to St. Laurent du Pont--the gateway of the fastness which
enfolds _La Grande Chartreuse_, and thence to beneath the shadow of the
walls which for so long sheltered the parent house of this ancient and
powerful order.
[Illustration: _Belley_]
XX
BELLEY AND AOSTE
En route to Chambéry, from Lyon, one passes the little town of Belley.
It is an ancient place, most charmingly situated, and is a suffragan
bishopric, strangely enough, of Besançon, which is not only Teutonic in
its tendencies, but is actually of the north.
At all events, Belley, in spite of its clear and crisp mountain air, is
not of the same climatic zone as the other dioceses in the archbishopric
of Besançon.
Its cathedral is distinctly minor as to style, and is mainly Gothic of
the fifteenth century; though not unmixed, nor even consistent, in its
various parts. No inconsiderable portion is modern, as will be plainly
seen.
One distinctly notable feature is a series of Romanesque columns in the
nave, possibly taken from some pagan Roman structure. They are
sufficiently of importance and value to be classed as "_Monuments
Historiques_," and as such are interesting.
Aoste (Aoste-St.-Genix) is on the site of the Roman colony of Augustum,
of which to-day there are but a few fragmentary remains. It is perhaps a
little more than a mile from the village of St. Genix, with which to-day
its name is invariably coupled. As an ancient bishopric in the province
of Tarentaise, it took form in the fourth century, with St. Eustache as
its first bishop. To-day the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of all this
region--the Val-de-Tarentaise--is held by Tarentaise.
[Illustration]
XXI
ST. JEAN DE MAURIENNE
St. Jean de Maurienne is a tiny mountain city well within the
advance-guard of the Alpine range. Of itself it savours no more of the
picturesque than do the immediate surroundings. One can well understand
that vegetation round about has grown scant merely because of the dearth
of fructifying soil. The valleys and the ravines flourish, but the
enfolding walls of rock are bare and sterile.
This is the somewhat abbreviated description of the _pagi_ garnered from
an ancient source, and is, in the main, true enough to-day.
Not many casual travellers ever get to this mountain city of the Alps;
they are mostly rushed through to Italy, and do not stop short of the
frontier station of Modane, some thirty odd kilometres onward; from
which point onward only do they know the "lie of the land" between Paris
and Piedmont.
St. Jean de Maurienne is to-day, though a suffragan of Chambéry, a
bishopric in the old ecclesiastical province of Tarentaise. The first
archbishop--as the dignity was then--was St. Jacques, in the fifth
century.
The cathedral of St. Jean is of a peculiar architectural style, locally
known as "Chartreusian." It is by no means beautiful, but it is not
unpleasing. It dates, as to the epoch of its distinctive style, from the
twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, though it has been so fully restored
in our day that it may as well be considered as a rebuilt structure, in
spite of the consistent devotion to the original plan.
The chief features of note are to be seen in its interior, and, while
they are perhaps not of extraordinary value or beauty, in any single
instance, they form, as a whole, a highly interesting disposition of
devout symbols.
Immediately within the portico, by which one enters from the west, is a
plaster model of the tomb of Count Humbert, the head of the house of
Savoie.
In the nave is an altar and mausoleum in marble, gold, and mosaic,
erected by the Carthusians to St. Ayrald, a former bishop of the diocese
and a member of their order.
In the left aisle of the nave is a tomb to Oger de Conflans, and another
to two former bishops.
Through the sacristy, which is behind the chapel of the Sacred Heart, is
the entrance to the cloister. This cloister, while not of ranking
greatness or beauty, is carried out, in the most part, in the true
pointed style of its era (1452), and is, on the whole, the most charming
attribute of the cathedral.
The choir has a series of carved stalls in wood, which are unusually
acceptable. In the choir, also, is a _ciborium_, in alabaster, with a
_reliquaire_ which is said to contain three fingers of John the Baptist,
brought to Savoie in the sixth century by Ste. Thècle.
The crypt, beneath the choir, is, as is most frequently the case, the
remains of a still earlier church, which occupied the same site, but of
which there is little record extant.
XXII
ST. PIERRE DE ST. CLAUDE
St. Claude is charmingly situated in a romantic valley of the Jura.
The sound of mill-wheels and the sight of factory chimneys mingle
inextricably with the roaring of mountain torrents and the solitude of
the pine forest.
The majority of the inhabitants of these valleys lead a simple and
pastoral life, with cheese-making apparently the predominant industry.
Manufacturing of all kinds is carried on, in a small way, in nearly
every hamlet--in tiny cottage _ateliers_--wood-carving, gem-polishing,
spectacle and clock-making, besides turnery and wood-working of all
sorts.
[Illustration: ST. PIERRE _de ST. CLAUDE_]
St. Claude, with its ancient cathedral of St. Pierre, is the centre of
all these activities; which must suggest to all publicists of time-worn
and _ennuied_ lands a deal of possibilities in the further
application of such industrial energies as lie close at hand.
In 1789, when Arthur Young, in his third journey through France, passed
through St. Claude, the count-bishop of the diocese, the sole inheritor
of its wealthy abbey foundation and all its seigneurial dependencies,
had only just enfranchised his forty thousand serfs.
Voltaire, the atheist, pleaded in vain the cause of this Christian
prelate, and for him to be allowed to sustain his right to bond-men; but
opposition was too great, and they became free to enjoy property rights,
could they but once acquire them. Previously, if childless, they had no
power to bequeath their property; it reverted simply to the seigneur by
custom of tradition.
In the fifth century, St. Claude was the site of a powerful abbey. It
did not become an episcopal see, however, until 1742, when its first
bishop was Joseph de Madet.
At the Revolution the see was suppressed, but it rose again,
phoenix-like, in 1821, and endures to-day as a suffragan of Lyon et
Vienne.
The cathedral of St. Pierre is a fourteenth-century edifice, with later
work (seventeenth century) equally to be remarked. As a work of
restoration it appears poorly done, but the entire structure is of more
than ordinary interest; nevertheless it still remains an uncompleted
work.
The church is of exceedingly moderate dimensions, and is in no sense a
great achievement. Its length cannot be much over two hundred feet, and
its width and height are approximately equal (85 feet), producing a
symmetry which is too conventional to be really lovable.
Still, considering its environment and the association as the old abbey
church, to which St. Claude, the bishop of Besançon, retired in the
twelfth century, it has far more to offer in the way of a pleasing
prospect than many cathedrals of greater architectural worth.
There are, in its interior, a series of fine choir-stalls in wood, of
the fifteenth century--comparable only with those at Rodez and Albi for
their excellence and the luxuriance of their carving--a sculptured
_Renaissance retable_ depicting the life of St. Pierre, and a modern
high-altar. This last accessory is not as worthy an art work as the two
others.
[Illustration: _Notre Dame de Bourg_]
XXIII
NOTRE DAME DE BOURG
The chief ecclesiastical attraction of Bourg-en-Bresse is not its
one-time cathedral of Notre Dame, which is but a poor Renaissance affair
of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries.
The famous Église de Brou, which Matthew Arnold described so justly and
fully in his verses, is a florid Gothic monument which ranks among the
most celebrated in France. It is situated something less than a mile
from the town, and is a show-piece which will not be neglected. Its
charms are too many and varied to be even suggested here.
There are a series of sculptured figures of the prophets and apostles,
from a fifteenth or sixteenth-century _atelier_, that may or may not
have given the latter-day Sargent his suggestion for his celebrated
"frieze of the prophets." They are wonderfully like, at all events, and
the observation is advisedly included here, though it is not intended as
a sneer at Sargent's masterwork.
This wonderful sixteenth-century Église de Brou, in a highly decorated
Gothic style, its monuments, altars, and admirable glass, is not
elsewhere equalled, as to elaborateness, in any church of its size or
rank.
Notre Dame de Bourg--the cathedral--though manifestly a Renaissance
structure, has not a little of the Gothic spirit in its interior
arrangements and details. It is as if a Renaissance shell--and not a
handsome one--were enclosing a Gothic treasure.
There is the unusual polygonal apside, which dates from the fifteenth or
sixteenth century, and is the most curious part of the entire edifice.
The octagonal tower of the west has, in its higher story, been replaced
by an ugly dome-shaped excrescence surmounted by an enormous gilded
cross which is by no means beautiful.
The west façade in general, in whose portal are shown some evidences of
the Gothic spirit, which at the time of its erection had not wholly
died, is uninteresting and all out of proportion to a church of its
rank.
The interior effect somewhat redeems the unpromising exterior.
There is a magnificent marble high-altar, jewel-wrought and of much
splendour. The two chapels have modern glass. A fine head of Christ,
carved in ivory, is to be seen in the sacristy. Previous to 1789 it was
kept in the great council-chamber of the _États de la Bresse_.
In the sacristy also there are two pictures, of the German school of the
sixteenth century.
There are sixty-eight stalls, of the sixteenth century, carved in wood.
