Old Cambrai Cathedral was the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

cathedral of the

diocese of Cambrai The Archdiocese of Cambrai ( la, Archdiocesis Cameracensis; French: ''Archidiocèse de Cambrai'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France, comprising the arrondissements of Avesnes-sur-Help ...

in France, sited on what is now Place Fénelon in

Cambrai Cambrai (, ; pcd, Kimbré; nl, Kamerijk), formerly Cambray and historically in English Camerick or Camericke, is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department and in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, regio ...

but now entirely lost. Recorded as one of the largest and finest architectural monuments in northern France, it was replaced by the current

Cambrai Cathedral Cambrai Cathedral (french: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Grâce de Cambrai) is a Catholic church located in Cambrai, Nord, France, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Cambrai. The cathedral was registered as a '' monument historique'' on 9 August ...

History

The first plans for a new cathedral were made after a fire in 1148 destroyed the city's 11th century cathedral (built by bishops

Gerard of Florennes Gerard of Florennes (ca 975, bishop 1012 – 14 March 1051), bishop of Cambrai as Gerard I, had formerly been chaplain to Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, and helpful to the latter in his political negotiations with Robert the Pious, King of France. In ...

and Gerard of Lessines), with the choir only completed around 1251 (when the canons took possession of it) and the cathedral as a whole only consecrated in 1472. Known as 'the wonder of the low countries', it measured 131 meters in length and 72 meters wide and its highest spire was 114 meters above ground level. Nineteenth century excavations to renew a road along Place Fénelon rediscovered part of its choir. That choir is sometimes attributed to

Villard de Honnecourt Villard de Honnecourt (''Wilars dehonecort'', ''Vilars de Honecourt'') was a 13th-century artist from Picardy in northern France. He is known to history only through a surviving portfolio or "sketchbook" containing about 250 drawings and designs ...

, but the sketch of it in his portfolio is inexact and possibly by another architect. Another excavation in 1954, in advance of building work, uncovered the foundations of the south transept and another in the 2000s for the construction of the Lycée Fénelon's

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...

nasium revealed some buildings from the adjoining archbishop's palace, a golden key and other finds. The cathedral, “exceeded all others in Christendom with its fine singing, its bright lighting and its sweet bells” , but most significantly, resided leading musicians and composers of the time The old cathedral was host to several notable French and Flemish composers who served as ''maître de chapelle'' including

Guillaume Dufay Guillaume Du Fay ( , ; also Dufay, Du Fayt; 5 August 1397(?) – 27 November 1474) was a French composer and music theorist of the early Renaissance. Considered the leading European composer of his time, his music was widely performed and repr ...

Robert de Févin Robert de Févin (late 15th and early 16th centuries) was a French composer of the Renaissance. He was the brother of Antoine de Févin, a considerably more famous composer at the court of Louis XII of France. Whether he was older or younger tha ...

Johannes Lupi Jean Leleu, most commonly known by the latinized version of his name, Johannes Lupi (c. 1506 – December 20, 1539), was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. A representative of the generation after Josquin, he was a minor but skilled ...

, and

Jean de Bonmarché Jean de Bonmarché (ca. 1525September 1570) was a composer of the Franco-Flemish school. Bonmarché was born in Douai. He became dean of Lille Cathedral, then in 1560 master of the choirboys at Old Cambrai Cathedral. On 30 November 1564, followin ...

. Nicolas Malin and Richard Loqueville taught Dufay there; Gilet Velut was likely ''petit vicaire'' in 1409. In 1428

Philippe de Luxembourg Philippe de Luxembourg (1445 – 2 June 1519) was a French Cardinal Life He was bishop of Le Mans in 1476. He was bishop of Thérouanne 1496 to 1513, and bishop of Saint-Pons in 1509, when his nephew died, and until 1512, when he resigned i ...

claimed that the cathedral was the finest in all of Christianity, for the fineness of its singing, its light, and the sweetness of its bells. In 1791, during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

, the cathedral was used for worship under the "culte constitutionnel", but only a year later it was damaged. In 1793, it was converted into a

granary A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often made of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animal ...

and on 6 June 1796, sold to a certain Blanquart, a merchant from Saint-Quentin, who began its demolition it to sell off the stone. Its spire still survived into the early years of the

First French Empire The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Eu ...

, when attempts were made to save it as a memorial to Fénelon, but the project was adjudged too costly and abandoned, with the spire left to be blown down in a storm in 1809. The building is known only through a few surviving documents - two high-precision drawings by

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

's military painter Van der Meulen, statements made on the feasibility of the Fénelon spire project, a watercolour painted by an English soldier on the fall of the First Empire, and two photographs of the royal engineers' 1695 '

plan-relief A plan-relief is a scale model of a landscape and buildings produced for military usage, made to visualize building projects on fortifications or campaigns surrounding fortified locations. History The first examples seem to have been used by the ...

' of the town (the ''plan-relief'' itself was taken by the Germans during the Second World War occupation and was destroyed in the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula– ...

in 1945).

Gallery

Image:Ancienne Cathedrale de Cambrai.jpg, Incomplete 3D model of the old cathedral. Image:Cathedrale de Cambrai2.jpg, Incomplete 3D model of the old cathedral.

References

Sources

* Trénard, Louis (ed), 1982: ''Histoire de Cambrai''. Presses Universitaires de Lille

External links

Association Recherche Fénelon"

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cambrai Cathedral, Old Former cathedrals in France Churches in Nord (French department) Gothic architecture in France

Old Cambrai Cathedral Old Cambrai Cathedral was the Gothic cathedral of the diocese of Cambrai in France, sited on what is now Place Fénelon in Cambrai but now entirely lost. Recorded as one of the largest and finest architectural monuments in northern France, it wa ...

13th-century churches in France