It was sort of a cloudy, gloomy day when I visited Reims Cathedral, which is also dedicated to Notre Dame, Our Lady the Virgin Mary. But it is such a striking edifice that it is hard not to enjoy the beauty of the church regardless of the weather. One of the largest cathedrals in the…
Category: Europe
Posts about European cities
Notre Dame of Paris, Under Reconstruction and the Cluny Museum
No trip to Paris would be complete without a visit to Notre Dame, which simply means “Our Lady” in French, and as such, there are perhaps thousands of churches in the Francophone world with that name. Our Lady obviously refers to the Virgin Mary. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the cathedral…
Cathedral Basilica of St. Denis
I saw six cathedrals when I was in Paris and the surrounding environs. First up is the former abbey church and now Cathedral Basilica of St. Denis. It was once out in the country north of Paris but is now deep in the larger metropolitan region and has a thriving immigrant community. There was heavy…
Basilica of St. Remi, Reims
The Romanesque Revival is such an important style of architecture in St. Louis, so I jumped at the opportunity to visit the fascinating transitional structure of the Basilica of St. Remi in the cathedral town of Reims (more about that church in the future). The former abbey church, which as its name suggests holds the…
Hôtel de Ville, Paris and St. Louis City Hall
One thing that annoys me about American architectural history and St. Louis architectural history in particular is that it is frequently written by people who have absolutely no background in European architectural history. Case in point, it is “common knowledge” in St. Louis that City Hall is based off of the Hôtel de Ville, the…
The Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte
The sun was shining when we first arrived at the stunning and highly influential Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte. I had been wanting to visit this remarkable palace for a long time, and it did not disappoint. It represents an important moment in the development of Seventeenth Century palace design, and many of the elements brought here from…
The Château of Fontainebleau
The Château of Fontainebleau features as one of the most important in the history of royal France, but it is perhaps not very well known. Dozens of French kings called it home at least for part of the year, all the way up to the year 1870, but it is perhaps not well known to…
The Château of Chenonceaux
Sitting aside and crossing the Le Cher River, the Château of Chenonceaux is easily one of the greatest achievements of humans carefully adapting the built environment with the natural environment. Instead of trampling on the natural world, the renovation of what had been an old Medieval fortress was transformed into a residence that worked with…
The Château and Town of Blois
I’ll be honest; a lot of the Loire Valley featured run-down barns and beaten up farm implements interspersed with mostly new houses built in the last thirty years. But occasionally there were awe-inspiring châteaux and stunning towns that have preserved their historic architecture. One such place is the city of Blois, which sits on the…
The Château of Chambord
Oops, the Château of Chambord was undergoing massive restoration of its distinctive towers when we visited, but we still had a good time. Below is a view of what the château looks like without scaffolding. Designed for King Francis I, Chambord was never actually finished, and was rarely occupied during his reign. It however is…