Curiously enough, these stalls--of most excellent workmanship--are not
placed within the regulation confines of the choir, but are ranged in
two rows along the wall of the apside.
XXIV
GLANDÈVE, SENEZ, RIEZ, SISTERON
The diocese of Digne now includes four _ci-devant_ bishoprics, each of
which was suppressed at the Revolution.
The ruins of the ancient bishopric of Glandève are to-day replaced by
the small town of D'Entrevaux, whose former cathedral of St. Just has
now disappeared. The see of Glandève had in all fifty-three bishops, the
first--St. Fraterne--in the year 459.
Senez was composed of but thirty-two parishes. It was, however, a very
ancient foundation, dating from 445 A. D. Its cathedral was known as
Notre Dame, and its chapter was composed of five canons and three
dignitaries. At various times forty-three bishops occupied the episcopal
throne at Senez.
[Illustration: NOTRE DAME _de SISTERON_]
The suppression likewise made way with the bishopric at Riez, a charming
little city of Provence. The see was formerly composed of fifty-four
parishes, and its cathedral of Notre Dame had a chapter of eight
canons and four dignitaries. The first bishop was St. Prosper, in the
early part of the fifth century. Ultimately he was followed by
seventy-four others. Two "councils of the church" were held at Riez, the
first in 439, and the second in 1285.
The diocese of Sisteron was situated in the charming mountain town of
the Basses-Alps. This brisk little fortress-city still offers to the
traveller many of the attractions of yore, though its former cathedral
of Notre Dame no longer shelters a bishop's throne.
Four dignitaries and eight canons performed the functions of the
cathedral, and served the fifty parishes allied with it.
The first bishop was Chrysaphius, in 452, and the last, François Bovet,
in 1789. This prelate in 1801 refused the oath of allegiance demanded by
the new régime, and forthwith resigned, when the see was combined with
that of Digne.
The ancient cathedral of Notre Dame de Sisteron of the eleventh and
twelfth centuries is now ranked as a "_Monument Historique_." It dates,
in the main, from the twelfth century, and is of itself no more
remarkable than many of the other minor cathedrals of this part of
France.
Its chief distinction lies in its grand _retable_, which is decorated
with a series of superb paintings by Mignard.
The city lies picturesquely posed at the foot of a commanding height,
which in turn is surmounted by the ancient citadel. Across the defile,
which is deeply cut by the river Durance, rises the precipitous Mont de
la Baume, which, with the not very grand or splendid buildings of the
city itself, composes the ensemble at once into a distinctively
"old-world" spot, which the march of progress has done little to temper.
It looks not a little like a piece of stage-scenery, to be sure, but it
is a wonderful grouping of the works of nature and of the hand of man,
and one which it will be difficult to duplicate elsewhere in France; in
fact, it will not be possible to do so.
[Illustration]
XXV
ST. JEROME DE DIGNE
The diocese of Digne, among all of its neighbours, has survived until
to-day. It is a suffragan of Aix, Arles, and Embrun, and has
jurisdiction over the whole of the Department of the Basses-Alps. St.
Domnin became its first bishop, in the fourth century.
The ancient Romanesque cathedral of Notre Dame--from which the bishop's
seat has been removed to the more modern St. Jerome--is an unusually
interesting old church, though bare and unpretentious to-day. It dates
from the twelfth century, and has all the distinguishing marks of its
era. Its nave is, moreover, a really fine work, and worthy to rank with
many more important. There are, in this nave, some traces of a series of
curious wall-paintings dating from the fourteenth or fifteenth
centuries.
St. Jerome de Digne--called _la cathédrale fort magnifiante_--is a
restored Gothic church of the early ages of the style, though it has
been placed--in some doubt--as of the fifteenth century.
The apse is semicircular, without chapels, and the general effect of the
interior as a whole is curiously marred by reason of the lack of
transepts, clerestory, and triforium.
This notable poverty of feature is perhaps made up for by the amplified
side aisles, which are doubled throughout.
The western portal, which is of an acceptable modern Gothic, is of more
than usual interest as to its decorations. In the tympanum of the arch
is a figure of the Saviour giving his blessing, with the emblems of the
Evangelists below, and an angel and the pelican--the emblem of the
sacrament--above. Beneath the figure of the Saviour is another of St.
Jerome, the patron, to whom the cathedral is dedicated.
A square, ungainly tower holds a noisy peal of bells, which, though a
great source of local pride, can but prove annoying to the stranger,
with their importunate and unseemly clanging.
The chief accessories, in the interior, are an elaborate organ-case,--of
the usual doubtful taste,--a marble statue of St. Vincent de Paul (by
Daumas, 1869), and a sixteenth or seventeenth-century statue of a former
bishop of the diocese.
Digne has perhaps a more than ordinary share of picturesque environment,
seated, as it is, luxuriously in the lap of the surrounding mountains.
St. Domnin, the first bishop, came, it is said, from Africa at a period
variously stated as from 330 to 340 A. D., but, at any rate, well on
into the fourth century. His enthronement appears to have been
undertaken amid much heretical strife, and was only accomplished with
the aid of St. Marcellin, the archbishop of Embrun, of which the diocese
of Digne was formerly a suffragan.
The good St. Domnin does not appear to have made great headway in
putting out the flame of heresy, though his zeal was great and his
miracles many. He departed this world before the dawn of the fifth
century, and his memory is still brought to the minds of the
communicants of the cathedral each year on the 13th of February--his
fête-day--by the display of a reliquary, which is said to
contain--somewhat unemphatically--the remains of his head and arm.
Wonderful cures are supposed to result to the infirm who view this
_relique_ in a proper spirit of veneration, and devils are warranted to
be cast out from the true believer under like conditions.
A council of the Church was held at Digne in 1414.
XXVI
NOTRE DAME DE DIE
The _Augusta Dia_ of the Romans is to-day a diminutive French town lying
at the foot of the _colline_ whose apex was formerly surmounted by the
more ancient city.
It takes but little ecclesiastical rank, and is not even a tourist
resort of renown. It is, however, a shrine which encloses and surrounds
many monuments of the days which are gone, and is possessed of an
ancient Arc de Triomphe which would attract many of the genus
"_touriste_", did they but realize its charm.
The cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin, sheltered a bishop's throne from
the foundation of the bishopric until 1285, when a hiatus
ensued--apparently from some inexplicable reason--until 1672, when its
episcopal dignity again came into being. Finally, in 1801, the diocese
came to an end. St. Mars was the first bishop, the see having been
founded in the third century.
The porch of this cathedral is truly remarkable, having been taken from
a former temple to Cybele, and dates at least from some years previous
to the eleventh century. Another portal of more than usual remark--known
as the _porte rouge_--is fashioned from contemporary fragments of the
same period.
While to all intents and purposes the cathedral is an early
architectural work, its rank to-day is that of a restored or rebuilt
church of the seventeenth century.
The nave is one of the largest in this part of France, being 270 feet in
length and seventy-six feet in width. It has no side aisles and is
entirely without pillars to break its area, which of course appears more
vast than it really is.
What indications there are which would place the cathedral among any of
the distinct architectural styles are of the pointed variety.
Aside from its magnificent dimensions, there are no interior features of
remark except a gorgeous Renaissance pulpit and a curious _cène_.
XXVII
NOTRE DAME ET ST. CASTOR D'APT
Apt is doubtfully claimed to have been a bishopric under St. Auspice in
the first century, but the ancient _Apta Julia_ of Roman times is to-day
little more than an interesting by-point, with but little importance in
either ecclesiological or art matters.
Its cathedral--as a cathedral--ceased to exist in 1790. It is of the
species which would be generally accepted as Gothic, so far as exterior
appearances go, but it is bare and poor in ornament and design, and as a
type ranks far down the scale.
In its interior arrangements the style becomes more florid, and takes on
something of the elaborateness which in a more thoroughly worthy
structure would be unremarked.
The chief decoration lies in the rather elaborate _jubé_, or
choir-screen, which stands out far more prominently than any other
interior feature, and is without doubt an admirable example of this not
too frequent attribute of a French church.
Throughout there are indications of the work of many epochs and eras,
from the crypt of the primitive church to the Chapelle de Ste. Anne,
constructed by Mansard in the seventeenth century. This chapel contains
some creditable paintings by Parrocel, and yet others, in a still better
style, by Mignard.
The crypt, which formed a part of the earlier church on this site, is
the truly picturesque feature of the cathedral at Apt, and, like many of
its kind, is now given over to a series of subterranean chapels.
Among the other attributes of the interior are a tomb of the Ducs de
Sabron, a marble altar of the twelfth century, a precious enamel of the
same era, and a Gallo-Romain sarcophagus of the fifth century.
As to the exterior effect and ensemble, the cathedral is hardly to be
remarked, either in size or splendour, from the usual parish church of
the average small town of France. It does not rise to a very ambitious
height, neither does its ground-plan suggest magnificent proportions.
