Historical Builder › Cathedrals › Reims Cathedral
How Long Did It Take to Build Reims Cathedral?
Short answer: about 89 years, from 1211 to 1300.
A white dove is said to have brought the holy oil for the baptism of Clovis. Kings of France were later anointed with it here.
What the sources say about the building period
Begun 6 May 1211 after the fire of 1210; largely complete by the end of the 13th century, except the upper western towers. Structurae Secondary source
Stone and crew in numbers
- Country and type
- France, cathedral
- Stone in the walls
- 65,000 to 100,000 m³ Estimate
- For comparison
- about 33 Olympic pools of stone, or 8,250 truckloads
- Average crew
- about 111 workers (model value: the crew that would need exactly this long, working without a break)
Volume basis: 6,650 m² footprint; 149 m long; vault 38 m. 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
Lutetian limestone. Courville stone was the original building stone, with several other local stones. A geologists' abstract puts the closest outcrops about 20 km from the city and the main deposits 30 to 40 km away. Turmel et al. 2016, Stone uses in Reims Cathedral (HAL), Fronteau et al. 2006, Old quarries from the surroundings of Rheims Academic source
Plan
Legend: tradition, not evidence
A white dove brought the Holy Ampulla with sacred oil for the baptism of Clovis. Kings of France were later anointed with it at Reims.
What we know: The story first appears in the 9th century under Archbishop Hincmar, who used it to make Reims the place of coronations. The vial was broken in 1793.
Medieval Art Research: Reims, Wikipedia: Holy Ampulla Tradition, not evidence
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