Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/566

 534 FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. Part II. principal resemblances and differences between these and the other cathedrals of France. Of these four, that of Paris is the oldest ; the foundation-stone having been laid 1163, and the work carried on with such activity l)y the bishop, Maurice de Sully, that the high altar was dedicated 1182, the interior completed 1208, and the west front finished about the year 1214. The history of the cathedral of Chartres (Woodcut No. 389), is not so easily traced. An important church was erected there by Bishop Fulbert in the beginning of the 11th century, of which building scarcely anything now remains but the piers of the western doors. The building of the present church seems to have been commenced about a centurv after the completion of the older building, for the great western towers Avere in progress in the year 1145, and the new choir must have been commenced very shortly after- wards. Indeed, the greater part of the building belongs to the latter half of the 12th century, or very early in the loth ; but it was not completed till the year 1260. The cathedral of Kheims (Wood- cut No. 390) was commenced in the vear 1211, immediately after a fire which consumed the preceding build- ing, and under the auspices of Arch- bishop Alberic de Humbert, — Robert de Couci acting as trustee on the part of the laity. Tt was so far comjileted in all essential parts as to be dedicated in 1241. Amiens Cathedral (Woodcut No. 391) was commenced in 1220, and com- 386. Plan of Cathedral of Notre Da,ne, pl^^tcd in 1257; but being partially ^i^meS^::^) "^^i^l^Zr^ destroyed by fire the year after- wards, the clerestory and all the upper parts of the church were rebuilt. The Avhole appears to have been completed, nearly as we now find it, about the year 1272. From this period to the building of the Choir of St. Ouen, at Rouen, 1318-1339, there is a remarkable deficiency of great examjiles in France. The intermediate space is very imperfectly filled by the