Altogether it proves to be a cathedral which is neither very interesting
nor even picturesque.
The little city itself is charmingly situated on the banks of the
Coulon, a small stream which runs gaily on its way to the Durance, at
times torrential, which in turn goes to swell the flood of the Rhône
below Avignon.
The former bishop's palace is now the préfecture and Mairie.
[Illustration]
XXVIII
NOTRE DAME D'EMBRUN
Embrun, not unlike its neighbouring towns in the valley of the Durance,
is possessed of the same picturesque environment as Sisteron and Digne.
It is perched high on that species of eminence known in France as a
_colline_, though in this case it does not rise to a very magnificent
height; what there is of it, however, serves to accentuate the
picturesque element as nothing else would.
The episcopal dignity of the town is only partial; it shares the
distinction with Aix and Arles.
The Église Notre Dame, though it is still locally known as "_la
cathédrale_," is of the twelfth century, and has a wonderful old
Romanesque north porch and peristyle set about with gracefully
proportioned columns, the two foremost of which are supported upon the
backs of a pair of weird-looking animals, which are supposed to
represent the twelfth-century stone-cutter's conception of the king of
beasts. In the tympanum of this portal are sculptured figures of Christ
and the Evangelists, in no wise of remarkable quality, but indicating,
with the other decorative features, a certain luxuriance which is not
otherwise suggested in the edifice.
The Romanesque tower which belongs to the church proper is, as to its
foundations, of very early date, though, as a finished detail, it is
merely a rebuilt fourteenth-century structure carried out on the old
lines. There is another tower, commonly called "_la tour brune_," which
adjoins the ancient bishop's palace, and dates from at least a century
before the main body of the church.
The entire edifice presents an architectural _mélange_ that makes it
impossible to classify it as of any one specific style, but the opinion
is hazarded that it is all the more interesting a shrine because of this
incongruity.
The choir, too, indicates that it has been built up from fragments of a
former fabric, while the west front is equally unconvincing, and has the
added curious effect of presenting a variegated façade, which is, to say
the least and the most, very unusual. A similar suggestion is found
occasionally in the Auvergne, but the interweaving of party-coloured
stone, in an attempt to produce variety, has too often not been taken
advantage of. In this case it is not so very pleasing, but one has a
sort of sympathetic regard for it nevertheless.
In the interior there are no constructive features of remark; indeed
there is little embellishment of any sort. There is an
eighteenth-century altar, in precious marbles, worked after the old
manner, and in the sacristy some altar-fittings of elaborately worked
Cordovan leather, a triptych which is dated 1518, some brilliant glass
of the fifteenth century, and in the nave a Renaissance organ-case
which encloses an organ of the early sixteenth century.
Near by is Mont St. Guillaume (2,686 metres), on whose heights is a
_sanctuaire_ frequented by pilgrims from round about the whole valley of
the Durance.
From "Quentin Durward," one recalls the great devotion of the Dauphin of
France--Louis XI.--for the statue of Notre Dame d'Embrun.
XXIX
NOTRE DAME DE L'ASSOMPTION DE GAP
Gap is an ancient and most attractive little city of the Maritime Alps,
of something less than ten thousand inhabitants.
Its cathedral is also the parish church, which suggests that the city is
not especially devout.
The chapter of the cathedral consists of eight canons, who, considering
that the spiritual life of the entire Department of the
Hautes-Alpes--some hundred and fifty thousand souls--is in their care,
must have a very busy time of it.
St. Demetrius, the friend of St. John the Evangelist, has always been
regarded as the first apostle and bishop of the diocese. He came from
Rome to Gaul in the reign of Claudian, and began his work of
evangelization in the environs of Vienne under St. Crescent, the
disciple of St. Paul. From Vienne Demetrius came immediately to Gap and
established the diocese here.
Numerous conversions were made and the Church quickly gained adherents,
but persecution was yet rife, as likewise was superstition, and the
priests were denounced to the governors of the province, who forthwith
put them to death in true barbaric fashion.
Amid these inflictions, however, and the later Protestant persecutions
in Dauphiné, the diocese grew to great importance, and endures to-day as
a suffragan of Aix, Arles, and Embrun.
The Église de Gap has even yet the good fortune to possess personal
_reliques_ of her first bishop, and accordingly displays them with due
pride and ceremony on his _jour de fête_, the 26th October of each year.
Says a willing but unknowing French writer: "Had Demetrius--who came to
Gap in the first century--any immediate successors? That we cannot say.
It is a period of three hundred years which separates his tenure from
that of St. Constantine, the next prelate of whom the records tell."
Three other dioceses of the former ecclesiastical province have been
suppressed, and Gap alone has lived to exert its tiny sphere of
influence upon the religious life of the present day.
The history of Gap has been largely identified with the Protestant cause
in Dauphiné. There is, in the Prefecture, a monument to the Due de
Lesdiguières--Françoise de Bonne--who, from the leadership of the
Protestants went over to the Roman faith, in consideration of his being
given the rank of _Connétable de France_. Why the mere fact of his
apostasy should have been a sufficient and good reason for this
aggrandizement, it is difficult to realize in this late day; though we
know of a former telegraph messenger who became a count.
Another reformer, Guillaume Farel, was born and lived at Gap. "He
preached his first sermon," says History, "at the mill of Burée, and his
followers soon drove the Catholics from the place; when he himself took
possession of the pulpits of the town."
From all this dissension from the Roman faith--though it came
comparatively late in point of time--rose the apparent apathy for
church-building which resulted in the rather inferior cathedral at Gap.
No account of this unimportant church edifice could possibly be justly
coloured with enthusiasm. It is not wholly a mean structure, but it is
unworthy of the great activities of the religious devotion of the past,
and has no pretence to architectural worth, nor has it any of the
splendid appointments which are usually associated with the seat of a
bishop's throne.
Notre Dame de l'Assomption is a modern edifice in the style
_Romano-Gothique_, and its construction, though elaborate both inside
and out, is quite unappealing.
This is the more to be marvelled at, in that the history of the diocese
is so full of incident; so far, in fact, in advance of what the tangible
evidences would indicate.
XXX
NOTRE DAME DE VENCE
Vence,--the ancient Roman city of Ventium,--with five other dioceses of
the ecclesiastical province of Embrun, was suppressed--as the seat of a
bishop--in 1790. It had been a suffragan bishopric of Embrun since its
foundation by Eusèbe in the fourth century.
The ancient cathedral of Notre Dame is supposed to show traces of
workmanship of the sixth, tenth, twelfth, and fifteenth centuries, but,
excepting that of the latter era, it will be difficult for the casual
observer to place the distinctions of style.
The whole ensemble is of grim appearance; so much so that one need not
hesitate to place it well down in the ranks of the church-builder's art,
and, either from poverty of purse or purpose, it is quite
undistinguished.
In its interior there are a few features of unusual remark: an ancient
sarcophagus, called that of St. Véran; a _retable_ of the sixteenth
century; some rather good paintings, by artists apparently unknown; and
a series of fifty-one fifteenth-century choir-stalls of quite notable
excellence, and worth more as an expression of artistic feeling than all
the other features combined.
The only distinction as to constructive features is the fact that there
are no transepts, and that the aisles which surround the nave are
doubled.
XXXI
CATHÉDRALE DE SION
The small city of Sion, the capital of the Valais, looks not unlike the
pictures one sees in sixteenth-century historical works.
It is brief, confined, and unobtrusive. It was so in feudal times, when
most of its architecture partook of the nature of a stronghold. It is so
to-day, because little of modernity has come into its life.
The city, town, or finally village--for it is hardly more, from its
great lack of activity--lies at the foot of three lofty, isolated
eminences. A great conflagration came to Sion early in the nineteenth
century which resulted in a new lay-out of the town and one really fine
modern thoroughfare, though be it still remarked its life is yet
mediæval.
Upon one of these overshadowing heights is the present episcopal
residence, and on another the remains of a fortress--formerly the
stronghold of the bishops of Sion. On this height of La Valère stands
the very ancient church of Ste. Catherine (with a tenth or
eleventh-century choir), occupying, it is said, the site of a Roman
temple.
In the mid-nineteenth century the Jesuits gained a considerable
influence here and congregated in large numbers.
The city was the ancient Sedanum, and in olden time the bishop bore also
the title of "Prince of the Holy Empire." The power of this prelate was
practically unlimited, and ordinances of state were, as late as the
beginning of the nineteenth century, made in his name, and his arms
formed the embellishments of the public buildings and boundary posts.
Rudolf III., king of Burgundy, from the year 1000, made them counts of
Valais.
St. Théodule was the first bishop of Sion,--in the fourth century,--and
is the patron of the diocese.
In 1070 the bishop of Sion came to England as papal legate to consecrate
Walkelin to the see of Winchester.
In 1516 Bishop Schinner came to England to procure financial aid from
Henry VIII. to carry on war against France.
