Place Saint- Jean
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The primatial Saint-Jean-Baptiste-et-Saint-Étienne
(also called, more simply, Saint-Jean Cathedral) is the episcopal see of
the archdiocese of Lyon. It has the rank of cathedral and primatial: the
Archbishop of Lyon has the title of primate of Gauls.
It is
located in the fifth arrondissement of Lyon, in the heart of the
medieval and Renaissance district of Old Lyon, of which it is one of the
outstanding elements. In the Middle Ages, it was part of a complex of
churches and other ecclesial buildings, the cathedral group, which
included, among others, the churches of Saint-Étienne and Sainte-Croix,
destroyed during the Revolution, as well as the current manécanterie.
Originally, the church was consecrated under the patronage of Saint
Stephen, while its baptistry was consecrated under that of Saint John
the Baptist, but, as is common, the term baptistry was then applied in
the current designation. The first cathedral whose existence is
attested, and which the sources of the time are content to call maxima
ecclesia, that is to say the "great church", was built by Patient. The
second, larger and dated from the ninth century, is the work of
Leidrade.
The current building is a long-term project, carried
out in its conception by three successive archbishops at a time when
Western architecture is switching from Romanesque to Gothic: Guichard de
Pontigny is considering and begins the construction of a Romanesque
church, Jean Belles-mains begins the transformation of the building into
a Gothic work whose technical springs are not yet fully mastered,
finally Renaud de Forez transforms the project, thanks to the evolution
of know-how, to give the cathedral its current appearance. The
construction spans three centuries, from 1175 to 1480. The constrained
site, between hill and river, as well as the political struggles between
the various powers ruling Lyon in the central Middle Ages, prevented the
cathedral from having as large and as favorable a plot of land as its
designers would have liked. Moreover, the absence of the particular
know-how of the cathedral builders of the Parisian Basin is one of the
causes of the relative modesty of the dimensions and the ornamentation
of Saint-Jean.
Heavily damaged by the Wars of Religion in 1562,
then by the French Revolution and the siege of Lyon in 1793, the
primatial was restored in the nineteenth century. The first works are
quite modest and strongly influenced by classicism; but this policy
changes vigorously with the arrival of a new architect, Tony Desjardins,
who gives a new impetus to the restoration. From his point of view, not
only must the works restore the church to its medieval appearance, but
this aspect must be sublimated to make Saint-Jean an "ideal cathedral"
reflecting the Gothic spirit of the thirteenth century. These works to
modify the appearance of the cathedral include a raising of the frame
and the addition of spires. In the face of virulent criticism, not all
of them are realized. In the twentieth century, the beautification and
repair works continue, but the war interrupts the work. In September
1944, the withdrawal of German troops was accompanied by sabotage, which
indirectly affected the building, breaking most of its stained glass
windows. The restoration of the canopies, then the facades and the
interior layout, constitutes the essential part of the actions carried
out during the second part of the twentieth century and the beginning of
the twenty-first century.
The primatiale has been classified as a
historical monument since 1862. In addition to this protection, it has
been integrated since May 12, 1964 into the first safeguarded sector in
France. Finally, on December 5, 1998, it was recognized as a world
heritage site due to its location in the historical site of Lyon.
A place of worship and prayer, the cathedral is the first church of
the archdiocese of Lyon, but also one of the parish churches of Old
Lyon. For centuries it has remained the place par excellence for the
expression of the Lyon rite, one of the rites of the Catholic Church, in
particular because of the attachment of the chapter of canons to this
liturgical form. This local particularity notably applies to the
primatial to have been the last French cathedral to have an organ (in
1841), and partly explains the modesty of it.
It is also a very
popular tourist place, for its location, for the particular animations
that are organized there, especially during the Festival of Lights, but
also for its astronomical clock of the fourteenth century (restored in
2021).
The cathedral is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist,
cousin of Jesus, prophet and martyr. However, its complete dedication is
"Saint-Jean-Baptiste-Saint-Étienne", because it takes up the dedication
of the neighboring church, former baptistry of the cathedral and the
city, dedicated to Saint Stephen, one of the first seven deacons, also a
martyr.
It is not only cathedral, that is to say place of the
cathedral (seat of the bishop), but also primatial of Gauls, which means
a metropolitan rank (today simply honorary) over all the other
cathedrals of France of the four ecclesiastical provinces of 1079 (Lyon,
Rouen, Tours and Sens). This pre-eminence is based on the antiquity of
the adoption of Christianity in Lyon, on the martyrdom of many famous
Christians, as well as on the theological importance of the writings of
one of them, Saint Irenaeus.
The primacy of Saint-Jean as the
cathedral of Lyon was disputed, especially in the Middle Ages, by the
burghers of the peninsula, claiming that Saint-Nizier is the first
cathedral that the city has endowed. The documents affirming it, all
written in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were taken as
historical testimonies in the nineteenth century, when they are only
witnesses of a falsification for the benefit of the inhabitants of the
peninsula seeking to emancipate themselves from the tutelage of the
chapter.
Since December 20, 2020, the archbishop of Lyon has been
Olivier de Germay.
The name of "cathedral", that is to say bishop's church, begins to be given only in the tenth century. Before, if the church of a diocese has a particular pre-eminence, the terms used are rather "domus divina" or "maxima ecclesia". This is the case in Lyon, which is one of the first cities in Gaul equipped with such a building, along with Trier, Tours, Auxerre or Clermont.
The first "maxima ecclesia" was built in 469 by Patient or Patiens, bishop of Lyon between 449 and 494, who had the neighboring Saint-Étienne church renovated; it would seem, according to the testimony of Sidoine Apollinaire, that it was already dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, while its baptistry was dedicated to Saint Stephen. The "maxima ecclesia" is described thus: "The high edifice shines, and it is not offset either to the left or to the right, but through the top of its facade, it looks at the Levant at the moment of the equinox. [...] To the building is attached a triple portico, proud of its Aquitaine marble columns. In imitation of it, a second portico closes the atrium, and the central space is enveloped in a stone forest by its distant columns. [...] On the one hand, it is the noise of the road, on the other, it is the Saône which echoes... ». This church was destroyed or at least heavily damaged by the Saracen invasions between 725 and 737.
A new church was built by Leidrade, the last bishop of Lyon at the
beginning of the ninth century. This new bishop, a Bavarian, was
appointed expressly by Charlemagne to restore a church in disrepair, of
which he himself said, in a letter addressed to the emperor: "this
church had then found itself impoverished in many aspects, spiritually
as materially, in its celebrations, its buildings and all the other
responsibilities of its clergy". Leidrade tackles the two projects that
he considers priority: first, in line with the Fifth Council of Aachen
(817) regulating certain aspects of the life of religious, the formation
of cathedral clergy; secondly, the restoration or reconstruction of
religious buildings. As a priority, it is necessary to rebuild the
"maxima ecclesia". One of the actions that the bishop carries out is
particularly telling about the state of the Lyon cult before his
arrival: he has a stockade ("maceria") built around his church, so that
animals do not enter it. Leidrade says of this: "maximam ecclesiam que
est in honorem sanctis Johannis Baptistea novo operuerim et maceria ex
parte erexerim".
Medieval texts and recent excavations indicate a
building quite important for the architectural techniques of that time,
with a nave probably more than ten meters wide. However, it was entirely
contained in the current cathedral. It is likely that it was at this
time that the baptistery, which had fallen into disuse since baptism was
mainly given to children, was replaced by St. Stephen's Church, which
Leidrade also restored.
Under Leidrade, thanks to the assistance
of Charlemagne, the cathedral was enriched with relics of Saints Cyprian
(bishop of Carthage), Spérat (one of the Scillitan martyrs) and
Pantaleon of Nicomedia (doctor at the court of the emperor Maximian);
materially enriched, the "great church" gained above all considerable
spiritual prestige. Thus becoming a church of the people, it becomes
iconographic, in order to transmit the Gospel through decoration, in an
educational way. These decorations consist of numerous and vast mosaics,
most of them made under Agobard.
The Carolingian building of
Leidrade receives a bell tower in the eleventh century, offered by the
dean Fredaldus, but doubt remains today as to its nature: bell
tower-porch or crossing tower. Between 1064 and 1083, the dean Richo
leads the repair of the roof and the consolidation of a wall which is
doubled. Finally, the church now named "cathedral" is decorated with
other mosaics (on the floor of the apse) and marble slabs (on the
benches of the clergy) by Archbishop Gaucerand.
The current cathedral rises on the site of the old episcopal complex of Merovingian period, which modern historians have been able to get a fairly accurate idea of thanks to the writings of Sidoine Apollinaire and the excavations carried out on the site itself.
