Sens is a commune in the Yonne department in Burgundy in north-central France.
Sens is a sub-prefecture of the department. It is crossed by the Yonne and the Vanne, which empties into the Yonne here.
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History
Caesar mentions Agedincum in the territory of the Senones[1] several times in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, and the city retains the skeleton of its Roman street-plan.[2] The site was referred to by Ammianus Marcellinus as Senones (oppidum Senonas) but it did not become an administrative center until after the reorganization of the Roman Empire in 375, when it was the chief town of Lugdunensis Quarta.
During the Middle Ages, its archbishops[3] held the prestigious role of Primates of Gaul and Germany. The Hôtel de Sens in Paris was their official residence in that city. Starting from 1135, the cathedral of Sens, dedicated to Saint Stephen, was rebuilt as one of the first Gothic cathedrals; there, in 1234 Louis IX of France celebrated his wedding to Marguerite of Provence. Sens witnessed the trial of Peter Abelard, Pope Alexander III sojourned for some time in the city, and there also Thomas Becket spent part of his exile. The Archdiocese of Sens hosted a number of Church councils.
Sens lived troublesome times during the Wars of Religion.
Main sights
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- The Cathedral, one of the first Gothic edifices in France.
- Archbishops' Palace.
- Church of St. Maurice.
- House of Abraham.
- Museum.
- Serres municipales de Sens, municipal greenhouses
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Sens Cathedral (French: Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Sens) is a Catholic cathedral in Sens, Bourgogne, eastern France. It was one of the earliest Gothic buildings in the country, and the largest of the early Gothic churches. The choir was begun in 1140. As was typical in cathedral construction work progressed westwards, building the nave, with the west front completed around 1200. The structure was finally completed in the 16th century. The architecture of its choir influenced, through the architect William of Sens, that of the choir of Canterbury Cathedral.
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Description
Sens was a place of considerable importance in the 12th century, seat of the "Primate of Gaul" and superior to the bishopric of Paris.[1] The cathedral church was therefore built on a large scale according to the latest principles. Sens' nave is unusually wide, and the church is larger in overall scale than its contemporaries at Saint Denis, Noyon or Senlis.[2] As is typical with early gothic architecture, the vaulting is sexpartite, surmounting a modest clerestory, with alternating piers and columns between bays. Sens may have been the first church to be completely vaulted in this manner. A gallery opens into the roof space between the aisle arcade and the clerestory. The interior elevation resembles that of Le Mans, but with less massive walls.[1] Flying buttresses were originally employed on the outside, but were replaced with new ones in the thirteenth century.[3] Sens did not initially have transepts; these were only completed in the late 13th and early 14th centuries in the late Gothic rayonnant style.[4]
Sculpture and decoration
The building is noted more for its solidity than beauty of proportion or richness of ornamentation. The west front is pierced by three portals; that in the middle has good sculptures, representing the Parable of the Ten Virgins and the story of St Stephen. The right-hand portal contains twenty-two statuettes of the prophets, which have suffered considerable damage. Above this portal rises the stone tower, decorated with armorial bearings and with statues representing the principal benefactors of the church. The bells in the campanile by which the tower is surmounted enjoyed immense reputation in the Middle Ages; the two which still remain, La Savinienne and La Potentienne, weigh respectively 15.3 tons and 13.8 tons. The left portal is adorned with two bas-reliefs, Liberality and Avarice, as well as with the story of John the Baptist. The portal on the north side of the cathedral is one of the finest examples of French 16th-century sculpture; that on the south side is surmounted by magnificent stained-glass windows. Other windows of the 12th to the 16th century are preserved, some of them representing the legend of Thomas Becket of Canterbury.
Among the interior features are the tomb of Louis, Dauphin of France (son of Louis XV) and his consort, Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, one of the works of Guillaume Coustou the Younger, and bas-reliefs representing scenes from the life of Cardinal Antoine Duprat, chancellor of France and archbishop of Sens from 1525 to 1535. The mausoleum from which they came was destroyed in the French Revolution.
The cathedral treasury, one of the richest in antiquities in France, contains a fragment of the true cross presented by Charlemagne, and the vestments of Thomas Becket. The treasury is now kept at a museum.
It was in the cathedral of Sens that St Louis, in 1234, married Marguerite of Provence, and five years later deposited the crown of thorns.
Sources
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press.- Plein, Irene (2005). Die frühgotische Skulptur an der Westfassade der Kathedrale von Sens. Münster. ISBN 978-3-930454-40-2.
References
- ^ a b Klein, Bruno (2010). "The Beginnings of Gothic Architecture in France and its Neighbors". In Toman, Rolf. Gothic Architecture, Sculpture, Painting. Potsdam: H.F. Ullmann. p. 39. ISBN 978-3-8331-1038-2.
- ^ Cruickshank, Dan, ed (1996). Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture (20th edition ed.). Architectural Press. p. 425. ISBN 0-7506-2267-9.
- ^ Fletcher, p. 426
- ^ Kurmann, Peter (2010). "Late Gothic Architecture in France and the Netherlands". In Toman, Rolf. Gothic Architecture, Sculpture, Painting. Potsdam: H.F. Ullmann. pp. 176-177. ISBN 978-3-8331-1038-2.
External links
- Saint-Étienne de Sens at Structurae
- Cathédrale de Sens at Diocèse de Sens-Auxerre (French)
- Pictures of Sens Cathedral
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