The cathedral in the lower town is a fifteenth-century work which
ought--had the manner of church-building here in this isolated region
kept pace with the outside world--to be Renaissance in style. In
reality, it suggests nothing but the earliest of Gothic, and, in parts,
even Romanesque; therefore it is to be remarked, if not admired.
Near by is the modern episcopal residence.
The records tell of the extraordinary beauty and value of the _trésor_,
which formerly belonged to the cathedral: an ivory pyx, a reliquary, and
a magnificent manuscript of the Gospels--given by Charles the Great to
St. Maurice, and acquired by the town in the fourteenth century. This
must at some former time have been dispersed, as no trace of it is known
to-day.
Sion was formerly a suffragan bishopric of Tarantaise, which in turn has
become to-day a suffragan of Chambéry.
XXXII
ST. PAUL TROIS CHÂTEAUX
St. Paul Trois Châteaux is a very old settlement. As a bishopric it was
known anciently as Tricastin, and dates from the second century. St.
Restuit was its first bishop. It was formerly the seat of the ancient
Roman colony of _Augusta Tricastinorum_. Tradition is responsible for
the assertion that St. Paul was the first prelate of the diocese, and
being born blind was cured by Jesus Christ. This holy man, after having
recovered his sight, took the name of Restuit, under which name he is
still locally honoured. One of his successors erected to his honour, in
the fourth century, a chapel and an altar. These, of course have
disappeared--hence we have only tradition, which, to say the least, and
the most, is, in this case, quite legendary.
The city was devastated in the fifth century by the Vandals; in 1736 by
the Saracens; and taken and retaken by the Protestants and Catholics in
the fourteenth century.
As a bishopric the "Tricastin city" comprised but thirty-six parishes,
and in the rearrangement attendant upon the Revolution was suppressed
altogether. Ninety-five bishops in all had their seats here up to the
time of suppression. Certainly the religious history of this tiny city
has been most vigorous and active.
The city conserves to-day somewhat of its ancient birthright, and is a
picturesque and romantic spot, in which all may tarry awhile amid its
tortuous streets and the splendid remains of its old-time builders. Few
do drop off, even, in their annual rush southward, in season or out, and
the result is that St. Paul Trois Châteaux is to-day a delightfully "old
world" spot in the most significant meaning of the phrase.
Of course the habitant still refers to the seat of the former bishop's
throne as a cathedral, and it is with pardonable pride that he does so.
This precious old eleventh and twelfth-century church is possessed of as
endearing and interesting an aspect as the city itself. It has been
restored in recent times, but is much hidden by the houses which hover
around its walls. It has a unique portal which opens between two jutting
columns whose shafts uphold nothing--not even capitals.
In fact, the general plan of the cathedral follows that of the Latin
cross, though in this instance it is of rather robust proportions. The
transepts, which are neither deep nor wide, are terminated with an apse,
as is also the choir, which depends, for its embellishments, upon the
decorative effect produced by eight Corinthian columns.
The interior, the nave in particular, is of unusual height for a not
very grand structure; perhaps eighty feet. Its length is hardly greater.
The orders of columns rise vaultwards, surmounted by a simple
entablature. These are perhaps not of the species that has come to be
regarded as good form in Christian architecture, but which, for many
reasons, have found their way into church-building, both before and
since the rise of Gothic.
Under a triforium, in blind, is a sculptured drapery; again a feature
more pagan than Christian, but which is here more pleasing than when
usually found in such a false relation.
Both these details are in imitation of the antique, and, since they date
from long before the simulating of pseudo-classical details became a
mere fad, are the more interesting and valuable as an art-expression of
the time.
For the rest, this one-time cathedral is uncommon and most singular in
all its parts, though nowhere of very great inherent beauty.
An ancient gateway bears a statue of the Virgin. It was the gift of a
former Archbishop of Paris to the town of his birth.
An ancient Dominican convent is now the _École Normale des Petits Frères
de Marie_. Within its wall have recently been discovered a valuable
mosaic work, and a table or altar of carved stone.
In the suburbs of the town have also recently been found much beautiful
Roman work of a decorative nature; a geometric parchment in mosaic; a
superb lamp, in worked bronze; a head of Mercury (now in the Louvre),
and much treasure which would make any antiquarian literally leap for
joy, were he but present when they were unearthed.
Altogether the brief résumé should make for a desire to know more of
this ancient city whose name, even, is scarcely known to those
much-travelled persons who cross and recross France in pursuit of the
pleasures of convention alone.
_PART IV_
_The Mediterranean Coast_
I
INTRODUCTORY
The Mediterranean shore of the south of France, that delectable land
which fringes the great tideless sea, bespeaks the very spirit of
history and romance, of Christian fervour, and of profane riot and
bloodshed.
Its ancient provinces,--Lower Languedoc, the Narbonensis of Gaul;
Provence, the most glorious and golden of all that went to make up
modern France,--the mediæval capital of King René, Aix-en-Provence, and
the commercial capital of the Phoceans (559 B. C.), Massilia, all
combine in a wealth of storied lore which is inexhaustible.
The tide of latter-day travel descends the Rhône to Marseilles, turns
eastward to the conventional pleasures of the Riviera, and utterly
neglects the charms of La Crau, St. Rémy, Martiques, and Aigues-Mortes;
or the more progressive, though still ancient cathedral cities of
Montpellier, Béziers, Narbonne, or Perpignan.
There is no question but that the French Riviera is, in winter, a land
of sunshiny days, cool nights, and the more or the less rapid life of
fashion. Which of these attractions induces the droves of personally-,
semi-, and non-conducted tourists to journey thither, with the first
advent of northern rigour, is doubtful; it is probably, however, a
combination of all three.
It is a beautiful strip of coast-line from Marseilles to Mentone, and
its towns and cities are most attractively placed. But a sojourn there
"in the season," amid the luxury of a "palace-hotel," or the bareness of
a mediocre _pension_, is a thing to be dreaded. Seekers after health and
pleasure are supposed to be wonderfully recouped by the process; but
this is more than doubtful. Vice is rarely attractive, but it is always
made attractive, and weak tea and _pain de ménage_ in a Riviera
boarding-house are no more stimulating than elsewhere; hence the many
virtues of this sunlit land are greatly nullified.
"A peculiarity of the Riviera is that each of the prominent
watering-places possesses a tutelary deity of our own. (Modest this!)
Thus, for instance, no visitor to Cannes is allowed to forget the name
of Lord Brougham, while the interest at Beaulieu and Cap Martin centres
around another great English statesman, Lord Salisbury. Cap d'Antibes
has (or had) for its _genius loci_ Grant Allen, and Valescure is chiefly
concerned with Mrs. Humphry Ward and Mrs. Oliphant."
This quotation is, perhaps, enough to make the writer's point here: Why
go to the Riviera to think of Lord Brougham, long since dead and gone,
any more than to Monte Carlo to be reminded of the unfortunate end which
happened to the great system for "breaking the bank" of Lord----, a
nineteenth-century nobleman of notoriety--if not of fame?
The charm of situation of the Riviera is great, and the interest
awakened by its many reminders of the historied past is equally so; but,
with regard to its architectural remains, the most ready and willing
temperament will be doomed to disappointment.
The cathedral cities of the Riviera are not of irresistible attraction
as shrines of the Christian faith; but they have much else, either
within their confines or in the immediate neighbourhood, which will go
far to make up for the deficiency of their religious monuments.
It is not that the architectural remains of churches of another day, and
secular establishments, are wholly wanting. Far from it; Fréjus, Toulon,
Grasse, and Cannes are possessed of delightful old churches, though they
are not of ranking greatness, or splendour.
Still the fact remains that, of themselves, the natural beauties of the
region and the heritage of a historic past are not enough to attract the
throngs which, for any one of a dozen suspected reasons, annually, from
November to March, flock hither to this range of towns, which extends
from Hyères and St. Raphael, on the west, to Bordighera and Ospadeletti,
just over the Italian border, on the east.
It is truly historic ground, this; perhaps more visibly impressed upon
the mind and imagination than any other in the world, if we except the
Holy Land itself.
Along this boundary were the two main routes, by land and by water,
through which the warlike and civil institutions of Rome first made
their way into Gaul, conquered it, and impressed thereon indelibly for
five hundred years the mighty power which their ambition urged forward.
At Cimiez, a suburb of Nice, they have left a well-preserved
amphitheatre; at Antibes the remains of Roman towers; Villefranche--the
port of Nice--was formerly a Roman port; Fréjus, the former _Forum
Julii_, has remains of its ancient harbour, its city walls, an
amphitheatre, a gateway, and an arch, and, at some distance from the
city, the chief of all neighbouring remains, an aqueduct, the crumbling
stones of which can be traced for many miles.
