[Illustration: SOUTH PORTAL OF AMIENS CATHEDRAL
_The statue of the Virgin which stands in the portal replaces that of
St. Honoré, which was moved to the north transept. The carvings about
the south portal are taken from the life of St. Honoré._]
[Illustration: NAVE OF AMIENS CATHEDRAL]
It is from a side view, however, that Amiens shows at its best the true
glory of Gothic architecture. Nearly five hundred feet long and over
two hundred feet to the ridge line of the roof, it rises high above the
buildings of the city in which it stands, a symbol of the supremacy
of spiritual over earthly things. To be sure it has its faults. The
towers are too low and the central spire is of awkward shape; but the
huge windows, with their tracery in geometric patterns, occupying the
entire space between the buttresses, and these buttresses themselves
with their soaring arches spanning the aisle roofs below, afford an
unsurpassed example of beauty of design combined with the utmost
structural daring. Moreover, the interior is even more imposing. Lofty
piers and pointed arches separate the nave from the aisles. Slender
shafts carry the ribs of the huge vaults of stone forty-three feet in
span, which seem suspended in air one hundred and forty feet from the
pavement below. In the support of these vaults lies the keynote of
Gothic architecture. Though they seem hung as if by magic over walls
of glass, with very little masonry for their support, their weight and
thrust are borne by the sweeping arcs of the exterior flying buttresses
and the huge piers of masonry from which they rise beyond the side
aisle walls. Viewed from a central point, the majestic sweep of the
nave, the soaring height of the eastern apse, the wondrous window of
the northern transept, and the maze of piers and arches and chapels,
all unite to produce a glorious whole which cannot be surpassed in any
monument of any age.