A conflict between the archbishop and the chapter broke out at the
time of the construction of the new cathedral: the canons elected Dreux
de Beauvoir, a Cluniac, as archbishop. Pope Alexander III then imposed
on Lyon a Cistercian, Guichard de Pontigny. Everything opposes the two
men: one is rallied to the emperor and the antipope Victor IV, the other
is the pope's man; the first likes the pomp and the pompous liturgy of
Cluny, the other Bernardine austerity ; Dreux comes from the Lyon
chapter and does everything to favor it, Guichard is on the contrary
sent by the pontiff to reform the chapter and restore it to a simplicity
closer to its initial vocation.
The planned extension of the
cathedral must logically be done to the west, on the side of the hill,
for several reasons. First of all, the land on the Saône side, to the
east, is on a downward slope towards the river and hardly lends itself
to the establishment of a vast platform that must necessarily be
backfilled. More serious, this eastern terrain is composed only of
alluvium deposited by the river along the protective wall built in the
fourth century, and accumulated there for eight hundred years; it is
therefore a terrain without bedrock and unstable. Secondly, these lands
are not entirely virgin, because they are used by a north-south
communication route, which a larger building would cut off. Finally, the
move to the east entails that of the sanctuary, whose location is
usually permanently fixed in a Catholic church, even in the event of
reconstruction. But the chapter opposes this extension planned to the
west by Guichard. If the unofficial reasons are obvious (open conflict
of the chapter with an archbishop who dislikes), they cannot be
officially declared. A Gallo-Roman atrium is located under the current
forecourt. This portico courtyard, of which the eastern gallery remained
in the twelfth century, is then considered to have had a funerary
function in the Paleo-Christian era. The canons, relying on this
presence of Christian tombs, had chosen to be buried there. As a result,
they decree that it is impossible to build the new cathedral further
west.
In order to calm tensions, but also to avoid any subsequent
dispute over the construction of the cathedral, Guichard de Pontigny
built the Saint-Thomas chapel in 1192 at the top of Fourvière. This one,
if its primary vocation is devotion to Thomas Becket, is also assigned
an honorary function of burial of canons who cannot be buried elsewhere.
Thus, any challenge to the location of the primatial church by canons
wishing to be buried on the site of the current facade is doomed to
failure.
Moreover, Guichard submits to etiquette by accepting the
construction of a sumptuous, richly decorated building, as required by
his position as archbishop of such an important diocese. But, faithful
to his Cistercian ideal of simplicity and poverty, and on the model of
what Saint Bernard had advised to Eugene III, he had a room fitted up,
which he called the "Cistercian room", where he found the stripping that
he knew during his monastic life.
Guichard therefore accepts the relocation of the construction site
and its new technical requirements: the bedside of the new church is
located about twenty meters further east than the old one. Legally, on
the other hand, this discrepancy does not present any difficulty:
indeed, the land gained on the river, named "créments" or "lônes",
legally fall under the public authority. However, it is represented by
the archbishop, by virtue of the golden bull of 1157. In 1175, the
operation of strengthening the bank, very expensive, is launched: it is
a question of reinforcing the unstable ground by stakes planted in the
alluvium, in order to accommodate the new bedside, built by reusing the
large choin stones coming from the Roman forum.
The construction
of the new cathedral is a complex project: in fact, it must be carried
out while permanently maintaining worship in the existing cathedral.
Gradually, the old building is therefore deposited while the new one is
raised on the same site (which is called homotopic construction site).
The process is initially facilitated by the width of the new cathedral,
which completely encompasses the old one. Secondly, when it comes to
raising the columns supporting the structure, and in particular in the
nave, on the other hand, the cathedral presents during the construction
a hybrid aspect, resulting from the juxtaposition of the two buildings
on a single site. The cathedral under construction, despite its
incompletion, nevertheless hosts the first and second councils of Lyon
in 1245 and 1274, the coronation of John XXII in 1316; between 1244 and
1251, it is the church of the Pope (then Innocent IV), who stayed in
Lyon for nearly seven years.
The construction of the cathedral,
moreover, was slowed down by the lack of resources but also by the
latent conflict between the archbishopric and the chapter, and lasted
throughout the thirteenth century. For example, the north tower of the
transept, called "St. Thomas", is built as a priority because the canons
need the bells it houses to mark their daily prayer times. Therefore,
the canons weigh their influence and their financing so that it is built
from the episcopate of Peter of Savoy (1308-1322). The south tower,
called "de la Madeleine", deprived of this financing and this claim, was
completed only a century later, and it does not have a bell.
Accidents also take place. The differential in resistance between the
reinforced ground, but still too loose, and the stony foundations of the
old quarter, cause a catastrophe at an unknown date, during the first
half of the thirteenth century: under the weight of the choir, the
ground sags: the choir is broken, the apse pivots to the south by
tearing off the masonry, and the fracture goes up to the clerestory of
the choir and at the crossing of the transept. Repairs undertaken
immediately make it possible to save the Oriental rose, but the shock is
such that the walls of the side chapels, one meter thick forty, are
broken. This accident and this weakness of the ground still require
repairs in the fifteenth century and until 1989.
The stones used at the beginning of the construction are choins,
taken directly from the Roman buildings (in particular the forum, the
theater and the odeon) and descended from the hill of Fourvière by the
climb of the Gourguillon. The Romans had, for their part, extracted them
from quarries located in the south of the Jura.
These very large
stones constitute the choir and the bedside of the cathedral. For both
technical and aesthetic reasons, the choir rises to varying heights: in
the apse, up to the lower roll of the arch of the lancets, but sometimes
up to the line of the keys of these; in the chapels and on the eastern
wall of the transept, up to the height of the support of the canopies.
Faced with the exhaustion of ancient resources, on the one hand, and the
change of style imposed by Renaud de Forez, on the other hand, Lucenay
stone, extracted in the Monts d'Or, is used: it is a limestone of medium
hardness, but which hardens over time. These stones are loaded near Anse
on boats that went down the Saône and unloaded south of the cathedral
cloister. Some areas have stones from more southern quarries, taken from
Roman ruins; and, even more rarely, some golden stones are incorporated
into the building.
The choice of these quarries of course
responds to a logic of simplicity — to look for the strongest and
easiest materials to bring to the construction site — but also to
certain interests: indeed, Gallo-Roman sites such as the Lucenay quarry
are properties of the cathedral chapter, which was able to weigh in the
choice of stones to be used. But the reuse of stones goes further: some
of the stones used to build the bedside of the cathedral are stones
borrowed from the maxima ecclesia which preceded the current building.
In some other cases, the stones of the Leidrade church are used for the
construction of the manecanterie.
At the beginning of the
construction, it is a Romanesque building that is envisaged by Guichard
de Pontigny. As a result, the choin is polished and not cut, a technique
appreciated in Romanesque architecture but considered obsolete at the
time of the Gothic. These stones are used in the choir up to the level
of the triforium, but in the transept and the gutter walls of the first
bays of the aisles, only up to a height of four meters. The four corner
pillars of the transept crossing are in choin up to the level of the
first floor. At the same time, construction began on the west side, on
the future facade of the building, which is located a little further
west than the existing facade. But this construction site is logically
progressing much more slowly, and the choin is abandoned while the built
elements (four piers) are only built over about two meters. The
exception is the engaged pile of the south aisle, built up to the
capital in choin, in order to ensure an effective bracing of the
cloister which it adjoins (that is to say at the site of the current
manécanterie).
If the first archbishop (Guichard de Pontigny) who leads the
construction site has planned a Romanesque building, his successors Jean
Belles-mains and Renaud de Forez decide to build a Gothic building. The
first is inspired by the Poitevin and Angevin models, the second by the
Gothic cathedrals of Geneva and Lausanne. The future Saint-Jean
Cathedral is therefore being adapted in the process of realization. At
the time of the transition, the sanctuary is elevated, but not yet
vaulted, except for the side chapels of the choir. Indeed, the builders
of the Romanesque building proceeded in stages: raising the walls of the
sanctuary to the height of the first bays, they then abandon this part
of the church to work on the southern chapel of the choir, built up to
the vault; then, it is the turn of the northern chapel to be realized.
It would seem that the reason for these changes is not primarily
constructive (waiting for the play of the elements to subside by
settlement to stabilize the construction) but rather liturgical, the
southern chapel having a particular importance.
