Sens was an important and prosperous town during the late Roman Empire, located at the meeting point of two rivers and at the intersection of two major Roman roads. During the
Carolingian Empire it became a major center of the early French Christian church. In 876 AD,
Pope John VIII gave the Archbishop of Sens the title "Primate of the Gauls and Germans". He was placed at the head of six and later seven dioceses, including Paris, Chartres, Orleans, and Troyes. The religious jurisdiction was transferred to the Archbishop of Lyon in the 11th century, but the Archbishop of Sens still keeps the honorific title "Primate of the Gauls and Germans".
Construction (1130–1160) The first cathedral of Sens described in medieval records was built sometime between the 6th and 9th centuries, probably on the same site. According to medieval records, it was composed of three separate buildings, a baptistry and two churches. The date of their construction is not recorded, but medieval chronicles report they were destroyed by fire between 958 and 967, and replaced by a single structure. By the 12th century, Sens was flourishing economically and growing in population. In 1122,
Henri Sanglier, a member of the court of
Louis VI of France, was named archbishop of Sens and began the project of building a larger and grander cathedral. In 1128 the new bishop received a series of letters from Saint
Bernard of Clairvaux, founder of the
Cistercian order, urging him as an archbishop to live a less luxurious and more austere life, advice which the new archbishop followed, as he amassed the funds and resources needed for his cathedral. Sens - Cathédrale Saint-Étienne - Intérieur - 02.jpg|The three levels and six-part rib vaults of the nave of Sens Cathedral File:Cathédrale St Étienne intérieur Sens 2.jpg|The ambulatory of the choir Sens - Cathédrale Saint-Étienne - 01.jpg|The apse and radiating chapels Construction of the new cathedral began between 1130 and 1135. The vaulting over the nave and choir was revolutionary, composed of square six-part
rib vaults, which distributed the weight downward to alternating columns and piers between the bays. These vaults had been used experimentally in one portion of
Durham Cathedral in England and at
Saint Denis Basilica near Paris, but Sens was the first cathedral to use them throughout the structure. Above the arcades of pillars and columns on the ground floor was the
triforium, which overlooked the lower roof, and above that the
clerestory, or upper walls. Thanks to the new
flying buttresses installed outside between the bays to the walls, the clerestory was later given large stained glass windows. The ground floor of the new cathedral had the traditional form of a basilica, with a long nave and a large choir, and no transepts. A walkway or ambulatory surrounded the outside of the nave and choir. There were two chapels flanking the choir. Excavations in the 20th century showed there had originally been a rectangular chapel in the apse at the east end, hidden by later modifications. The dimensions of the new cathedral were extraordinary for the time: 113.5 metres long, 27.5 metres wide, and with a height of 24.4 metres. The church is larger in overall scale than its contemporaries at
Saint Denis,
Noyon or
Senlis. The first phase of construction was completed by about 1160. It had an immediate influence on the construction of other churches, particularly the choir of the Abbey church of
Saint-Germain-des-Pres in Paris, completed in 1163, and
Vézelay Abbey (completed about 1180).
Pope Alexander III and Thomas Becket Sens Cathedral immediately became a destination for important visitors.
Pope Alexander III came to Sens with his court in September 1163, in the midst of a dispute with The Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa, and remained for three years. At the end of 1164,
Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, came to Sens as an exile, forced to leave because of his opposition to the seizure of church property by
King Henry II of England. Becket remained in France until December 1170. He returned to England, where he was murdered by four knights in Canterbury Cathedral. A collection of personal effects belonging to Becket, including his church vestments, are on display in the treasury of Sens Cathedral. A major window on the north side of the choir of the cathedral, made in 1200–1210, illustrates the life of Becket. The founder of the cathedral,
Henri Sanglier, died in 1142, and the work was carried on by his successors, archbishops Hugues de Toucy (1142–1168) and then Guillaume de Champagne (1169–1176), before he became archbishop of Reims (1176–1202). The last part of the original cathedral to be completed was the west facade, with its three portals and original two towers.
