Rheims and the Battles for its Possession Part 14

_The Rue St. Pierre-les-Dames leads to the Rue des Murs, into which turn to the right, then to the left into the Rue du Barbatre. Follow the latter to the end._ This street suffered greatly from the early bombardments, and was almost entirely destroyed in the summer of 1918.

_At Nos. 137 and 139, at the corner of the Rue Montlaurent_, are the ruins of the =Hotel Feret de Montlaurent=.

=Hotel Feret de Montlaurent.=

[Ill.u.s.tration: GALLERY FACING THE COURTYARD OF THE HoTEL FeRET DE MONTLAURENT _The statues in the niches represent the sun and planets._]

This large building, occupied by the _Cercle Catholique_, was commenced about 1540 by Hubert Feret, a _Lieutenant_ of the people, and the most celebrated member of a family which played an important part at Rheims in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. The outside facade has been greatly altered. At No. 137 it was entirely rebuilt under Louis XVI. At No. 139 the ground-floor openings have been modified.

As in many of the mansions of the 16th century, most of the decoration is on the inner facades. Inside the courtyard, on the ground-floor of the wing ab.u.t.ting on the Rue Montlaurent, there is a six-arched gallery which was damaged but not destroyed (_photo,_ p. 99). Between the arch-centres and at the ends of the gallery are seven niches, three feet high, enclosing stone statues of the sun and the six planets known in the 16th century.

Taken in their order they are: =Saturn=, with a scythe in his hand and serpent round his arm, devouring a child, and the zodiacal signs Aquarius and Capricornus at his feet; =Jupiter=, holding a lighted torch, with Sagittarius at his feet; =Mars=, armed from head to foot, surmounting Cancer and Aries; the =Sun=, personified by Phoebus with flowing mantle, a lion at his side; =Venus=, clothed only in her hair, surmounting Taurus and Baloena; =Mercury=, with wings on his head and heels, the caduceus in his hand, Virgo and Gemini at his feet; the =Moon=, represented by Diana bearing a crescent; below her Scorpio.

The escutcheons on the wall at the back of this facade bear the initials of Regnault Feret, who completed the mansion. In the second court there are still vestiges of the chapel of this family.

_At No. 142 of the same street_, the entrance to the =Cour Maupinot= (one of the numerous _cours_ which have survived in Rheims) is framed in pilasters, the carved entablature of which supports a triangular pediment (_photo below_).

_The Rue Barbatre is continued by the Rue des Salines, which leads to the Place St. Nicaise._

[Ill.u.s.tration: ENTRANCE TO MAUPINOT COURT. THE DOORWAY IS RENAISSANCE, _142, Rue du Barbatre. See Itinerary, p. 95_]

The Place St. Nicaise was destroyed by the bombardments of April-August, 1918. It took its name from the celebrated Bishop of Rheims, who, with his sister St. Eutropia, was put to death by the Vandals in 407.

The Church of St. Nicaise, rebuilt in the 13th century by Libergier and Robert de Coucy, was destroyed at the time of the Revolution. Amongst other curiosities it contained a loose pillar, which Peter the Great had pointed out to him at the time of his journey through Rheims.

At the corner of the Place St. Nicaise, between the Boulevard Victor-Hugo and the Rue St. Nicaise, is the entrance to the =Champion Cellars=, in which the _Dubail_ school was installed during the war (_see p. 24_).

_Take the Rue St. Nicaise to the Boulevard Henry Vasnier (photo below), turn into the latter, on the right, and follow same as far as the_ =Rond-Point St. Nicaise=.

All this part of the town, which was quite close to the German lines, was constantly under the fire of their guns. It was violently bombarded during the German offensives of May, June and July, 1918.

_Near the Rond-Point de St. Nicaise are the_ =Pommery Cellars=, which gave shelter to many citizens and school-cla.s.ses during the war (_see p.

24_).

=The Pommery Cellars=

These cellars are among the finest in Rheims, and form, with their eleven miles of streets, squares and boulevards lighted by electricity, rail-tracks, waggons, lifts, electric pumps and siphons, quite an underground city. A visit to them will give the tourist an idea of the importance and complexity of the Champagne wine industry in Rheims.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE "HENRY VASNIER," SEEN FROM THE "ROND-POINT ST.

NICAISE"]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TRENCHES AND SHELTERS IN THE SQUARE ST. NICAISE _See Itinerary, p. 95, and panorama seen from the top of St. Nicaise Hill, p. 27._]

_The Boulevard Diancourt, which skirts the Square St. Nicaise, begins at the_ Rond-Point St. Nicaise.

This square was much cut up by the bombardments, and by the trenches and defensive works made there during the war (_photo above_).

The square contains two eminences, from the top of which there is a fine panoramic view of Rheims.

The photograph on page 27 was taken from the eminence nearest the Rond-Point St. Nicaise.