The former bishop
of Poitiers Jean Belles-mains presides over the vaulting work of the
chapels as well as the installation of the triforium gallery, still in
Romanesque style, which passes over the apse, the choir and the two
adjacent chapels. It is then that the first crosses of warheads are
deployed and that the choin gives way to the Lucenay stone: the warhead
is deployed for the first time in the chapels, but the technique has not
yet been mastered: the vaults do not lean on the warheads, they cross
the masonry and protrude into the attic. One of the hypotheses
justifying these poorly mastered construction processes would be that
John, Bishop of Poitiers, would have brought with him on his appointment
to Lyon craftsmen and masters who were used to working according to the
processes in force in Poitou and Anjou. However, the cathedral of
Poitiers is in the Angevin Gothic style, very far from the standards
then developed in Île-de-France, where the warheads are load-bearing and
not domed.
At the time of the switch to the Gothic style, the
cathedral was a composite building, comprising a wide Romanesque apse,
still not vaulted, pointed vaulted chapels according to a still immature
technique, and a small Carolingian nave dating from Leidrade, surrounded
by the column bases of the first (to the west) and last (to the east)
bays of the new nave. It is easy to date which works are carried out
first, the production of the various elements concerned being indeed
easy to approximate to what is done in the two imitated models (Geneva
and Lausanne). The first work is the complete coverage of the sanctuary,
in order to put it out of the water so that worship can be celebrated
there. Concomitantly, the closing walls, to the south and to the north,
the side walls are raised up to the triforium. The columns supporting
the central nave, for their part, rise much more slowly, the proximity
of the old church hindering their construction.
Secondly, the
pillars used to support the central vault are raised, starting with the
bays closest to the choir. The capitals cease to resemble the Swiss
models to take forms inspired by what is made in the Parisian Basin
around 1240. The choir, unlike what is observable at Le Mans, is lower
than the nave, which the architect compensates for by creating a rose
window overlooking the transept crossing to the east, above the choir.
The construction site is carried out in parallel from the choir and from
the facade. It was at this time that the nave acquired its
characteristic shape, due to this double construction site: a shift
appeared, which forced the builders to compensate for it by a double
break in the axis of the building; this deviation is still visible
today, especially in the much narrower triforium. From the thirteenth
century, exegetical explanations (in particular by Guillaume de Mende)
come to give a symbolic meaning to this construction incident: the
double breakage of the axis would evoke the inclination of Christ's head
on the cross, as reported by the Gospel according to John. These
explanations, as interesting as they are on a symbolic level, do not
justify on a technical level this breakage, which is attributable only
to an initial alignment error.
The construction being staged over
three hundred years, many changes of prime contractor take place.
Unfortunately, most of them are not known to us. On the other hand,
their number and the place where they directed the construction site can
be determined with precision. Thus, it is likely that several architects
worked on the Romanesque project of Guichard de Pontigny, in the apse,
the choir and the side chapels to the latter. On the other hand, the
evolution of the construction towards a Gothic building inspired by the
churches of the west of France, under the leadership of Jean
Belles-mains, is probably led by a single master builder. From the
moment, under the leadership of Renaud de Forez, the project resolutely
turns to a Gothic realization, at least five design architects succeed
each other. The first two work on the transept: the first launches the
Gothic construction site, realizes the essential of the transept,
connects the elements of its program to the Romanesque building already
in place, in particular in the collateral. The second realizes the
half-floors of the ultimate spans of the transept. The next one designs
the nave, with its sexpartite vaults imposed by the location and the
dimensions of the columns already in place, which the architect of
Renaud de Forez had wanted; his successor realizes the clerestory of the
nave. Finally, the only one whose name has come down to us, Jacques de
Beaujeu, realizes the first spans of the nave and leads the execution of
the facade.
In the thirteenth century, the financing of the cathedral is more
fluctuating. During the episcopate of Philip I of Savoy, little
interested in the construction of the cathedral, the situation
nevertheless improved: indeed, it was during this period (1244-1251)
that Pope Innocent IV was installed in Lyon. According to the Roman
adage, "ubi papa, ibi Roma" ("Where the pope is is Rome"): as the
ephemeral capital of Christianity, Lyon must have a cathedral worthy of
the name. Innocent financed the construction by the sale of indulgences,
but above all by a major papal campaign of quests conducted in France,
Burgundy and England. The bourgeois revolt of 1267-1270 interrupted the
work. The chapter, Cardinal Jean de Talaru and Philippe de Thurey
provided the financing at the end of the thirteenth century.
These contributions make it possible, at first, to build the south rose
window of the transept (1235-1240) and that of the north (1240-1250).
Replacing the triplets of lancets originally planned, these rosettes
allow the building to enter the radiant Gothic style. Then the triforium
is completed and the first floor is built. Along the nave, three types
of bays are laid, differing in the length of the central lancet, the
size and shape of the roses that form its upper part (see below). The
first type is installed on the north facade of the fourth double span.
The second type (the one paid for by the Pope's financial interventions)
on the southern facade of the same fourth span, the third and the
eastern half of the second. The third type is deployed in the western
half of the second span and corresponds to the windows with fillings.
The first double span of the nave is, for its part, built between
1308 and 1415, that is to say that its construction alone lasts as long
as that of the rest of the building. The master builder of the finishing
of the facade is Jacques de Beaujeu: it is in particular he who realizes
the large rose window of the western facade, whose stained-glass windows
are designed and realized by Henri de Nivelle. He also worked on the
construction of the cloister of the chapter from 1419. The carved
decoration of the facade, for its part, is even later, and put in place
in 1481. The three sculptures that adorn the gable, placed on the same
date, are works by Hugonin of Navarre. They represent respectively God
the Father (statue of the top of the gable), Mary and the archangel
Gabriel (statues of the foot of the gable). It is also at the end of the
fourteenth century that the first mention of the existence of the
astronomical clock is made. These statues and the clock are all painted
by Jean Prévost.
The side funeral chapels were built during the fifteenth century.
Those opening onto the southern aisle are, from the easternmost to the
westernmost: the Saint Raphael chapel (built with the support of the
dean Claude de Feugère in 1494 and remodeled in the eighteenth century),
that of the Holy Sepulchre, with a length of two bays of the collateral,
erected by Archbishop Philippe de Thurey in 1401; finally that of the
Bourbons, in flamboyant Gothic style, also two bays long. The latter was
raised by Cardinal Charles II of Bourbon and was designed as a funeral
chapel for his family. The works, started in 1480, were completed at the
beginning of the following century, led by the cardinal and then by his
brother Duke Pierre II of Bourbon. The Bourbon chapel is decorated with
stained-glass windows made by the master glassmaker Pierre de Paix, who
succeeds Jean Prévost in the post of glassmaker assigned to the
primatial.
On the northern side, the chapels are, from east to
west: that of the Annunciation, built in 1496 by the custos Pierre de
Semur; the chapel of Saint Michel, financed by the custos Jean de Grôlée
in 1448 and one and a half spans long; finally, the chapel dedicated to
Saints John the Baptist, Austregille and Denis.
In 1562, during the Wars of Religion, the cathedral was devastated by the Calvinist troops of Baron des Adrets. The rood screen is pulled down, many statues destroyed, especially on the western facade, the clock heavily damaged. The priority for the canons is the reconstruction of the rood screen. Faced with the lack of means and the lack of confidence in the future, a temporary masonry structure was built in 1573. It was only in 1581 that the chapter appealed to Jean Valette to rebuild a rood screen in the taste of the time: the portico is of a style imitating the Corinthian order. Like the previous one, this rood screen is not content with being a simple wall placed between the two pillars of the second bay of the nave: its seven arcades, 10.4 meters long, support a tribune 2.6 meters wide and 3.9 meters high. Of these seven arcades, only the central one allows the passage: the others house small altars dedicated to the two votive saints of the cathedral, Stephen and John the Baptist. The stairs leading to the tribune are located on the side of the canons. The tribune is not only used to contemplate the choir during the canonical liturgy, it also serves as a place of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament for Eucharistic Adoration.
It was also during this period that the last two chapels were built
on the northern side: that of Notre-Dame and that of Saint Antoine.
Important consolidation works are also being carried out by the canons,
necessitated by infiltrations coming from the external gallery and which
threaten the lower part of the facade. Indeed, the particularity of the
facade of Saint-Jean is to include a gallery, located just above the
three portals, about one and a half meters wide and running through the
entire construction. This gallery rests on a three-meter thick lower
wall, the tightness of which is then only ensured by slightly inclined
stone slabs, grouted with an artisanal cement and not very waterproof.
The water infiltrations that inevitably occur cause cracks and
loosening. On November 23, 1697, the canons entrusted the restoration
and securing of the facade to the self-proclaimed architect Jean Saquin,
who offered himself the assistance of Hodet and Dondain, under the
direction of Chavagny. Their efforts were insufficient and, in 1706, the
chapter appealed to Jean de la Monce. This one recommends a total
renovation in two installments, while respecting the Gothic style, a
very rare consideration at the time: "the reconstruction will be
completely new the said frize architrave ceilings will be profiled
according to its Gothic order and as they currently are with sculpture
and ornament".
