Reims Cathedral
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims
- UNESCO World Heritage
Interesting facts
- Reims Cathedral carries roughly 2,300 carved statues, one of the largest sculptural programmes of any Gothic church in Europe.
- The Gallery of Kings high on the west front holds 56 statues of monarchs, each about 4.5 metres tall.
- Clovis I, king of the Franks, was baptised on this spot by Saint Remigius around 496, which is why later French kings came here to be crowned.
- According to legend, the oil used to anoint French kings came from the Holy Ampulla, a vial carried down from heaven by a dove for Clovis's baptism.
- The present Gothic cathedral was begun on 6 May 1211, exactly one year after fire destroyed the earlier church on the site.
- A labyrinth set into the nave floor recorded the names of the four master masons who built the cathedral, but it was torn up in 1779.
- The twin west towers stand 81 metres high, while the original plan foresaw spires reaching around 120 metres.
- Marc Chagall designed the stained-glass lancets of the axial chapel behind the high altar, which were installed in 1974.
- Much of the restoration after the First World War was paid for by the Rockefeller Foundation.
- In July 1962 Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer attended Mass here together, sealing Franco-German reconciliation.
Why it is worth it
Reims held the coronation of the French monarchy for six centuries, from Louis VIII in 1223 to Charles X in 1825 — twenty-five coronations in total. The most loaded of them was Charles VII's in 1429, staged there specifically because Joan of Arc had pushed the campaign that reached Reims, not because it was the safest or most convenient option; the location itself was proof of a military and political argument, not just a religious formality.
On 19 September 1914, German shelling set the cathedral's timber roof on fire, and one of the west facade's carved angels — known for its serene half-smile — lost its head in the fall of stone that followed. That single broken statue, nicknamed the Smiling Angel, was seized on by French wartime propaganda as the image of German "barbarity" against French civilisation; the pieces were recovered, stored for years, and eventually reassembled in a full restoration completed in 1926.
Over the following years of war the cathedral took upwards of 300 direct hits, and by the armistice large parts of the city around it were flattened along with it. Afterwards, reconstruction wasn't automatic — some voices argued the ruin should stand as a permanent memorial rather than be repaired. Rebuilding won out, but the crews replaced the old timber roof with heat-resistant concrete, a practical decision made by people who had just watched the previous roof burn for days.
Getting there
Located in Reims. Chalons Vatry airport (XCR) is about 55 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Notre-Dame de Reims, known in English as Reims Cathedral, is a Catholic cathedral in the French city of the same name, the seat of the Archdiocese of Reims. The cathedral was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and was the traditional location for the coronation of the kings of France. The cathedral is considered to be one of the most important works of Gothic architecture. A major tourist destination, it receives about a million visitors annually. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.
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