Évreux, Cathédrale Notre-Dame

Little, apart from the cathedral and the abbay church of S-Taurin, remains of medieval Evreux, which once contained 8 parish churches, 10 chapels and 6 monastery churches. Continuing destructions, resulting from the location of this city on the front line of hostilities between English and French, culminated in the bombardments of 1940 and 1944. Nothing is known of the pre-11th-century cathedral; remains have been discovered of the ambulatory of the church begun by Bishop Baudouin in 1066. This church was destroyed in a fire resulting from hostilities between the king of England and the count of Evreux, vassal of the king of France, in 1119. Reconstruction began under Bishop Audouin in 1120: the new cathedral, finished in 1160, burned in 1198 in the hostilities between Richard Lionheart and Philip Augustus. Rebuilding was delayed until 1230-1240 when the old nave was refurbished with a new superstructure under the direction of the renowned master mason Gautier de Varinfroy (who also directed work at Meaux Cathedral). In 1264 Raoul de Grosparny founded the chapel of Notre-Dame in the choir of the cathedral, indicating that work had passed from the nave to the chevet which was built around the old east end. The chevet was finished under Bishop Matthieu des Essarts (1299-1310) by 1310. After the completion of the chevet work passed to the addition of lateral chapels in the nave where the windows were donated by Geoffroy du Plessis (1310-1327), Jean du Prat (1328-1333) and Geoffroy Faë (1335-1340). In the Hundred Years War Evreux fell under the control (1357) of Charles le Mauvais of Navarre who supported the work of construction of the transept and eastern vaults of the nave. The transept, which had remained from the Romanesque church and which was in ruinous state, was rebuilt beginning in the early 15th century. Work accelerated under the direction of Jehan le Roy, maître juré, after Evreux was restored to the French in 1442. Windows were installed by Colin Vaucler, verrier. Kings Charles VII and Louis XI and Pope Eugenius V supported the work, the latter through an indulgence granted in 1447. Work on the upper transept arms was under way in 1460s and 1470s and the crossing was crowned with a lantern. Work was near completion in the 1480s when the south transept rose was installed and with the exception of the upper north transept and western frontispiece the cathedral was more or less complete by the death of Louis XI. With the aid of the royal gabelle and papal indulgences the north transept portal was built c1504 by Master Jean Cossart and the windows of the nave chapels and uper choir were then reworked. The western frontispiece was entirely rebuilt beginning in the later 16th century and finished in 1631. Modern interventions have been radical. The architect Darcy entirely rebuilt the nave flyers; threats of a radical rebuilding of the chevet flyers in the 1870s were averted, but the cathedral suffered devastating bombardment in 1940.