Between 1752 and 1756, another modification of the
facade was carried out. The lintel of the old central portal was
supported by a mullion bearing a statue of John the Baptist. However,
the tympanums of the three portals as well as this statue had been
heavily damaged by the war in 1562, the doors smashed down. The chapter
decides to take advantage of these destructions to redevelop the main
entrance: what remains of the statue is removed, the mullion is removed
and replaced by a low arch that supports the lintel; the new doors are
also installed.
In the middle of the eighteenth century, another
major work was carried out inside the building: the bleaching of all the
surfaces, which centuries of burning candles had blackened. Two-thirds
of this laundering is financially assumed by the archbishop. The
cleaning operation is entrusted to Italian or Savoyard launderers of
Italian origin, who have specialized in this type of operation. The
brushing of the soot is carried out with brooms of "little holly",
without damaging either the statues or the stained-glass windows.
Secondly, the specifications of the canons specify that "the glasses
[vaults located between the ribs] will be bleached in new stone color by
also giving a slightly darker color to the edges or corners of the
vaults. In addition, will revive the gilding both of the keys of the
said vaults and of the other places ". In short, the canons order an
identical restoration of the medieval cathedral.
Another
"construction site" of the eighteenth century consists in the completion
of the work of destruction begun by the Baron des Adrets: the tympans of
the main portals are systematically hammered in order to remove from the
facade its remains considered medieval. In addition, the statue of the
Virgin adorning the gable of the main facade is removed (currently
located in the Saint-Raphael chapel) and replaced by a copy.
Between 1791 and 1793, Bishop Lamourette ordered the modification of
the choir. In particular, he causes the rood screen to be destroyed.
Before this restoration, the bishop's seat was located at the back of
the apse of the cathedral.
During the siege of Lyon, in 1793, the
cathedral was damaged; it was then used as a temple of the Cult of
Reason and the Supreme Being. It is especially heavily neglected and
deteriorates quickly. The first works were carried out under the Empire,
in particular to prepare the passage of Pius VII coming to attend the
coronation of Napoleon. These first works, completed in November 1804,
were executed under the direction of Toussaint-Noël Loyer, then
Claude-Ennemond Cochet and Louis Flachéron. They consist in the repair
of the pavement of the three naves, the construction of a new altar, the
installation of stalls and grilles, both coming from the abbey of Cluny
destroyed by the revolutionaries.
When the Concordat was signed
in 1801, the cathedral was in very poor condition: the canopies had
mostly disappeared, the waterproofing of the roof was deficient, water
penetrated through the bays and the vault, the sculptures of the portal
were dilapidated; finally, the cathedral group was deprived of the
churches of Saint-Étienne and Sainte-Croix, demolished. The
archiepiscopal palace is also in poor condition, especially with regard
to the roofs. The condition of the building is so bad that the
Saint-Nizier church is temporarily used as a cathedral. Worship was
restored in the cathedral on June 6, 1802, the day of Pentecost.
From the beginnings of the Restoration to the advent of the Second
Republic, a certain latitude is left to the archbishop as regards the
choice of the diocesan architect. The latter's mission is also variable
geometry, more or less modeled on that of architect of civil buildings
and national palaces. This period roughly corresponds to the mandate of
Antoine-Marie Chenavard, appointed on January 28, 1819 and dismissed in
February 1842. Like many of his contemporaries (he was born in 1787),
Chenavard is a fervent follower of classicism, but who gradually lets
himself be impregnated by the craze for medieval architecture. However,
during the first years of his mandate, very busy on other important
projects in the region, the architect lost interest in Saint-Jean. The
only achievements of these first years are furniture works (arrangement
of the chapel of the Sacred Heart), which hardly arouse the approval of
contemporaries: Chenavard mixes antique and Romanesque styles. He does
not approach the important works until February 1832, writing an
estimate concerning the repair of the cover of the bedside and the
sculptures which crown it, the resumption of the buttresses, finally the
repair of the paving of the forecourt. The hollow tiles covering the
choir are replaced by a more waterproof bituminous mastic to put an end
to the numerous infiltrations. The works, carried out between 1832 and
1836, make it possible to lighten the cover of nearly one hundred and
twenty cubic meters of rubble.
In parallel, important works are
being carried out on the banks of the Saône: the densification of the
space initially pushes the Lyonnais to build closer and closer to the
river, up to the construction of houses "feet in the water". Secondly,
the catastrophic floods of the river push the authorities to build docks
whose function combines the damming of the river and the stabilization
of the shore. It is this site of clearance of the building and
construction of public space that is undertaken during the Restoration.
The second project launched by Chenavard in September 1836 is the
restoration of the stained glass windows of the choir, requested since
1824 by the apostolic administrator Jean-Paul-Gaston de Pins. He
envisages the repair of the seven lower windows (under the triforium),
and the resumption of the upper windows. It is the latter that poses a
problem, as well as the replacement of the stained-glass windows of the
eastern rose window (located above the crossing of the transept). Even
if the architect claims to make exact copies of the damaged
stained-glass windows, and only replace the missing canopies with new
works with the utmost caution, his proposal arouses suspicion. Thus, the
Minister of Cults writes: "we could believe that Mr. Chenavard does not
attach more price to these old glass roofs than to white glass panels".
Following this letter, the work on the stained-glass windows was
immediately postponed. The master glassmaker chosen, Émile Thibaud, from
the Clermont-Ferrand manufacture, had indeed taken wide liberties with
the composition and iconography of the glass windows. Thus, for the
canopy of Saint Cyprien (bay No. 6), falsely interpreting the images,
the artist represents Saints Pothin and Irenaeus (see below). The
weakness of the color chart of the restored work and a style much drier
than the original medieval style are also blamed on Émile Thibaud.
In April 1838, the architect undertook, without authorization, the
whitewashing of the vaults of the naves. A red coating had been applied
at the end of the eighteenth century on the vaults, ribs and frames of
the high windows. Antoine Chenavard's intention is to make it disappear,
while masking saltpeter stains and plugging lizards. But the yellow
shade he chooses arouses general disapproval, and the administration
immediately stops the work. Cardinal Bonald, appointed bishop of Lyon in
1839, a great lover of medieval architecture and a fervent supporter of
the neo-Gothic, advocates the dismissal of Chenavard and his replacement
by Pierre Bossan, citing the busy agenda of the diocesan architect; the
prefect of the Rhone accedes to his desire on March 9, 1842 and
dismisses Chenavard from the construction site of the building, which
leads to his resignation the same day. The only construction site of
which the current cathedral retains visible memories is the pulpit,
built in 1839, and whose style oscillates between flamboyant Gothic and
Renaissance. This chair was largely financed (20,000 francs out of
25,088) by the Ministry of justice and cults, under the direction of the
diocesan architect.
The whole failure of the restoration of the
cathedral in this first half of the nineteenth century is not to be
blamed on Chenavard. The lack of credits is, too, crying out. In
general, the parish council, throughout the nineteenth century, remained
financially very poor, which reflects the growing impoverishment of the
neighborhood. Even the attachment of a part of the peninsula is not
enough to improve finances, heavily burdened in addition by the
financing of the chapel and then the basilica of Fourvière. The total
repair of the roofs of the roof is thus postponed indefinitely, as well
as that of the cover of the apse. To summarize the actions of this
period, it consists above all in erasing the traces of the eighteenth
century, without restoring to the cathedral its pre-revolutionary
aspect: the rood screen, for example, was never rebuilt.
From 1842 to 1845, Pierre Bossan worked with Tony (Antoine)
Desjardins on restoration; but, from December 10, 1845, he was attracted
by industrial sites in Languedoc and then in Italy; Tony Desjardins
became the new diocesan architect (and, from 1854, the chief architect
of the city of Lyon). A first estimate for a general restoration is
accepted by the council of civil buildings on August 6, 1846; a second
document, issued on January 12, 1847, proposes the phasing of the works
in two installments: the choir and the side chapels.
Desjardins'
project is not a simple restoration: it is about giving the cathedral a
harmonized Gothic aesthetic, including transformations of its
appearance, and therefore completing what the Middle Ages could not
complete. In particular, Saint-Jean has a high triangular gable on the
facade, behind which the roof frame forms a much lower, lowered
triangle. Tony Desjardins' project is to create a roof that is in line
with the gable. Other "embellishments" are planned: repair of the
channels for the flow of rainwater, so as to cover the walls of the
lower naves; replace the balustrade of the bedside, as well as the
crowning of the apse. But, as far as the latter are concerned, they are
all systematically rejected by the civil Buildings administration, which
requires that Desjardins confine itself to "the pure and simple
restoration of what exists". The estimate of 1849 is estimated by the
architect at 503,782.25 francs, approved by Félix Esquirou de Parieu,
Minister of Public Education and Cults, on April 8, 1850. This frame was
made between 1855 and 1861. In addition, a second statue of the gable,
that of the archangel Gabriel, is removed and replaced by a copy.
