The Cathedrals Of Southern France Part 18

ST. CASTOR DE NiMES

Like its neighbouring Roman cities, Nimes lives mostly in the glorious past.

In attempting to realize--if only in imagination--the civilization of a past age, one is bound to bear always in mind the _motif_ which caused any great art expression to take place.

Here at Nimes the church builder had much that was magnificent to emulate, leaving style apart from the question.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _St. Castor de Nimes_]

He might, when he planned the cathedral of St. Castor, have avowed his intention of reaching, if possible, the grace and symmetry of the _Maison Caree_; the splendour of the temple of Diana; the majesty of the _Tour Magna_; the grandeur of the arena; or possibly in some measure a blend of all these ambitious results.

Instead, he built meanly and sordidly, though mainly by cause of poverty.

The Church of the Middle Ages, though come to great power and influence, was not possessed of the fabulous wealth of the vainglorious Roman, who gratified his senses and beautified his surroundings by a lavish expenditure of means, acquired often in a none too honest fashion.

The imperative need of the soul was for a house of worship of some sort, and in some measure relative to the rank of the prelate who was to guard their religious life. This took shape in the early part of the eleventh century, when the cathedral of St. Castor was built.

Of the varied and superlative attractions of the city one is attempted to enlarge unduly; until the thought comes that there is the making of a book itself to be fashioned out of a reconsideration of the splendid monuments which still exist in this city of celebrated art. To enumerate them all even would be an impossibility here.

The tiny building known as the _Maison Caree_ is of that greatness which is not excelled by the "Divine Comedy" in literature, the "Venus of Milo" in sculpture, or the "Transfiguration" in painting.

The delicacy and beauty of its Corinthian columns are the more apparent when viewed in conjunction with the pseudo-cla.s.sical portico of mathematical clumsiness of the modern theatre opposite.

This theatre is a dreadful caricature of the deathless work of the Greeks, while the perfect example of _Greco-Romain_ architecture--the _Maison Caree_--will endure as long as its walls stand as the fullest expression of that sense of divine proportion and _magique harmonie_ which the Romans inherited from the Greeks. Cardinal Alberoni called it "a gem which should be set in gold," and both Louis Quatorze and Napoleon had schemes for lifting it bodily from the ground and reestablishing it at Paris.

_Les Arenes_ of Nimes is an unparalleled work of its cla.s.s, and in far better preservation than any other extant. It stands, welcoming the stranger, at the very gateway of the city, its _grand axe_ extending off, in arcaded perspective, over four hundred and twenty feet, with room inside for thirty thousand souls.

These Romans wrought on a magnificent scale, and here, as elsewhere, they have left evidences of their skill which are manifestly of the non-decaying order.

The Commission des Monuments Historiques lists in all at Nimes nine of these historical monuments over which the paternal care of the Ministere de l'Instruction Publique et des Beaux Arts ever hangs.

As if the only really fine element in the Cathedral of St. Castor were the facade, with its remarkable frieze of events of Bible history, the Commission has singled it out for especial care, which in truth it deserves, far and away above any other specific feature of this church.

Christianity came early to Nimes; or, at least, the bishopric was founded here, with St. Felix as its first bishop, in the fourth century.

At this time the diocese was a suffragan of Narbonne, whilst to-day its allegiance is to the archiepiscopal throne at Avignon.

The cathedral of St. Castor was erected in 1030, restored in the thirteenth century, and suffered greatly in the wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

These depredations have been--in part--made good, but in the main it is a rather gaunt and painful fabric, and one which is unlooked for amid so magnificent neighbours.

It has been said by Roger Peyer--who has written a most enticing monograph on Nimes--"that without prejudice we can say that the churches constructed in the city _dans nos jours_ are far in advance of the cathedral." This is unquestionably true; for, if we except the very ancient facade, with its interesting sculptured frieze, there is little to impress the cathedral upon the mind except its contrast with its surrounding architectural peers.

The main plan, with its flanking north-westerly square tower, is reminiscent of hundreds of parish churches yet to be seen in Italy; while its portal is but a mere cla.s.sical doorway, too mean even to be cla.s.sed as a detail of any rank whatever.

The facade has undergone some breaking-out and stopping-up of windows during the past decade; for what purpose it is hard to realize, as the effect is neither enhanced nor the reverse.

A gaunt supporting b.u.t.tress, or what not, flanks the tower on the south and adds, yet further, to the incongruity of the _ensemble_.

In fine, its decorations are a curious mixture of a more or less pure round-headed Roman style of window and doorway, with later Renaissance and pseudo-cla.s.sical interpolations.

With the interior the edifice takes on more of an interesting character, though even here it is not remarkable as to beauty or grace.

The nave is broad, aisleless, and bare, but presents an air of grandeur which is perhaps not otherwise justified; an effect which is doubtless wholly produced by a certain cheerfulness of aspect, which comes from the fact that it has been restored--or at least thoroughly furbished up--in recent times.

The large Roman nave, erected, it has been said, from the remains of a former temple of Augustus, has small chapels, without windows, beyond its pillars in place of the usual side aisles.

Above is a fine gallery or _tribune_, which also surrounds the choir.

The modern mural paintings--the product of the Restoration period--give an air of splendour and elegance, after the manner of the Italian churches, to an appreciably greater extent than is commonly seen in France.

In the third chapel on the left is an altar-table made of an early Christian sarcophagus; a questionable practice perhaps, but forming an otherwise beautiful, though crude, accessory.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

XV

ST. THeODORIT D'UZeS

The ancient diocese of Uzes formerly included that region lying between the Ardeche, the Rhone, and the Gardon, its length and breadth being perhaps equal--fourteen ancient leagues. As a bishopric, it endured from the middle of the fifth century nearly to the beginning of the nineteenth.

In ancient Gallic records its cathedral was reckoned as some miles from the present site of the town, but as no other remains than those of St.

Theodorit are known to-day, it is improbable that any references in mediaeval history refer to another structure.

This church is now no longer a cathedral, the see having been suppressed in 1790.

The bishop here, as at Lodeve and Mende, was the count of the town, and the bishop and duke each possessed their castles and had their respective spheres of jurisdiction, which, says an old-time chronicler, "often occasioned many disputes." Obviously!

In the sixteenth century most of the inhabitants embraced the Reformation after the example of their bishop, who, with all his chapter, publicly turned Protestant and "sent for a minister to Geneva."

What remains of the cathedral to-day is reminiscent of a highly interesting mediaeval foundation, though its general aspect is distinctly modern. Such rebuilding and restoration as it underwent, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, made of it practically a new edifice.

The one feature of mark, which stands alone as the representative of mediaeval times, is the charming tower which flanks the main body of the church on the right.

It is known as the "Tour Fenestrelle" and is of the thirteenth century.

It would be a notable accessory to any great church, and is of seven stories in height, each dwindling in size from the one below, forming a veritable campanile. Its height is 130 feet.

The interior attractions of this minor church are greater than might be supposed. There is a low gallery with a superb series of wrought-iron _grilles_, a fine tomb in marble--to Bishop Boyan--and in the transept two paintings by Simon de Chalons--a "Resurrection" and a "Raising of Lazarus."

The inevitable obtrusive organ-case is of the seventeenth century, and like all of its kind is a parasitical abomination, clinging precariously to the western wall.

The sacristy is an extensive suite of rooms which contain throughout a deep-toned and mellow oaken wainscot.