The Reims Cathedral is famous as the site of the coronation of French kings, and as a particularly fine example of Gothic architecture. . It has two highly-decorated facades, the western facade and the northern.
Today we will look at the West facade, which is the cathedral's face and contains its main entrances.
First, there are two "buttresses" on this facade, one at each end of the cathedral's face --
left buttress (at far left of cathedral's face) right buttress (at far right of the West facade)
Next, there are three portals, known as the North, Center and South portals.
a. North portal (right-most entrance of West facade) --
North portal North portal, left side (jamb statues) North portal, right side (jamb statues)
b. The Center portal is the largest and most ornate of the three --
Center portal Center portal, left side Center portal, right side Central portal, trumeau
c. Finally, there is the South portal --
South portal South portal, left side South portal, right side
Tomorrow I'll try for the other main facade.
Though this comment isn't specific, I wanted to send a message to the creator of this website. I recently discovered this site a few days ago. Suffice it to say I wish I could have experienced it from the beginning - "something beautiful" is an answer to my prayers.
Posted by: Christy M. | September 09, 2006 at 12:03 AM
Christy, I'm not very good at replying to comments, usually because I'm so pleased to receive them that I become inarticulate. Yours has given me a real thrill. And made me re-think a half-formed intention to take a formal break from posting here. Thank you so much.
Posted by: Ciara | September 13, 2006 at 10:06 AM