Another of Tony Desjardins' projects, in the line of Eugène
Viollet-le-Duc and his "ideal cathedral", is to equip Saint-Jean with a
spire above the transept crossing and two others on the bell towers
flanking the choir. The idea is to make Saint-Jean look like the Gothic
cathedrals of the Parisian Basin.
Bishop Bonald, then Archbishop of Lyon, supported or even inspired
the project, "his intention [being], later, to replace with arrows the
vile hat of the two towers". These towers would not have been built of
stone masonry: as explained above, the eastern towers are built on
alluvium, which makes them incapable of carrying the considerable weight
of the addition: these spires would therefore have been covered
structures in slate. The committee of inspectors of diocesan buildings
also approves the execution of these works. It must also be said that a
certain competition between dioceses, between cathedrals, and therefore
between architects, exists. However, this craze for idealized forms of
medieval architecture also has its opponents. The latter end up winning
their case: the cathedral is then classified in the inventory of
historical monuments (in 1862). Indeed, the opponents of the various
projects hope to freeze the cathedral in the configuration of then and
prevent any additional work. The raising of the roof, too, is judged
with severity. Leon Vaudoyer, member of the committee of inspectors of
diocesan buildings, believes that faced with this hiatus, only two
solutions were possible: demolish the isolated gable and replace it with
some kind of decoration, "a gallery for example bringing together the
two bell towers, or a simple balustrade", an option considered
inadmissible, or leave the gable with the roof as is.
The various
works have their thuriferaries as well as their contemplators; the
first, in particular within the Lyonnais Review, believe that "the style
of the two towers absolutely requires spires or terraces instead of
these horrible hat roofs which currently surmount them". The latter,
among whom the archaeologists Joseph Bard and Charles Savy, are very
critical; the first denounces in 1846 the excessive enthusiasm for
medieval architecture of those who "push to fanaticism and superstition,
to delirium the unbridled love of Gothic" ; the second believes in 1861
that the choice made in Lyon is the wrong one, and that it would have
been better to imitate what was done in Saint-Maurice in Vienna; he
worries that "the acute roof that has just been raised so thoughtlessly
on the large nave will necessarily require the raising of all the bell
towers". Savy even ends up questioning Viollet-le-Duc, who, according to
him, betrayed the spirit of his own manifesto of 1843. Eugène Jouve,
journalist of the Courier of Lyon, publishes two articles on October 5
and 7, 1856, where he wonders if it would not have been preferable to
raise the vault of the choir to the level of that of the nave, but
admitting that these heavy modifications would have required the
replacement of the high windows by large Gothic bays similar to those of
the nave.
In addition to these changes in appearance that can
indeed be found questionable, and in any case not corresponding to the
medieval aspect of the cathedral, the most criticizable aspect of these
works is that they are carried out to the detriment of the normal
maintenance of the building, in particular its upper parts. In the
1880s, the budgetary shortage redirects all public investments to urban
space; the restoration of religious buildings is left to the parish
factories, and only urgent works can therefore be carried out. Thus, in
1855, the glassmaker Antoine Lusson fils created stained-glass windows
in the cathedral. In 1879, new grilles were installed in front of the
main facade, then in front of the side chapels. On June 13, 1881, the
restoration of the upper part of the facade, proposed by the architect
Paul Abadie, was approved, for a quote of 56,863.25 francs; the latter
took the opportunity to groom the two western towers, as well as the
large rose window of the facade. But in 1887, the credits being
exhausted, the work stopped.
The renovation of the exterior
gallery was undertaken in 1890 by Paul, son of Tony Desjardins, work
continued between 1894 and 1896 by Henri Révoil. The latter, for his
part, insists to the archdiocese to continue the restoration of the
facade, work which begins in 1888. He continued this work with work on
the porch and the forecourt in 1896; in 1897, he pleaded for the
restoration of the south tower; between 1901 and 1905, he led the new
slate cover of the nave. This does not prevent embellishment projects: a
new spire project is emerging in 1884 under the pencil of the architect
Jules-Henry Monnier, then in 1899 under that of Rogatien Le Nail;
finally, Joseph Berger attempts at the beginning of the twentieth
century to reconstruct the tomb of the Cardinal of Bourbon and the
chapel of the same name. But nothing is achieved except the
restorations, always because of the lack of financing. An 1895 project
even contemplates the sale of tapestries once used for processions and
become useless; but, apart from their inventory and the displacement of
some in the episcopal palace, nothing is undertaken.
On the night of November 12 to 13, 1930, the landslide known as the
Fourvière disaster, which causes about forty victims in Tramassac
Street, suddenly draws the attention of the public authorities to the
Saint-Jean district: the remediation works of the nineteenth century
have only slightly affected this district; projects of beautification
and enhancement of the primatial are envisaged. The first demolitions
began in 1931 along the northern aisle, then were suspended until 1936.
Then the old stables of the Saint-Jean Palace, which touched the apse,
were demolished to clear the bedside.
Between 1935 and 1936, the
choir was restored to its medieval layout, on the proposal of the
Historical Monuments Commission, after two years of negotiations with
the diocesan authorities. The episcopal seat was removed and transported
to the Bourbon chapel; the massive floor covering the floor of the choir
was removed. During these very heavy works, excavations are carried out
under the transept; they exhume the foundations of the old basilica. One
of the avowed goals of these excavations is the attempt made to find the
remains of the old chapter, the pulpit of Innocent IV, but especially
the head of Saint Irenaeus. From this point of view, the excavations are
a complete failure. The remains found are fragments of mosaic and the
circular tiers of the presbytery. A new paving is laid and the altar is
restored to its configuration before 1789. The beige stone used for the
new high altar is matched to that of the floor (Comblanchien stone), but
the ambo and the seat of the presidency are not treated.
During
this century, the roof of the nave continues to cause controversy: the
architect Jean Gélis, having restored the Madeleine tower between 1931
and 1938, cleared the south aisle and refurbished the rose window in
1936, proposes in December 1937 to the prefect of the Rhône the
replacement of the slates by tiles, especially for the purpose of
harmonization: "there is reason to regret this roof, whose dimensions
and the slate roof stain in the middle of one of the most beautiful
landscapes of Lyon, composed of low roofs with horizontal lines... ». It
turns out that the ridge cap is in poor condition. Based on this
degradation, Gélis was able to demolish the roof in 1940 and rebuild it
along the old slope between 1941 and 1942.
The statue of God the
Father adorning the gable of the main facade is in turn removed,
exhibited in the chapel of Saint-Raphael and replaced by a copy.
During the liberation of Lyon in September 1944, the cathedral was
relatively more spared than the average of French buildings. The only
major damage suffered is related to the systematic demolition of the
bridges by the retreating German troops. On September 1 and 2, these
blow up all the bridges, including the Tilsitt Bridge. The explosion of
the latter damages many buildings. In particular, all the canopies of
Saint-Jean are more or less damaged. Fortunately, most of the old
stained-glass windows had been removed, crated and placed in the cellars
of the Château de Bagnols, in Beaujolais. Only the stained-glass windows
with geometric patterns, placed in the large windows of the nave, the
stained-glass windows of the late nineteenth century located in the side
chapels (among others several stained-glass windows by Lucien Bégule),
as well as the stone mullions of two chapels located on the southern
side of the nave, are destroyed. The choice made to protect the stained
glass windows is in any case judicious, because the boards obstructing
the windows are totally torn off by the explosion; even the doors and
the roof are damaged.
The restoration of the building is
particularly long. It takes the energetic intervention of Cardinal
Gerlier for the under-secretary of State for Fine Arts to agree to
launch work, scheduled to be carried out in two stages: the repair of
the high bays, scheduled to last a few months, and the creation of a new
set for the side chapels and aisles, launched in 1956 by André Donzet,
chief architect of the Historical Monuments of the Rhone. The program of
stained glass windows agrees with the particular dedication of each
chapel, with the exception of the Bourbon Chapel, where the new glass
windows are to stage the first two bishops of Lyon.