A Royal Wedding and modifications (13th–16th century) File:Plan.cathedrale.Sens.png|Floor plan with new north and south transepts (16th c.) Sens - Cathédrale Saint-Étienne - Intérieur - 09.jpg|The choir screen Sens - Cathédrale Saint-Étienne - 04.jpg|The South transept rose window and portal, in the Flamboyant Gothic style (15th c.) Under a new archbishop, Gauthier Cornut (1221–1241), the cathedral was the site of an important royal wedding, between
King Louis IX and
Marguerite of Provence on 27 May 1234, which solidified the alliance between France and
Provence. The cathedral also briefly hosted the reputed
Crown of Thorns from the
Crucifixion, purchased by Louis IX from the Emperor of Constantinople, as it was handed over to the King with great ceremony, and then transported by boat to Paris for eventual placement in the
Sainte-Chapelle. Archbishop Cornut made a series of important modifications. To bring in more light, He raised the upper walls of the choir and installed larger stained glass windows, a process that also took place at
Notre Dame de Paris at about the same time. This project was continued by Cornut's successors, and was not finished until 1309. He also began the construction of the Archbishops' palace adjoining the cathedral, the remodelling of the Saint Severin chapel, and the installation of an ornate jubé, or
rood screen, between the choir and nave. The works were interrupted by a disaster, the collapse on 5 April 1268 of the south tower, which caused several casualties and damaged the adjoining Archbishop's Palace. The rebuilding of the tower was long delayed for lack of funds, but was finally completed by a legacy in the will of the Archbishop Étienne Bécard de Penoul (1292–1309). The same Archbishop also remade the Chapel of Saint Savinien. The original rectangular chapel was replaced by a more ornate polygonal structure with an eight-ribbed vault and five windows. This chapel introduced the
High Gothic, or "Classic" style into the cathedral. The 14th century also saw the addition of series of new small chapels for private ceremonies along the aisles on either side of the choir and nave. The other major 13th-century modification was the reconstruction of the early Gothic Chapel of the Virgin, built in 1150, into the
Rayonnant style, with larger and more decorative windows. An even more ambitious project, a transept similar to that of
Notre Dame de Paris, was started but, evidently because of a shortage of funds, was not built until between 1490 and 1518. It was finally made in the exuberant late Gothic
Flamboyant style by the master mason
Martin Chambiges, whose other works included the transept of
Senlis Cathedral, of
Beauvais Cathedral (1499), and the west front of
Troyes Cathedral (1502–1531).{{Cite book The money for the transept was raised by an ambitious fund-raising campaign, featuring displays of the cathedral relics and special sermons. The King also made a modest contribution from the taxes on his properties in the region. The portal of the new south transept, the portal of Moses, was built first, between 1491 and 1496, A new rose window was installed, along with a Tree of Jesse Window, between 1502 and 1503. Construction of the north transept was begun in about 1502 under a different master builder, Hugues Cuvelier, since Martin Chambiges was by then occupied building the transept of Beauvais Cathedral. The great south rose window, known as the Window of the Angel Musicians, was not put into place until 1515–1517. A few more additions were made in the 16th century. A belfry was added to the new tower (called the lead tower), but the new bells, the largest two of which weighed fourteen tons and twelve tons, were not cast in the foundry and put into place until 1560. The work on the cathedral was delayed in the late 16th century by the
Wars of Religion, opposing Protestants and Catholics. Sens was in the center of the war, not recognising the Protestant King Henry IV, and the city and was besieged without success by a Protestant army. In 1621, the new Archbishop of Paris,
Henri de Gondi, persuaded the new King
Louis XIII, and
Pope Gregory XV to make the Archdiocese of Paris, rather than that of Sens, the principal diocese of France. Thereafter the new Archbishop of Sens, Octave de Belgrade, only had authority over the bishops of neighbouring Auxerre, Nevers and Troyes. Nonetheless, Sens remained an important religious center, attracting monastic communities of the Jesuits, Carmelites, Benedictines, and Ursulines.
Later years (17th–18th century) Few important additions to the cathedral were made in the following decades. In 1638, the explosions of cannons firing to celebrate the birth of the future Louis XIV broke the stained glass windows installed over the west portal. They were replaced by plain glass. In 1644 a windstorm broke the stained glass window depicting the patron saints on the north transept. It was replaced with a new window designed by painter Antoine Soulignac in 1646. The pace of change picked up in the 18th century. In 1760, King Louis XV ordered that the golden table, which served as the centerpiece of the altar, be melted down to help refill the royal treasury after a costly war. In the 1760s two new altars, one devoted to Saint Louis (on the left) and Saint Martin (on right) were put in place along with an ornate wrought iron grill and gateway, with the coat of arms of the Cardinal de Luynes. New stalls were installed in the choir in the 1780s. The stone floor of the cathedral was replaced in 1767–69, which destroyed the labyrinth, which had occupied the entire space of the floor at the entry of the nave. This also caused the removal of many medieval tombstones, which were replaced with simple names and dates. In 1785 A project was prepared for a new west portal of the Church, in the form of a classical portico with columns, designed by François Soufflot, nephew of the future architect of the Pantheon in Paris, but it was rejected too radical. A fund for a "Reconstruction in the Gothic style" was granted by Louis XVI in 1786, but the French Revolution intervened.
