Historical Builder › Cathedrals › Amiens Cathedral
How Long Did It Take to Build Amiens Cathedral?
Short answer: about 50 years, from 1220 to 1270.
It keeps what is said to be the head of John the Baptist, brought from Constantinople in 1206. Several places claim the same.
What the sources say about the building period
Begun 1220; built almost entirely by c. 1270; some sources give 1288. Amiens tourist office Secondary source
Stone and crew in numbers
- Country and type
- France, cathedral
- Stone in the walls
- 80,000 to 160,000 m³ Estimate
- For comparison
- about 48 Olympic pools of stone, or 12,000 truckloads
- Average crew
- about 287 workers (model value: the crew that would need exactly this long, working without a break)
Volume basis: 145 m long; vault 42.3 m; interior air volume 200,000 m³ (not stone). Checked against measurements. Our estimates come from published dimensions and are shown as a range. The result is a simple model, not a measured fact.
Where the stone came from
Local limestone from quarries at Croissy, Fontaine-Bonneleau and Doméliers, owned by the cathedral chapter, about 25 to 30 km south-west of the city. Another source names the quarries of Picquigny, so this stays provisional. Medieval Art Research: Amiens building and social dynamics Secondary, provisional
Plan
Legend: tradition, not evidence
The front part of a skull kept in Amiens is the head of John the Baptist, brought from Constantinople in 1206.
What we know: Canon Wallon de Sarton brought the relic back from the Fourth Crusade. Several places claim to hold the Baptist's head, and no relic like this can be authenticated.
National Geographic: four heads of John the Baptist Tradition, not evidence
Build it yourself
Change the crew, the stone supply and the size, and see how long your own version of Amiens Cathedral would take.
Open the calculator with Amiens Cathedral
More cathedrals
- Notre-Dame de Paris (France)
- Chartres Cathedral (France)
- Reims Cathedral (France)
- Strasbourg Cathedral (France)