The work of creation and installation of the new stained glass
windows is taking a long delay. While the repairs of the north tower and
the roof were underway in 1963, those of the canopies were still
pending. Five bays were made in 1969 and 1970 in the workshops of
Jean-Jacques Grüber, according to the drawings of his daughter Jeanette
Weiss-Grüber. In 1973, Cardinal Renard remarked that many traces of the
war are still visible on the cathedral, and in particular that in many
places disjointed boards are used to close the bays in place of the
stained-glass windows not yet replaced. He vows to take advantage of the
commemorations planned for the seventh centenary of the second Council
of Lyon to refresh the primatial. It is also on this date that
Jean-Gabriel Mortamet becomes chief architect of Historical Monuments.
In 1974, two canopies, designed by Charles Marq, come out of Jacques
Simon's workshop and enrich the Bourbon chapel. In 1975, Mortamet
launched the site of cleaning the facades of the building, as well as
that of the restoration of the south towers and the resumption of the
masonry of the north tower.
Since May 12, 1964, André Malraux had
created the first safeguarded sector in France in Old Lyon; this act put
a brake on the various heavy urban renovation works planned in the
sector, the most radical of which involved the passage of a motorway
ramp through the neighborhood (the "Navigation" project). As a result of
this unprecedented protection, many projects are emerging to restore the
image of the neighborhood. One of them corresponds to the clearance of
the northern part of the primatial, thanks to the expansion of the
courthouse (finally not realized). The architect of the Buildings of
France then launched a study aimed at clearing the remains of
Sainte-Croix by demolishing the buildings located on rue de la Bombarde.
From 1972 to 1977, seven excavation campaigns were carried out under the
buildings destroyed or in the process of being destroyed; in parallel,
three soundings were carried out in the apse of Saint-Jean, and one
outside; the finds made allow the reconstruction and dating of the
successive buildings of the episcopal group, as well as the wall
adjoining the Saône. The choice is made to highlight the remains of two
small churches of the cathedral group by inserting them in the Girard
Desargues archaeological garden.
From 1977, the state became involved by launching campaigns to clean
the facades, starting with the northern aisle. A special financing is
proposed by the prime Minister (and future mayor of Lyon) Raymond Barre.
The work took place from 1980 to 1982, after which the site tackled the
two towers on the Saône side; on the occasion of the installation of
scaffolding in order to whitewash the stones, other teams were
dispatched on site to clean and restore the stained glass windows of the
aisles. In parallel, other stained glass windows made by Jeannette
Weiss-Grüber were installed in 1981 and 1982.
In 1981, the
regional curator of historical monuments divided the city of Lyon into
two separate constituencies. Jean-Gabriel Mortamet remains in charge of
completing the restoration of the western facade, then Didier Repellin
succeeds him in 1982. On the occasion of the visit of John Paul II to
Lyon from October 4 to 7, 1986, other works are carried out in the
cathedral. In particular, the lighting is revised. Paul Desjardins'
chandeliers had been replaced by hemispherical galvanized steel
suspensions ; the 1980s saw the installation of a more artistic lighting
system attempting to render the medieval appearance of the premises, by
seeking the rendering obtained by the medieval glass masters by
recomposing a white light through their colored stained-glass windows.
As part of the program law proposed by François Léotard on April 21,
1988, concerning "the restoration and enhancement of classified or
registered monuments", two major cathedral restoration projects are
launched: Reims and Lyon. Fourteen million francs are devoted to the
restoration of the bedside of the primatiale; it is covered with
scaffolding from January 1989 to December 1990. A whitening by scrubbing
is used on the largest possible surface, the replacement of certain
stones that are too damaged or dangerous is decided where it is
necessary (headbands, gargoyles, buttresses). To redo the gargoyles and
replace the missing stones, a new quarry is used, those dating from the
construction being unexploited. It is the Anstrude stone extracted in
Bierry-les-Belles-Fontaines, in the Yonne, which is used. For stones
whose state of degradation is less worrying, a leveling is practiced.
Finally, all the joints having been made of cement, a material harmful
to the good preservation of the stone, are removed and replaced by
greasy lime. This site is also an opportunity for archaeologists to
study in detail the lapidary marks left in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries by the stonemasons who made the bedside.
On the
occasion of this construction site, the eastern rose window (the one
located at the crossroads of the transept, above the choir) is
completely deposited (its lack of accessibility making it impossible to
intervene on site), cleaned and restored by Jean Mauret, master
glassmaker from Bourges. The hollow tile covers that originally covered
the aisles have been restored. The copper roof covering the large
sacristy is also redone. But it is above all the form that this
construction site takes that is original. On the one hand, the Lyon
cathedral is twinned with the Episcopal cathedral of New York, St. John
the Theologian, whose construction is unfinished. An exchange of French
and American workers is taking place, so that the builders and restorers
can teach each other, but also that the presence of guests stimulates
the inventiveness and perfectionism of the workers. On the other hand,
the stone-cutting workshop is installed on the sidewalk and open to the
public through a large bay window. Visitors can therefore watch the
stonemasons at work, follow the evolution of the works and take
ownership of the construction site. Visits are also organized in the
construction site, of which nine thousand people take advantage. The
work initiated by the Léotard law lasts two years; the official
reception of the works takes place on December 8, 1990, during the
Festival of Lights.
In 1991, the sacristy of the chapter was in turn endowed with new stained-glass windows, made by Jean Mauret. In 1992, a competition was organized by the DRAC Rhône-Alpes, on the proposal of Archbishop Mgr Decourtray and the diocesan commission of sacred art for a redevelopment of the church in several aspects (type of chairs, lighting mode of the nave, aisles and side chapels, ambo, altar, etc.); the interior architects Andrée Putman and Olivier Gagnère were put into competition. It is the first one who wins the competition. In 1993, she made a development proposal which was enthusiastically received by the Cardinal. The proposal rethinks the interior layout in a global way, both with regard to liturgical furniture or benches and with regard to non-liturgical furniture for welcoming the public. Cleaning tests of the apse and choir elevations were carried out in 2010. They reveal in particular that these elevations are made up of an excellent marble stone with friezes of red mortar scagliola ; Andrée Putman, taking into account this brilliant material, decides that the new high altar will be made of alabaster, in order to correspond to the visual objectives of the specifications. The high altar in place until then is moved to the week chapel.
In parallel, the restoration work on the exteriors continues. The
southern facade is the subject of the work going from 2003 to January
2005; during this work, the entire facade is restored, from the festoons
in the upper part to the foot of the bays of the gutter wall, including
the aisle covers, the buttresses, the infill and the pinnacles. From
2005, the covers of the Saint-Vincent and Bourbon chapels were redone,
including the replacement of several particularly degraded sculptures.
In 2007-2008, the south tower of the main facade, the manecanter and the
central rose window are the subject of works, and the tower of the
building ends in 2009-2011 with the construction of the northern facade.
Finally, in 2011, a new cleaning campaign of the western facade is
carried out. During the one in 1980, the cleaning techniques were not
advanced enough to clean the statues without damaging them. The new
techniques make it possible to clean the stones by spraying very fine
dry powders, made of peach or apricot kernel flours, which remove
impurities without attacking the material. In some cases, a poultice
soaked in demineralized water or a highly diluted solution to dissolve
the polluted parts is used, but this solution is often too aggressive.
As for the laser, it is forbidden because it turns the stone yellow.
Moreover, as was done in 1988-1990 on the bedside, all the cement joints
are removed and replaced by greasy lime joints. This integral
restoration of the facades, therefore carried out from 1981 to 2011, is
fully supported by the State, which devotes more than ten million euros
to it.
The restorations of the sculptures continue to this day.
In particular, in 2005, four bedside gargoyles were replaced; they had
been installed in 1989-1990, but the fixings of the projectors installed
by the city of Lyon had damaged them. In 2010, the stonemason Emmanuel
Fourchet realizes a gargoyle located a dozen meters high, which is much
talked about. Indeed, he took the decision to sculpt this element with
the effigy of the construction manager of the cathedral, Ahmed Benzizine
; in addition, it is adorned with the double inscription "God is great"
and "الله أ सكْبار" (Allahu akbar). The Lyon identity youth who seize
the fact to claim that "in Lyon, Muslims afford the luxury of
appropriating our churches, in complete tranquility and with the
complicity of the Catholic authorities". On the contrary, Imam Kamel
Kabtane, rector of the great mosque of Lyon sees in it only "a nod, one
more, to the Islamic-Christian friendship in Lyon" and recalls that "in
1875, during the consecration of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, the emir Abd
el-Kader was present". Father Michel Cacaud, then rector of the
cathedral, believes that the criticisms are the fact of a "lack of
culture" and that some of the gargoyles of the building "could
scandalize much more". Father Vincent Feroldi, episcopal delegate for
relations with Muslims for the diocese of Lyon, recalls that the
presence of Arabic inscriptions on French churches is a proven
tradition, as evidenced for example by the one in Kufic characters on
one of the doors of the Puy cathedral, the meaning of which is discussed
; the more plausible meaning being السيادةيي الله ("Allah is
sovereign").
