Cathedral Steeples #4of4

The spires of most cathedrals are a matched (or a nearly matched) pair, but the two steeples at Notre Dame of Chartres, France, are each of a noticeably different design. Originally the towers were built to stand free, and the entrance to the church was about forty feet beyond. When Chartres Cathedral was rebuilt after the great fire in 1194, the interior was enlarged and the entrance moved to be flush with the towers.

The colossal openwork spires, the tall round towers or spires of Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona, Spain, are most unusual. The curls, ripples, the little undulations or waves on the tower surface, appear to be jagged rock, melted in the sun. At the top, there are brightly colored mosaic objects. If Antoni Gaudí’s original plan is followed, there will be 18 towers some day. Started in 1882, he did not expect to live until completion, so Gaudí left colored drawings of how he wanted it to look.

The Romanesque Basilica in Speyer, Germany, (built in 1030 AD) with four towers and two domes, has been built and repaired in different shades of beige stone over several centuries. The towers are roofed with copper, that has aged to a beautiful green patina. A flying buttress (a Gothic feature, not Romanesque) has been put in place to reinforce a wall. There is a touch of modern in this ancient architectural jewel, a large battery-driven floor sweeper/polisher was keeping the floor clean, in a manner not envisioned by the original builders.

At first glance the tall flat-topped towers of the Notre Dames of Paris, Amiens, and Reims, France, (among several others) look much the same, but they are interestingly different. While the towers at Notre Dame, Paris, are symmetrical and unadorned, each has a small pinnacle. In Reims, the towers are somewhat ornate, but symmetrical. Notre Dame in Amiens has some lacy decoration, but its towers do not match, and are not symmetrical, as in Paris and Reims.

These three cathedrals each have three portals, a rose (round) window, a row of statues, a row of thin columns topped with arches, all topped by two towers without tall pointy spires. While the portals are all on the ground level and the towers are high above everything, the sequence or level of the other features are different in each. And at Notre Dame at Reims, a small rose window sits above the center portal.