The other eminence is crowned by a limestone tower--all that remains of the ancient city ramparts.

_Follow the Boulevard Diancourt to the Place Dieu-Lumiere._

The name _Dieu-Lumiere_, borne by the old gate through which Joan-of-Arc and the Dauphin entered Rheims, was not derived, as supposed at the Renaissance, from the Sun-G.o.d Apollo, but from the old Gate _Dieu-li-Mire_ (G.o.d the Physician), so called in the Middle Ages on account of the proximity of a Cistercian hospital.

_Cross the square and take the Rue Dieu-Lumiere on the right to the_ Place St.-Timothee. The wood-panelled houses, whose _loges_ faced the Place St.-Timothee, were destroyed by the bombardments of April-September, 1918, except the one at the corner of the Rue St.

Julien. This house, though severely damaged, has retained its butcher's stall with 17th century wooden bal.u.s.trading.

_Take the Rue St. Julien on the left to the Place St.-Remi, in which stands the_ =Church of St. Remi=.

=The Church of St. Remi=

The Church of St. Remi is the oldest church in Rheims, and one of the oldest in all France. Although it is not certain that it replaced a Roman basilica, said to have stood on the site of the present transept, there is no doubt that Gallo-Roman building materials, taken from neighbouring edifices, were used in its construction or restoration.

To-day, the church covers a ground-s.p.a.ce of about an acre and a quarter.

In shape a Latin cross, it measures inside about 450 feet in length, 98 feet in breadth and 124 feet in height under the vaulting. Only the southern facade shows to advantage, but in spite of its varied styles, which mark the different stages of its growth, the church realises to the full the purpose of its founders. Its architecture and decoration, especially in the interior, make it, as was intended, a grand and dignified depository for sacred remains.

The Church of St. Remi stands on the site of a former cemetery, in the middle of which was the Chapel of St. Christopher, where St. Remi was buried. The chapel soon became popular and grew rapidly, especially between the 6th and 9th centuries, when it became a great fortified church. The present church, which replaced it, is not only one of the finest Romanesque churches in the north of France, but also forms a curious epitome of the history of architecture for several centuries.

Begun in 1039 under Abbot Thierry, it was still far from finished when consecrated in 1049 by Pope Leo IX. Building was continued in 1170 by Abbot Pierre de Celle, the future Bishop of Chartres, whose restorations were the first application of the Gothic style to a great building in Rheims; in the 13th and 14th centuries, under Abbot Jean Canart, and in the 15th century, under Abbot Robert de Lenoncourt. Partially transformed at the end of the 16th century, it has been restored and partly rebuilt at intervals since 1839.

=The Church of St. Remi during the War=

The Church of St. Remi escaped severe damage until the middle of 1918.

The bombardment of September 4, 1914, injured one of the tapestries depicting the life of St. Remi, and destroyed a fine painting: _The Entry of Clovis into Rheims_. The bombardment of November 16, 1914, wrecked the apsidal chapel of the Virgin, bringing down the vaulting, destroying the key-stone and pointed arches, crushing the altar beneath a heap of ruins, smashing the magnificent windows of the apsidal gallery, and destroying the priceless 12th century stained-gla.s.s depicting _Christ crucified between the Virgin and St. John_. The Church narrowly escaped destruction when the Hotel-Dieu Hospital was burnt down in 1916. From April, 1918, it was marked down by the German batteries.

The roof was entirely burnt, and the dummy vaulting of the nave collapsed. Of the fine 15th century timber-work nothing remains, but parts of the lofty 13th century vaulting over the choir and transept withstood the bombardment. The treasure, tapestries, sacristy doors, storied tile-flooring of the chapel of St. Eloi, the old stained-gla.s.s of the lofty windows, and the apsidal windows round the gallery of the first storey, were saved by the Historical Monuments Department.

The tomb of St. Remi is intact. The relics of the saint which, at the request of the Archbishop of Rheims had not been disturbed, were removed by the vicar of the parish at the time of the final evacuation of the town. The reliquary was taken away by officers at a later date, while the church was burning.

=The Apse of St. Remi Church=

The Apse was rebuilt under Pierre de Celle in 1170, in early Gothic.

Five three-sided radiating chapels arranged in three stages, one behind the other, have flowing and elegant lines, broken by the enormous projections of the b.u.t.tresses which were added at a later period.

This apse is one of the earliest religious edifices in France, in which flying b.u.t.tresses were employed.

The latter, very simple in design, rest on outside fluted columns detached from the wall of the apse. This is one of the last examples of fluting, as applied to columns, the process disappearing generally with the introduction of pointed architecture, only to reappear at the Renaissance.

The persistence of this fluting is doubtless explained by the influence of the many specimens of Roman architecture which Rheims had preserved.

=The Doorway of the Southern Transept=