A competition was organized in 2013 to equip the
cathedral with other contemporary stained glass windows. A grouping is
selected, including the Duchemin workshops, Didier Sancey, the Loire
workshops, Jean-Dominique Fleury, Jean Mauret and Gilles Rousvoal. The
different artists choose "to nest [their] writings, to weave the
stained-glass windows; each in turn represents the warp or the weft".
The two ecumenical councils of Lyon were held in the thirteenth
century in the still unfinished primatial. During these two councils,
the Pope was present. The first council of Lyon (thirteenth ecumenical
council) was held in the cathedral in June and July 1245. The high altar
was consecrated during this council by Pope Innocent IV. At the time, he
stayed in Lyon (1244-1251), where he was under the protection of
Archbishop Philip I of Savoy, and where the proximity of France would
allow him to take refuge in the event of an attack by Emperor Frederick
II ; the expenses of the council are entirely paid by the archbishop of
Lyon.
The second council (fourteenth ecumenical council) takes
place from May to July 1274, with six weeks of assemblies. Pope Gregory
X is trying to reunite the Latin and Greek churches. About 8,000 people
arrive in the city (which then counts from ten to twelve thousand souls
only, which poses formidable logistical problems), including about 1,500
delegates who will attend the sessions. The Greek delegates profess the
Catholic faith. Following the embassy of Jean de Plan Carpin to Ögedei,
a delegation of Tatars is present for its members to receive baptism.
The doctor of the Saint Bonaventure Church dies during this council
after having played a great role in it.
Apart from the long stay of Innocent IV from 1244 to 1251, and the
presence of Gregory X for the second council, Saint John's Cathedral is
still the scene of the coronation of Pope John XXII (Jacques Duèse) in
1316; if it takes place in this city, it is mainly for political reasons
related to the succession of the throne of France.
In 1804,
forced by force to attend Napoleon's coronation in Paris, Pius VII
stopped both on the way there and on the way back in Lyon, where he was
received by Bishop Fesch. On November 19, he was welcomed by a
considerable crowd in the primatial; the next day, he celebrated Mass
there before going to bless the crowd gathered on Place Bellecour,
finally received special delegations at the archiepiscopal palace, and
left on the 21st. On April 16, 1805, returning to Rome, he stopped for
four days in Lyon, where he stayed until the 20th ; his main act is the
restoration of worship in the chapel of Saint-Thomas de Fourvière, the
starting point of a very strong popular devotion to Notre-Dame de
Fourvière.
On October 5, 1986, Pope John Paul II returned to the
primatial where nine hundred patients from all over the region were
gathered. A third of the available space in the building has been set up
to accommodate them.
In 1248, on his way to the seventh crusade, the King of France Louis
IX met Pope Innocent IV in Lyon, who was then staying there (see above).
The primatial still temporarily welcomes his body, brought from Tunis by
his son Philip III the Bold towards the Basilica of Saint-Denis in April
1271.
On December 17, 1600, the cathedral houses the wedding of
Henry IV and Marie de' Medici celebrated by the papal legate (after
having obtained from the pope the annulment of his previous marriage
with Queen Margaret).
The Emperor Napoleon I and Josephine are
received by Cardinal Joseph Fesch (uterine brother of Napoleon's mother)
on the occasion of the Easter feast of 1805.
The primacy has a papal privilege in favor of a jubilee. In the same way as for the Grand Pardon of Rocamadour, when the feast of Saint John the Baptist, patron saint of the primacy, coincides with Corpus Christi, the Pope grants a special indulgence to the establishment. As Corpus Christi only dates back to 1261, the jubilee of Saint-Jean de Lyon respected all the years concerned : 1451, 1546, 1666, 1734, 1886 and 1943. These are the years in which the feast of Easter is celebrated on April 25th. This date is the last possible day of occurrence of the Easter feast, which makes this coincidence very rare in the liturgical calendar. The next Grand Pardon in Lyon is thus planned only in 2083.
The primatial is a church, oriented east-south-east, with three naves
(central nave and two aisles), whose nave has four double bays (that is
to say eight bays for the aisles, and only four for the nave; but each
bay of it is equipped with a central pillar which carries the orthogonal
ogive). The cathedral is also endowed with a transept which exceeds the
collateral by the width of a span. On the other hand, like most churches
in Lyon, it does not have an ambulatory, only two side chapels
contiguous to the choir. The latter, two bays long, is extended by a
heptagonal apse (a half-dodecagon).
The building, built of white
limestone, is also endowed with four towers devoid of spires: two
overhang the facade, the other two, more massive, are located on the
extreme spans of the cross of the transept. The most visible
particularity of the facade is to be surmounted by a high triangular
gable, higher than the facade towers, and which does not match the
rather low frame of the building. The facade of the cathedral is
extended to the south by that of the manecanterie; between this last
building and the archiepiscopal palace extends a rectangular cloister.
The manor house and this cloister are not in the axis of the cathedral,
but, older, they align with the Carolingian building that precedes it,
offset to the south.
The primatial is a building of relatively modest dimensions, which
can be explained in several ways. First of all, the conflict between
Guichard and the chapter takes away from the archbishop all the
available space to the west, on the side of the hill, and forces him to
build his cathedral on the banks of the Saône, which therefore
constitutes an impassable technical limit. This double longitudinal
constraint necessarily limits the interior length of the building to 80
meters, of which twenty meters for the choir.
Then, regarding the
height and width of the building, the evolutionary design of the
building explains some technical limitations. In particular, the
obligation to continue in Gothic a work started in Romanesque style
limits the technical possibilities. For example, the nave must have the
same width as the choir, whose dimensions are limited by the technical
possibilities of the Romanesque vault originally planned (and already
large enough for a cul-de-four vault). This explains its width of only
13.3 meters, as well as the low height of the vaults of the choir (24.3
meters). The total width of the three naves (central and collateral
nave) is 26 meters.
On the other hand, the first Gothic
experiments (in particular, the construction of piers in anticipation of
the installation of sexpartite vaults) thwarted the execution of a
project more in line with the techniques deployed in the north of
France. The height of the vaults, without being low, is 32.5 meters; the
cathedrals of Bourges or Chartres, contemporary, have a higher vault of
five meters.
Finally, the choice made not to build spires on the
towers limits the height of these to 44 meters.
The cathedral has been classified as a historical monument since
1862. In addition, 152 objects that are exhibited there are also
classified or registered in the inventory of historical monuments and
enumerated by the Palissy base.
The primatiale is also protected
by virtue of its inscription in a district of heritage value. Thus, it
is part of the first protected sector in France since April 12, 1964.
Finally, on December 5, 1998, it was recognized as a world heritage site
due to its location in the historical site of Lyon.
The western facade of the building is both a classic Gothic structure while incorporating original elements. The facade has three very elaborate portals, the pillars of which are covered with figurative and narrative medallions. It is equipped with a rather protruding gallery traversing it at a third of its height. Finally, it has a very high triangular gable that protrudes beyond the two facade towers.
The three portals of this facade have three hundred and twenty
bas-reliefs in "spur", located on the protruding pillars which carry the
arches framing the three portals. In the sixteenth century, the Baron
des Adrets, then a Calvinist (he later changed sides), destroyed all the
statues of the saints in the niches of the facade and beheaded all the
angels of the three portals. His work of destruction was completed in
the eighteenth century by hammering aimed at removing these decorations
considered medieval. Moreover, some biblical scenes, despite everything
recognizable thanks to the context, were already difficult to read in
the Middle Ages, either that they were hammered out as soon as they were
created, or that the artist wished not to specify the scene, because of
its shocking character. This is particularly the case of the two
medallions representing Loth's double incest.
These elements are
the most original part of the facade decoration. This type of medallion
can only be found on the facade of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Rouen,
which probably inspired the one in Lyon. Each console has eight
medallions aligned vertically; the medallions are present on the two
visible faces of each pillar. The central portal has four pillars, so 64
medallions, and each of the side portals has three pillars, so 48
medallions, on each side.
The subjects represented are varied,
alternating biblical scenes with secular representations or
hagiographies; some stories can be read through a series of continuous
medallions: Genesis — 43 medallions -, the life of Saint John the
Baptist - sixteen medallions -, the cycle of the seasons - twelve
medallions - and the signs of the Zodiac - also twelve medallions.