Above the promontory of Monaco, where the Alps abruptly meet the sea,
stands the tiny village of _La Turbie_, some nineteen hundred feet above
the waters of the sparklingly brilliant Mediterranean. Here stands that
venerable ruined tower, the great _Trophoea Augusti_ of the Romans,
now stayed and strutted by modern masonry. It commemorates the Alpine
victories of the first of the emperors, and overlooks both Italy and
France. Stripped to-day of the decorations and sculptures which once
graced its walls, it stands as a reminder of the first splendid
introduction of the luxuriant architecture of Rome into the precincts
of the Western Empire.
Here it may be recalled that sketching, even from the hilltops, is a
somewhat risky proceeding for the artist. The surrounding eminences--as
would be likely so near the Italian border--are frequently capped with a
fortress, and occupied by a small garrison, the sole duty of whose
commandant appears to be "heading off," or worse, those who would make a
picturesque note of the environment of this _ci-devant_ Roman
stronghold. The process of transcribing "literary notes" is looked upon
with equal suspicion, or even greater disapproval, in that--in
English--they are not so readily translated as is even a bad drawing. So
the admonition is here advisedly given for "whom it may concern."
From the Rhône eastward, Marseilles alone has any church of a class
worthy to rank with those truly great. Its present cathedral of Ste.
Marie-Majeure assuredly takes, both as to its plan and the magnitude on
which it has been carried out, the rank of a masterwork of architecture.
It is a modern cathedral, but it is a grand and imposing basilica, after
the Byzantine manner.
Westward, if we except Béziers, where there is a commanding cathedral;
Narbonne, where the true sky-pointing Gothic is to be found; and
Perpignan, where there is a very ancient though peculiarly disposed
cathedral, there are no really grand cathedral churches of this or any
other day. On the whole, however, all these cities are possessed of a
subtle charm of manner and environment which tell a story peculiarly
their own.
Foremost among these cities of Southern Gaul, which have perhaps the
greatest and most appealing interest for the traveller, are Carcassonne
and Aigues-Mortes.
Each of these remarkable reminders of days that are gone is unlike
anything elsewhere. Their very decay and practical desertion make for an
interest which would otherwise be unattainable.
Aigues-Mortes has no cathedral, nor ever had; but Carcassonne has a very
beautiful, though small, example in St. Nazaire, treated elsewhere in
this book.
Both Aigues-Mortes and Carcassonne are the last, and the greatest,
examples of the famous walled and fortified cities of the Middle Ages.
Aigues-Mortes itself is a mere dead thing of the marshes, which once
held ten thousand souls, and witnessed all the pomp and glitter which
attended upon the embarking of Louis IX. on his chivalrous, but
ill-starred, ventures to the African coasts.
"Here was a city built by the whim of a king--the last of the Royal
Crusaders." To-day it is a coffin-like city with perhaps a couple of
thousand pallid, shaking mortals, striving against the marsh-fever,
among the ruined houses, and within the mouldering walls of an ancient
Gothic burgh.
[Illustration: _The Ramparts of Aigues-Mortes_]
[Illustration: _St. Sauveur d'Aix_]
II
ST. SAUVEUR D'AIX
Aix, the former capital of Provence, one of the most famous ancient
provinces, the early seat of wealth and civilization, and the native
land of the poetry and romance of mediævalism, was the still more
ancient _Aquæ Sextiæ_ of the Romans--so named for the hot springs of the
neighbourhood. It was their oldest colony in Gaul, and was founded by
Sextius Calvinus in B. C. 123.
In King René's time,--"_le bon roi_" died at Aix in
1480,--_Aix-en-Provence_ was more famous than ever as a "gay capital,"
where "mirth and song and much good wine" reigned, if not to a
degenerate extent, at least to the full expression of liberty.
In 1481, just subsequent to René's death, the province was annexed to
the Crown, and fifty years later fell into the hands of Charles V., who
was proclaimed King of Arles and Provence. This monarch's reign here was
of short duration, and he evacuated the city after two months' tenure.
During all this time the church of Aix, from the foundation of the
archbishopric by St. Maxine in the first century (as stated rather
doubtfully in the "_Gallia Christiania_"), ever advanced hand in hand
with the mediæval gaiety and splendour that is now past.
Who ever goes to Aix now? Not many Riviera tourists even, and not many,
unless they are on a mission bent, will cross the Rhône and the Durance
when such appealingly attractive cities as Arles, Avignon, and Nîmes lie
on the direct pathway from north to south.
Formerly the see was known as the Province of Aix. To-day it is known as
Aix, Arles, and Embrun, and covers the Department of Bouches-du-Rhône,
with the exception of Marseilles, which is a suffragan bishopric of
itself.
The chief ecclesiastical monuments of Aix are the cathedral of St.
Sauveur, with its most unusual _baptistère_; the church of St.
Jean-de-Malte of the fourteenth century; and the comparatively modern
early eighteenth-century church of La Madeleine, with a fine
"Annunciation" confidently attributed by local experts to Albrecht
Dürer.
The cathedral of St. Sauveur is, in part, an eleventh-century church.
The portions remaining of this era are not very extensive, but they do
exist, and the choir, which was added in the thirteenth century, made
the first approach to a completed structure. In the next century the
choir was still more elaborated, and the tower and the southern aisle of
the nave added. This nave is, therefore, the original nave, as the
northern aisle was not added until well into the seventeenth century.
The west façade contains a wonderful, though non-contemporary, door and
doorway in wood and stone of the early sixteenth century. This doorway
is in two bays, divided by a pier, on which is superimposed a statue of
the Virgin and Child, framed by a light garland of foliage and fruits.
Above are twelve tiny statuettes of _Sibylles_ or the theological
virtues placed in two rows. The lower range of the archivolt is divided
by pilasters bearing the symbols of the Evangelists, deeply cut
arabesques of the Genii, and the four greater prophets--Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
Taken together, these late sculptures of the early sixteenth century
form an unusually mixed lot; but their workmanship and disposition are
pleasing and of an excellence which in many carvings of an earlier date
is often lacking.
The interior shows early "pointed" and simple round arches, with
pilasters and pediment which bear little relation to Gothic, and are yet
not Romanesque of the conventional variety. These features are mainly
not suggestive of the Renaissance either, though work of this style
crops out, as might be expected, in the added north aisle of the nave.
The transepts, too, which are hardly to be remarked from the
outside,--being much hemmed about by the surrounding buildings,--also
indicate their Renaissance origin.
The real embellishments of the interior are: a triptych--"The Burning
Bush," with portraits of King René, Queen Jeanne de Laval, and others;
another of "The Annunciation;" a painting of St. Thomas, by a
sixteenth-century Flemish artist; and some sixteenth-century tapestries.
None of these features, while acceptable enough as works of art, compare
in worth or novelty with the tiny _baptistère_, which is claimed as of
the sixth century.
This is an unusual work in Gaul, the only other examples being at
Poitiers and Le Puy. It resembles in plan and outline its more famous
contemporary at Ravenna, and shows eight antique columns, from a former
temple to Apollo, with dark shafts and lighter capitals. The dome has a
modern stucco finish, little in keeping with the general tone and
purport of this accessory. The cloister of St Sauveur, in the Lombard
style, is very curious, with its assorted twisted and plain columns,
some even knotted. The origin of its style is again bespoke in certain
of the round-headed arches. Altogether, as an accessory to the
cathedral, if to no other extent, this Lombard detail is forceful and
interesting.
III
ST. REPARATA DE NICE
"What would you, then? I say it is most engaging, in winter when
the strangers are here, and all work day and night; but it is a
much better place in summer, when one can take their ease."
--PAUL ARÈNE.
Whatever may be the attractions of Nice for the travelled person, they
certainly do not lie in or about its cathedral. The guide-books call it
simply "the principal ecclesiastical edifice ... of no great interest,"
which is an apt enough qualification.
In a book which professes to treat of the special subject of cathedral
churches, something more is expected, if only to define the reason of
the lack of appealing interest.
One might say with the Abbé Bourassé,--who wrote of St. Louis de
Versailles,--"It is cold, unfeeling, and without life;" or he might
dismiss it with a few words of lukewarm praise, which would be even
less satisfying.
More specifically the observation might be passed that the lover of
churches will hardly find enough to warrant even passing consideration
_on the entire Riviera_.
This last is in a great measure true, though much of the incident of
history and romance is woven about what--so far as the church-lover is
concerned--may be termed mere "tourist points."
At all events, he who makes the round, from Marseilles to San Remo in
Italy, must to no small extent subordinate his love of ecclesiastical
art and--as do the majority of visitors--plunge into a whirl of gaiety
(_sic_) as conventional and unsatisfying as are most fulsome, fleeting
pleasures.
The sensation is agreeable enough to most of us, for a time at least,
but the forced and artificial gaiety soon palls, and he who puts it all
behind him, and strikes inland to Aix and Embrun and the romantically
disposed little cathedral towns of the valley of the Durance, will come
once again into an architectural zone more in comport with the subject
suggested by the title of this book.