The Revolution and aftermath The Outbreak of the French Revolution in Sens preceded that in Paris by a day: on 13 July 1789, peasants broke down the gates of the Palace of the Archbishop to seize the grain that had been confiscated and stored in the courtyard. The Archbishop himself, Lomenie de Brienne, took an oath to the new Constitution. The belongings of the cathedral were nationalised on 23 November 1790. In September 1792, the voting for the deputies to the new Convention took place within the cathedral. Archbishop de Brienne became a Constitutional Bishop, and, later in the month, the abolition of the monarchy and declaration of the Republic was announced in the cathedral. In November 1793, the revolutionary army called the Marseillaises marched from Paris to put down a counter-Revolutionary outbreak in Lyon. They stopped in Sens for a few hours on November 7, 1793, and took the time to smash the sculpture on the central portal of the cathedral, sparing only the statue of Saint-Etienne, because a quick-thinking clergyman had put a Revolutionary cap on its head. Eight of the bells were taken down from the tower to be melted down for their bronze, though the two largest, the bourdons, remained in place. In February 1794 the Festival of Reason was celebrated in the cathedral, and on June 8 the cathedral was formally renamed the Temple of the Supreme Being. With the end of the Terror, For a time the Catholic Church shared the structure with a semi-religious cult called Theophilanthropy, but in October 1800 the cathedral was entirely returned to its former status. In October 1801, the cathedral came back entirely under the control of the Catholic Church, though Napoleon I refused to restore the special status of Sens having dominance over other cathedrals. Sens became an ordinary parish church.
The 19th century – restoration and conflict , c. 1874 Sens suffered more damage during the Napoleonic Wars. In February 1814 the town was bombarded by Russian artillery, which damaged some of the stained glass, and in the same month, Prussian soldiers used the cathedral as a barracks. Traces of their cooking fires can still be seen on the stone floors. After the fall of Napoleon, with the restoration of the royal government, in 1817 Sens again had an archbishop, governing churches in Troyes, Nevers and Moulins as well as Sens. A major project of repair of years and neglect and damage took place from 1834 to 1848, under the direction of the diocese architect, Charles Robelin. Robelin served as the consultant on Gothic cathedrals to Victor Hugo, whose novel
Notre Dame de Paris had appeared in 1831. Hugo came to Sens to see the cathedral in 1839 and wrote, "All the contrasts are mixed in this admirable church, and are resolved into harmonies...It is the complicated art of history, it is the religion of the spirit powerfully combined with the philosophy of facts." During the course of the restoration, many of the sculptures were replaced with new works. In 1847, a new figure in restoration,
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc visited the site, and declared that the restoration work of Robelin was "deplorable." He dismissed Robelin, and a new architect, Adolphe Lance, took charge, with a program of demolishing some of the 14th century and later additions and restoring the structure as much as possible to the plan of the 13th century. Old chapels that had been demolished were recreated. Modern panelling and other additions were stripped away, and the weak points of the structure were reinforced with iron. The painter
Jean-Baptiste Corot visited the cathedral in 1874 and painted it at this stage of the restoration. Viollet-le-Duc added a gilded bronze armchair, modelled on 12th-century designs, placed in the center of the cathedral, to be the formal seat of the archbishop. Lance died his 1874, and his work was completed in 1898 by Charles Laisne.
20th and 21st century At the beginning of the 20th century, the French church and state were formally separated; priests were no longer paid by the state, and the cathedral itself became the property of the French government. In 1907, the Archbishop had to abandon his palace, which had become state property, and find a different residence. His old residence is now the Museum of Sens. In the First World War, the cathedral was far from the front lines, but in the Second War the German forces swept through Sens, which was captured on 15 June 1940. The stained glass windows had been taken out and replaced by boards. Five German shells struck the cathedral, causing minor damage. French prisoners of war were initially kept inside the cathedral; they included
André Malraux, the future French author and Minister of Culture. In 2014, the cathedral celebrated the 850th anniversary of its consecration. == Towers and bells ==