It is curious to note that, with the exception of Marseilles and Aix,
scarce one of the suffragan dioceses of the ancient ecclesiastical
province of Aix, Arles, and Embrun is possessed of a cathedral of the
magnitude which we are wont to associate with the churchly dignity of a
bishop.
St. Reparata de Nice is dismissed as above; that of Antibes was early
transferred or combined with that of Grasse; Grasse itself endured for a
time--from 1245 onward--but was suppressed in 1790; Glandève, Senez, and
Riez were combined with Digne; while Fréjus has become subordinate to
Toulon, though it shares episcopal dignity with that city.
In spite of these changes and the apparently inexplicable tangle of the
limits of jurisdiction which has spread over this entire region,
religion has, as might be inferred from a study of the movement of early
Christianity in Gaul, ever been prominent in the life of the people, and
furthermore is of very long standing.
The first bishop of Nice was Amantius, who came in the fourth century.
With what effect he laboured and with what real effect his labours
resulted, history does not state with minutiæ. The name first given to
the diocese was _Cemenelium_.
In 1802 the diocese of Nice was allied with that of Aix, but in the
final readjustment its individuality became its own possession once
more, and it is now a bishopric, a suffragan of Marseilles.
As to architectural splendour, or even worth, St. Reparata de Nice has
none. It is a poor, mean fabric in the Italian style; quite unsuitable
in its dimensions to even the proper exploitation of any beauties that
the style of the Renaissance may otherwise possess.
The general impression that it makes upon one is that it is but a
makeshift or substitute for something more pretentious which is to come.
The church dates from 1650 only, and is entirely unworthy as an
expression of religious art or architecture. The structure itself is
bare throughout, and what decorative embellishments there are--though
numerous--are gaudy, after the manner of stage tinsel.
IV
STE. MARIE MAJEURE DE TOULON
The episcopal dignity of Toulon is to-day shared with Fréjus, whereas,
at the founding of the diocese, Toulon stood alone as a bishopric in the
ecclesiastical province of Arles. This was in the fifth century. When
the readjustment came, after the Revolution, the honour was divided with
the neighbouring coast town of Fréjus.
In spite of the fact that the cathedral here is of exceeding interest,
Toulon is most often thought of as the chief naval station of France in
the Mediterranean. From this fact signs of the workaday world are for
ever thrusting themselves before one.
As a seaport, Toulon is admirably situated and planned, but the contrast
between the new and old quarters of the town and the frowning
fortifications, docks, and storehouses is a jumble of utilitarian
accessories which does not make for the slightest artistic or æsthetic
interest.
Ste. Marie Majeure is a Romanesque edifice of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. Its façade is an added member of the seventeenth century, and
the belfry of the century following. The church to-day is of some
considerable magnitude, as the work of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries comprehended extensive enlargements.
As to its specific style, it has been called Provençal as well as
Romanesque. It is hardly one or the other, as the pure types known
elsewhere are considered, but rather a blend or transition between the
two.
The edifice underwent a twelfth-century restoration, which doubtless was
the opportunity for incorporating with the Romanesque fabric certain
details which we have come since to know as Provençal.
During the Revolution the cathedral suffered much despoliation, as was
usual, and only came through the trial in a somewhat imperfect and
poverty-stricken condition. Still, it presents to-day some considerable
splendour, if not actual magnificence.
Its nave is for more reasons than one quite remarkable. It has a length
of perhaps a hundred and sixty feet, and a width scarcely thirty-five,
which gives an astonishing effect of narrowness, but one which bespeaks
a certain grace and lightness nevertheless--or would, were its
constructive elements of a little lighter order.
In a chapel to the right of the choir is a fine modern _reredos_, and
throughout there are many paintings of acceptable, if not great, worth.
The pulpit, by a native of Toulon, is usually admired, but is a modern
work which in no way compares with others of its kind seen along the
Rhine, and indeed throughout Germany. One of the principal features
which decorate the interior is a tabernacle by Puget; while an admirable
sculptured "Jehovah and the Angels" by Veyrier, and a "Virgin" by
Canova--which truly is not a great work--complete the list of artistic
accessories.
The first bishop of Toulon, in the fifth century, was one Honoré.
V
ST. ETIENNE DE FRÉJUS
The ancient episcopal city of Fréjus has perhaps more than a due share
of the attractions for the student and lover of the historic past. It is
one of the most ancient cities of Provence. Its charm of environment,
people, and much else that it offers, on the surface or below, are as
irresistible a galaxy as one can find in a small town of scarce three
thousand inhabitants. And Fréjus is right on the beaten track, too,
though it is not apparent that the usual run of pleasure-loving,
tennis-playing, and dancing-party species of tourist--at a small sum per
head, all included--ever stop here _en route_ to the town's more
fashionable Riviera neighbours--at least they do not _en masse_--as they
wing their way to the more delectable pleasures of naughty Nice or
precise and proper Mentone.
The establishment of a bishopric here is somewhat doubtfully given by
"_La Gallia Christiania_" as having been in the fourth century. Coupled
with this statement is the assertion that the cathedral at Fréjus is
very ancient, and its foundation very obscure; but that it was probably
built up from the remains of a "primitive temple consecrated to an
idol." Such, at least, is the information gleaned from a French source,
which does not in any way suggest room for doubt.
Formerly the religious administration was divided amongst a provost, an
archdeacon, a sacristan, and twelve canons. The diocese was suppressed
in 1801 and united with that of Aix, but was reëstablished in 1823 by
virtue of the Concordat of 1817. To-day the diocese divides the honour
of archiepiscopal dignity with that of Toulon.
The foundations of St. Etienne are admittedly those of a pagan temple,
but the bulk of the main body of the church is of the eleventh century.
The tower and its spire--not wholly beautiful, nor yet in any way
unbeautiful--are of the period of the _ogivale primaire_.
As to style, in so far as St. Etienne differs greatly from the early
Gothic of convention, it is generally designated as
Provençal-Romanesque. It is, however, strangely akin to what we know
elsewhere as primitive Gothic, and as such it is worthy of remark,
situated, as it is, here in the land where the pure round-arched style
is indigenous.
The portal has a doorway ornamented with some indifferent Renaissance
sculptures. To the left of this doorway is a _baptistère_ containing a
number of granite columns, which, judging from their crudeness, must be
of genuine antiquity.
There is an ancient Gothic cloister, hardly embryotic, but still very
rudimentary, because of the lack of piercings of the arches; possibly,
though, this is the result of an afterthought, as the arched openings
appear likely enough to have been filled up at some time subsequent to
the first erection of this feature.
The bishop's palace is of extraordinary magnitude and impressiveness,
though of no very great splendour. In its fabric are incorporated a
series of Gallo-Roman pilasters, and it has the further added
embellishment of a pair of graceful twin _tourelles_.
The Roman remains throughout the city are numerous and splendid, and, as
a former seaport, founded by Cæsar and enlarged by Augustus, the city
was at a former time even more splendid than its fragments might
indicate. To-day, owing to the building up of the foreshore, and the
alluvial deposits washed down by the river Argens, the town is perhaps a
mile from the open sea.
[Illustration: _Detail of Doorway of the Archibishop's Palace, Fréjus_]
[Illustration]
VI
ÉGLISE DE GRASSE
Grasse is more famed for its picturesque situation and the manufacture
of perfumery than it is for its one-time cathedral, which is but a
simple and uninteresting twelfth-century church, whose only feature of
note is a graceful doorway in the pointed style.
The diocese of Grasse formerly had jurisdiction over Antibes, whose
bishop--St. Armentaire--ruled in the fourth century.
The diocese of Grasse--in the province of Embrun--did not come into
being, however, until 1245, when Raimond de Villeneuve was made its
first bishop. The see was suppressed in 1790.
There are, as before said, no accessories of great artistic worth in the
Église de Grasse, and the lover of art and architecture will perforce
look elsewhere. In the Hôpital are three paintings attributed to Rubens,
an "Exaltation," a "Crucifixion," and a "Crowning of Thorns." They may
or may not be genuine works by the master; still, nothing points to
their lack of authenticity, except the omission of all mention thereof
in most accounts which treat of this artist's work.
VII
ANTIBES
Cap d'Antibes, on the Golfe Jouan, is one of those beauty-spots along
the Mediterranean over which sentimental rhapsody has ever lent, if not
a glamour which is artificial, at least one which is purely æsthetic.
One must not deny it any reputation of this nature which it may possess,
and indeed, with St. Raphael and Hyères, it shares with many another
place along the French Riviera a popularity as great, perhaps, as if it
were the possessor of even an extraordinarily beautiful cathedral.
The churchly dignity of Antibes has departed long since, though its
career as a former bishopric--in the province of Aix--was not brief, as
time goes. It began in the fourth century with St. Armentaire, and
endured intermittently until the twelfth century, when the see was
combined with that of Grasse, and the ruling dignity transferred to that
place.
VIII
STE. MARIE MAJEURE DE MARSEILLES
"These brown men of Marseilles, who sing as they bend at their
oars, are Greeks."
--CLOVIS HUGHES.
Marseilles is modern and commercial; but Marseilles is also ancient, and
a centre from which have radiated, since the days of the Greeks, much
power and influence.
It is, too, for a modern city,--which it is to the average
tourist,--wonderfully picturesque, and shows some grand architectural
effects, both ancient and modern.
[Illustration: _Marseilles_]
The _Palais de Long Champs_ is an architectural grouping which might
have dazzled luxurious Rome itself. The Chamber of Commerce, with its
decorations by Puvis de Chavannes, is a structure of the first rank; the
_Cannebière_ is one of those few great business thoroughfares which are
truly imposing; while the docks, shipping, and hotels, are all of
that preëminent magnitude which we are wont to associate only with a
great capital.
As to its churches, its old twelfth-century cathedral remains to-day a
mere relic of its former dignity.
[Illustration: _The Old Cathedral, Marseilles_]
It is a reminder of a faith and a power that still live in spite of the
attempts of the world of progress to live it down, and has found its
echo in the present-day cathedral of Ste. Marie Majeure, one of the few
remarkably successful attempts at the designing of a great church in
modern times. The others are the new Westminster Roman Catholic
Cathedral London, the projected cathedral of St. John the Divine in New
York, and Trinity Church in Boston.
As an exemplification of church-building after an old-time manner
adapted to modern needs, called variously French-Romanesque, Byzantine,
and, by nearly every expert who has passed comment upon it, by some
special _nomenclature of his own_, the cathedral at Marseilles is one of
those great churches which will live in the future as has St. Marc's at
Venice in the past.
Its material is a soft stone of two contrasting varieties,--the green
being from the neighbourhood of Florence, and the white known as _pierre
de Calissant_,--laid in alternate courses. Its deep sunken portal, with
its twin flanking Byzantine towers, dominates the old part of the city,
lying around about the water-front, as do few other churches, and no
cathedrals, in all the world.
It stands a far more impressive and inspiring sentinel at the water-gate
of the city than does the ludicrously fashioned modern "sailors' church"
of Notre Dame de la Gard, which is perched in unstable fashion on a
pinnacle of rock on the opposite side of the harbour.
This "curiosity"--for it is hardly more--is reached by a cable-lift or
funicular railway, which seems principally to be conducted for the
delectation of those winter birds of passage yclept "Riviera tourists."
The true pilgrim, the sailor who leaves a votive offering, or his wife
or sweetheart, who goes there to pray for his safety, journeys on foot
by an abrupt, stony road,--as one truly devout should.
This sumptuous cathedral will not please every one, but it cannot be
denied that it is an admirably planned and wonderfully executed
_neo-Byzantine_ work. In size it is really vast, though its chief
remarkable dimension is its breadth. Its length is four hundred and
sixty feet.
At the crossing is a dome which rises to one hundred and ninety-seven
feet, while two smaller ones are at each end of the transept, and yet
others, smaller still, above the various chapels.
The general effect of the interior is--as might be
expected--_grandoise_. There is an immensely wide central nave, flanked
by two others of only appreciably reduced proportions.
Above the side aisles are galleries extending to the transepts.
The decorations of mosaic, glass, and mural painting have been the work
of the foremost artists of modern times, and have been long in
execution.
The entire period of construction extended practically over the last
half of the nineteenth century.
The plans were by Léon Vaudoyer, who was succeeded by one Espérandieu,
and again by Henri Rêvoil. The entire detail work may not even yet be
presumed to have been completed, but still the cathedral stands to-day
as the one distinct and complete achievement of its class within the
memory of living man.
The pillars of the nave, so great is their number and so just and true
their disposition, form a really decorative effect in themselves.
The choir is very long and is terminated with a domed apse, with domed
chapels radiating therefrom in a symmetrical and beautiful manner.
The episcopal residence is immediately to the right of the cathedral, on
the Place de la Major.
Marseilles has been the seat of a bishop since the days of St. Lazare in
the first century. It was formerly a suffragan of Arles in the Province
d'Arles, as it is to-day, but its jurisdiction is confined to the
immediate neighbourhood of the city.
IX
ST. PIERRE D'ALET
In St. Pierre d'Alet was a former cathedral of a very early date;
perhaps as early as the ninth century, though the edifice was entirely
rebuilt in the eleventh. To-day, even this structure--which is not to be
wondered at--is in ruins.
There was an ancient abbey here in the ninth century, but the bishopric
was not founded until 1318, and was suppressed in 1790.
The most notable feature of this ancient church is the wall which
surrounds or forms the apside. This quintupled _pan_ is separated by
four great pillars, in imitation of the Corinthian order; though for
that matter they may as well be referred to as genuine antiques--which
they probably are--and be done with it.
The capitals and the cornice which surmounts them are richly ornamented
with sculptured foliage, and, so far as it goes, the whole effect is
one of liberality and luxury of treatment.
Immediately beside the ruins of this old-time cathedral is the Église
St. André of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
X
ST. PIERRE DE MONTPELLIER
_La Ville de Montpellier_
"Elle est charmante et douce ...
Avec son vast ciel, toujours vibrant et pur,
* * * * *
Elle est charmante avec ses brunes jeunes filles
... le noir diamant de leurs yeux!"
--HENRI DE BORNIER.
Montpellier is seated upon a hill, its foot washed by two small and
unimportant rivers.
A seventeenth-century writer has said: "This city is not very ancient,
though now it be the biggest, fairest, and richest in Languedoc, after
Toulouse."
[Illustration: ST. PIERRE _de MONTPELLIER_]
From a passage in the records left by St. Bernard, the Abbot of
Clairvaux, it is learned that there was a school or seminary of
physicians here as early as 1155, and the perfect establishment of a
university was known to have existed just previous to the year 1200.
This institution was held in great esteem, and in importance second
only to Paris. To-day the present establishment merits like approbation,
and, sheltered in part in the ancient episcopal palace, and partly
enclosing the cathedral of St. Pierre, it has become inseparable from
consideration in connection therewith.
The records above referred to have this to say concerning the
university: "Tho' Physic has the Precendence, yet both Parts of the Law
are taught in one of its Colleges, by Four Royal Professors, with the
Power of making Licentiates and Doctors." Continuing, he says: "The
ceremony of taking the M. D. degree is very imposing; if only the
putting on and off, seven times, the old gown of the famous Rabelais."
Montpellier was one of "the towns of security" granted by Henry IV. to
the Protestants, but Louis XIII., through the suggestions of his
cardinals, Richelieu and Mazarin, forced them by arms to surrender this
place of protection. The city was taken after a long siege and vigorous
defence in 1622.
Before the foundation of Montpellier, the episcopal seat was at
Maguelonne, the ancient Magalonum of the Romans. The town does not exist
to-day, and its memory is only perpetuated by the name Villeneuve les
Maguelonne, a small hamlet on the bay of that name, a short distance
from Montpellier.
The Church had a foothold here in the year 636, but the ferocity of
Saracen hordes utterly destroyed all vestiges of the Christian faith in
their descent upon the city.
Says the Abbé Bourassé: "In the eleventh century another cathedral was
dedicated by Bishop Arnaud, and the day was made the occasion of a fête,
in consideration of the restoration of the church, which had been for a
long time abandoned."
It seems futile to attempt to describe a church which does not exist,
and though the records of the later cathedral at Maguelonne are very
complete, it must perforce be passed by in favour of its descendant at
Montpellier.
Having obtained the consent of François I., the bishop of Maguelonne
solicited from the pontiff at Rome the privilege of transferring the
throne. In a bull given in 1536, it was decreed that this should be done
forthwith. Accordingly, the bishop and his chapter transferred their
dignity to a Benedictine monastery at Montpellier, which had been
founded in 1364 by Pope Urban V.
The wars of the Protestants desecrated this great church, which, like
many others, suffered greatly from their violence, so much so that it
was shorn entirely of its riches, its reliquaries, and much of its
decoration.
The dimensions of this church are not great, and its beauties are quite
of a comparative quality; but for all that it is a most interesting
cathedral.
The very grim but majestic severity of its canopied portal--with its
flanking cylindrical pillars, called by the French _tourelles
élancés_--gives the key-note of it all, and a note which many a more
perfect church lacks.
This curious porch well bespeaks the time when the Church was both
spiritual and militant, and ranks as an innovation--though an incomplete
and possibly imperfect one--in the manner of finishing off a west
façade. Its queer, suspended canopy and slight turreted towers are
unique; though, for a fact, they suggest, in embryo, those lavish
Burgundian porches; but it is only a suggestion, because of the
incompleteness and bareness. However, this porch is the distinct
fragment of the cathedral which will appeal to all who come into contact
therewith.
The general effect of the interior is even more plain than that of the
outer walls, and is only remarkable because of its fine and true
proportions of length, breadth, and height.
The triforium is but a suggestion of an arcade, supported by black
marble columns. The clerestory above is diminutive, and the window
piercings are infrequent. At the present time the choir is hung with a
series of curtains of _panne_--not tapestries in this case. The effect
is more theatrical than ecclesiastical.
The architectural embellishments are to-day practically _nil_, but
instead one sees everywhere large, uninterrupted blank walls without
decoration of any sort.
The principal decorations of the southern portal are the only relaxation
in this otherwise simple and austere fabric. Here is an elaborately
carved tympanum and an ornamented architrave, which suggests that the
added mellowness of a century or two yet to come will grant to it some
approach to distinction. This portal is by no means an insignificant
work, but it lacks that ripeness which is only obtained by the process
of time.
Three rectangular towers rise to unequal heights above the roof, and,
like the western porch, are bare and primitive, though they would be
effective enough could one but get an _ensemble_ view that would bring
them into range. They are singularly unbeautiful, however, when compared
with their northern brethren.
[Illustration]
XI
CATHÉDRALE D'AGDE
This tiny Mediterranean city was founded originally by the Phoenicians
as a commercial port, and finally grew, in spite of its diminutive
proportions, to great importance.
Says an old writer: "Agde is not so very big, but it is Rich and
Trading-Merchantmen can now come pretty near Agde and Boats somewhat
large enter into the Mouth of the River; where they exchange many
Commodities for the Wines of the Country."
Agde formerly, as if to emphasize its early importance, had its own
viscounts, whose estates fell to the share of those of Nîmes; but in
1187, Bernard Atton, son of a Viscount of Nîmes, presented to the Bishop
of Agde the viscounty of the city. Thus, it is seen, a certain
good-fellowship must have existed between the Church and state of a
former day.
Formerly travellers told tales of Agde, whereby one might conclude its
aspect was as dull and gloomy as "Black Angers" of King John's time; and
from the same source we learn of the almost universal use of a dull,
slate-like stone in the construction of its buildings. To-day this
dulness is not to be remarked. What will strike the observer, first and
foremost, as being the chief characteristic, is the castellated
_ci-devant_ cathedral church. Here is in evidence the blackish basalt,
or lava rock, to a far greater extent than elsewhere in the town. It was
a good medium for the architect-builder to work in, and he produced in
this not great or magnificent church a truly impressive structure.
The bishopric was founded in the fifth century under St. Venuste, and
came to its end at the suppression in 1790. Its former cathedral is
cared for by the _Ministère des Beaux-Arts_ as a _monument historique_.
The structure was consecrated as early as the seventh century, when a
completed edifice was built up from the remains of a pagan temple,
which formerly existed on the site. Mostly, however, the work is of the
eleventh and twelfth centuries, notably the massive square tower which,
one hundred and twenty feet in height, forms a beacon by sea and a
landmark on shore which no wayfarer by ship, road, or rail is likely to
miss.
A cloister of exceedingly handsome design and arrangement is attached to
the cathedral, where it is said the _mâchicoulis_ is the most ancient
known. This feature is also notable in the roof-line of the nave, which,
with the extraordinary window piercings and their disposition, heightens
still more the suggestion of the manner of castle-building of the time.
The functions of the two edifices were never combined, though each--in
no small way--frequently partook of many of the characteristics of the
other.
Aside from this really beautiful cloister, and a rather gorgeous, though
manifestly good, painted altar-piece, there are no other noteworthy
accessories; and the interest and charm of this not really great church
lie in its aspect of strength and utility as well as its environment,
rather than in any real æsthetic beauty.
[Illustration: _St. Nazaire de Béziers_]
XII
ST. NAZAIRE DE BÉZIERS
St. Nazaire de Béziers is, in its strongly fortified attributes of
frowning ramparts and well-nigh invulnerable situation, a continuation
of the suggestion that the mediæval church was frequently a stronghold
in more senses than one.
The church fabric itself has not the grimness of power of the more
magnificent St. Cécile at Albi or Notre Dame at Rodez, but their
functions have been much the same; and here, as at Albi, the ancient
episcopal palace is duly barricaded after a manner that bespeaks, at
least, forethought and strategy.
These fortress-churches of the South seem to have been a product of
environment as much as anything; though on the other hand it may have
been an all-seeing effort to provide for such contingency or emergency
as might, in those mediæval times, have sprung up anywhere.
At all events, these proclaimed shelters, from whatever persecution or
disasters might befall, were not only for the benefit of the clergy, but
for all their constituency; and such stronghold as they offered was for
the shelter, temporary or protracted, of all the population, or such of
them as could be accommodated. Surely this was a doubly devout and
utilitarian object.
In this section at any rate--the extreme south of France, and more
particularly to the westward of the _Bouches-du-Rhône_--the regional
"wars of religion" made some such protection necessary; and hence the
development of this type of church-building, not only with respect to
the larger cathedral churches, but of a great number of the parish
churches which were erected during the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries.
The other side of the picture is shown by the acts of intolerance on the
part of the Church, for those who merely differed from them in their
religious tenets and principles. Fanatics these outsiders may have been,
and perhaps not wholly tractable or harmless, but they were, doubtless,
as deserving of protection as were the faithful themselves. This was not
for them, however, and as for the violence and hatred with which they
were held here, one has only to recall that at Béziers took place the
crowning massacres of the Albigenses--"the most learned, intellectual,
and philosophic revolters from the Church of Rome."
Beneath the shadow of these grim walls and towers over twenty thousand
men and women and children were slaughtered by the fanatics of orthodox
France and Rome; led on and incited by the Bishop of Béziers, who has
been called--and justly as it would seem--"the blackest-souled bigot who
ever deformed the face of God's earth."
The cathedral at Béziers is not a great or imposing structure when taken
by itself. It is only in conjunction with its fortified walls and
ramparts and commanding situation that it rises to supreme rank.
It is commonly classed as a work of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries,
and with the characteristics of its era and local environment, it
presents no very grand or ornate features.
Its first general plan was due to a layman-architect, Gervais, which
perhaps accounts for a certain lack of what might otherwise be referred
to as ecclesiastical splendour.
The remains of this early work are presumably slight; perhaps nothing
more than the foundation walls, as a fire in 1209 did a considerable
damage.
The transepts were added in the thirteenth century, and the two dwarfed
towers in the fourteenth, at which period was built the _clocher_ (151
feet), the apside, and the nave proper.
There is not a great brilliancy or refulgent glow from the fabric from
which St. Nazaire de Béziers is built; as is so frequent in secular
works in this region. The stone was dark, apparently, to start with, and
has aged considerably since it was put into place. This, in a great
measure, accounts for the lack of liveliness in the design and
arrangement of this cathedral, and the only note which breaks the
monotony of the exterior are the two statues, symbolical of the ancient
and the modern laws of the universe, which flank the western portal--or
what stands for such, did it but possess the dignity of magnitude.
So far as the exterior goes, it is one's first acquaintance with St.
Nazaire, when seen across the river Orb, which gives the most lively and
satisfying impression.
The interior attributes of worth and interest are more numerous and
pleasing.
The nave is aisleless, but has numerous lateral chapels. The choir has a
remarkable series of windows which preserve, even to-day, their ancient
protecting _grilles_--a series of wonderfully worked iron scrolls. These
serve to preserve much fourteenth-century glass of curious, though
hardly beautiful, design. To a great extent this ancient glass is hidden
from view by a massive eighteenth-century _retable_, which is without
any worth whatever as an artistic accessory.
A cloister of the fourteenth century flanks the nave on the south, and
is the chief feature of really appealing quality within the confines of
the cathedral precincts.
The view from the terrace before the cathedral is one which is hardly
approachable elsewhere. For many miles in all directions stretches the
low, flat plain of Languedoc; the Mediterranean lies to the east; the
Cevennes and the valley of the Orb to the north; with the lance-like
Canal du Midi stretching away to the westward.
As might be expected, the streets of the city are tortuous and narrow,
but there are evidences of the march of improvement which may in time be
expected to eradicate all this--to the detriment of the picturesque
aspect.
[Illustration]
XIII
ST. JEAN DE PERPIGNAN
Perpignan is another of those provincial cities of France which in
manners and customs sedulously imitate those of their larger and more
powerful neighbours.
From the fact that it is the chief town of the Départment des
Pyrénêes-Orientales, it perhaps justifies the procedure. But it is as
the ancient capital of Rousillon--only united with France in 1659--that
the imaginative person will like to think of it--in spite of its modern
cafés, tram-cars, and _magazins_.
Like the smaller and less progressive town of Elne, Perpignan retains
much the same Catalonian flavour of "physiognomy, language, and dress;"
and its narrow, tortuous streets and the _jalousies_ and _patios_ of its
houses carry the suggestion still further.
The Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 changed the course of the city's
destinies, and to-day it is the fortress-city of France which commands
the easterly route into Spain.