Others are the subject of only a medallion unrelated to its neighbors,
or even several very distant medallions, such as the life of Saint
Benedict or that of Saint Peter. The latter is abundantly represented,
and no doubt it should be seen as a tribute to, or a commission from
Archbishop Pierre of Savoy. Several medallions refer to the history of
the diocese of Lyon, in particular the assassination of Saint Ennemond.
Some medallions deal differently with exactly the same subject: for
example, the murder of Abel by Cain is treated both in the Genesis
narrative located in the central portal and in an isolated medallion of
the left portal. Some stories involving biblical characters are not
taken from the Bible but from the Jewish or Christian tradition, such as
the murder of Cain by Lamech.
The reading of these medallions,
when a logical order existed, was done, as for stained glass windows,
from the bottom up. However, unlike the boustrophédon system (a system
in which reading is done alternately in one direction and in the other)
commonly adopted for canopies, the medallions of the portals are read
from the doors to the outside, starting from the right side then
returning to the center to go to the left side.
The tympanum of
the right (southern) portal probably represented a coronation of the
Virgin, of which vestiges remain (a Nativity and an Adoration of the
magi and shepherds are visible); the arches represent patriarchs and
prophets. The northern tympanum was more probably dedicated to Saint
Peter, because it opens onto the aisle leading to the chapel which bears
this name; the arches represent figures of saints related to the Lyon
Church. The four carved arches of the central portal represent the 72
angels of Kabbalah.
Unlike the cathedrals of Reims or Strasbourg,
in which a sculptural identity is discernible, the styles present on the
primatial of Lyon are very eclectic. It is likely that many statues were
made by passing artists. The angels of the portal have similarities with
those of Champagne cathedrals, for example. In the Middle Ages, the
apprenticeship of sculptors was carried out on the job. The craftsmen
started working on the site very young, between twelve and fourteen
years old. For the first two years, their exclusive task consisted of
roughing the material with a spindle, then the realization of a square
surface. Thus, they only started to really sculpt after several years of
experience on the project. Still in the 1960s or 1970s, blocks of five
to eight tons were moved only by jack and levers, and the blocks arrived
on site uncut. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, machines
made it possible to simplify cladding operations, and the blocks arrived
on site prepared to the correct dimensions, the faces already cleaned.
The forecourt corresponds to the Place Saint-Jean. It is semi-pedestrianized and adorned with a fountain in its center, inaugurated on June 22, 1844. The fountain, sheltered under a small neo-Renaissance style temple, is the work of the sculptors Jean-Marie Bonnassieux and Félix Bernasconi, and represents the baptism of Christ by John, the water initially flowing from the shell on the head of Jesus.
The north and south facades differ mainly from each other by their
urban context: the south facade is included in a built complex including
the manecanterie, the bishopric and the cloister separating them. On the
other hand, the northern facade, once integrated into the cathedral
group, overlooks an open space since the destruction of the
Saint-Étienne and Sainte-Croix churches during the Revolution. This
space has been converted into an archaeological garden named "Girard
Desargues" in honor of the eponymous architect.
There are six
buttresses on each of the side facades. Those built first, the most
oriental, are thinner than those built later. The gargoyles adorning the
pinnacles that overlook them represent (on the north facade)
respectively a character sitting astride, a bear, a ram, a lion and
Ahmed Benzizine (see above). The southern facade, meanwhile, is
decorated with Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Gideon, the anointing of young
David by Samuel, finally David.
The cloister located immediately
to the south of the cathedral, behind the manecanterie, is adorned, on
its northern side (that is to say the facade of the primatial) with a
set of statues of the thirteenth century. The door leading to the
western gallery, rebuilt in the fifteenth century, has a very realistic
leaf decoration, probably dating between 1275 and 1300. This so-called
"Virgin and Child" door replaces another opening, Romanesque. Its name
is due to the statuary: a statue of Mary is actually carved on the
tympanum: she is sitting on a throne, holding a fleur-de-lis, which
Jesus shows sitting on his lap. The whole is surrounded and incensed by
two kneeling angels with outstretched wings. The statues are colored,
presenting a dominant of blue, color associated with Our Lady; the
freshness of the color indicates a later recovery. In the cloister
again, the abutments of the buttresses each have a niche housing a
statue protected by a polygonal canopy ; four of them bear statues
typical of the Reims school of the mid-thirteenth century; the other two
statues carved in the early twentieth century. As for the old ones, they
represent King David, the sacrifice of Isaac, a man in a cloak and a
knight in chain mail, the latter two having lost their heads. It is
nevertheless likely that the latter is Saint Maurice, highly honored in
the region. One of the two recent statues represents Jean-Marie Vianney.
Finally, the pinnacles of the abutments are also adorned with small
statues.
The bedside is of Romanesque design. Its main characteristic is therefore to be devoid of buttresses. It has three levels above the base in choin: the first consists of the lancets (see description of the stained glass windows below), a gallery of blind semicircular arches, which closes the triforium, and high geminated windows.
A cathedral is supposed to have at least six bells. During its history, Saint-Jean has owned up to twelve; but its bell tower served, in addition to the primatial, the neighboring churches of Saint-Étienne and Sainte-Croix. Only two of the four towers have bells.
The so-called "civil" bells are three in number, and located in the north tower of the western facade, the one on which a clock is hung. They strike the hours, but not the announcement of the services, nor the liturgical events. These bells have no name, and their ornamentation is very reduced. The "hour stamp" would date at least from the fifteenth century, measures 1.12 meters in diameter and sounds an F # 3 every hour. It is completed by two quarter timbres, 50 and 70 centimeters in diameter respectively, which sound the quarters of an hour, first the C # 4 (the smaller of the two bells), then the B 3.
The belfry is located in the north tower of the transept; the flight bells of the primatial are suspended there. There are six of them: the Big Bell or Anne-Marie; the Second or Gabrielle; the Third Sainct or Blandine; Seral or Quarter Sainct; the Fifth or Pothin; the Schiule or Rappiau ("Reminder"). The three largest bells constitute the "grand chord" of the north tower, the three smallest which overhang them the "petit chord". Next to the belfry is located the old chamber of the ringmaster ("Camera tirecordi").
Anne-Marie is 2.19 meters in diameter and weighs 7,700 kilograms. It
replaced three previous bells: Nicolas, cast in 1305, Marie I, dating
from 1508, and Marie II, installed in 1555. The latter, not destroyed by
the Baron des Adrets, is cracked in July 1622, too much used (because of
an epidemic). The need to have a bell is such that the order is placed
in less than a week for the manufacture of a new work. The king's
founder at the Lyon arsenal, Pierre Recordon, founds Anne-Marie from the
debris of Marie II as well as donated ingots. The casting takes place on
October 31 at the foot of the bell tower, behind the Saint-Étienne
church, after which the bell remains on the ground for five months; the
chapter ends up threatening the entrepreneur with prison, and the bell
is hoisted to the top of the bell tower on March 28, 1623, with enormous
difficulties due to the absence of a winching hatch. The second name of
the bell pays tribute to the two previous bells, the first to Queen Anne
of Austria as well as Anne of Brittany, godmother of another bell
destroyed in 1562. This bell offers an afterglow (persistence of the
sound after the blow) of one hundred seconds. Bumblebees of comparable
weight usually sound an F 2, but Anne-Marie sounds an A flat 2. When it
was operated by hand, it required sixteen men to ring at full speed. It
is also adorned with numerous inscriptions recalling its dedication, its
history and its characteristics, as well as friezes and figurines
representing acanthus leaves and angels, as well as Christ, a Virgin and
Child, John the Baptist and Stephen placed at the cardinal points.
Gabrielle is 1.62 meters in diameter, weighs 2,379 kilograms and
sounds a B flat 2. She replaces Étiennette, cast in 1642 and destroyed
in 1793, who weighed 5,765 pounds. Cardinal Fesch ordered in June 1807
its urgent replacement: indeed, Anne-Marie being the only large bell
preserved, it no longer benefits from the counterweight of the others
and tilts the belfry. On August 16 of the same year, Louis Brotherjean
cadet obtains the order for Gabrielle, which has actually already been
cast since 1805. The blessing takes place on November 15th. It is
adorned with the pontifical and episcopal coats of arms, as well as
inscriptions recalling the circumstances of its creation. Blandine,
attributed to Chevalier, measures 1.38 meters in diameter, weighs 1,533
kilograms and usually sounds a C 3; blessed on July 4, 1818, it is out
of service in 2014. As its name suggests, it is dedicated to Blandine of
Lyon, and adorned with a crucifix, a virgin and child and a lily flower,
as well as an inscription recalling her dedication and her date of
installation.
The first bell of the petit accord, Seral or "Quart Sainct", cast in
1671 by Leonard Dupont, measures 1.08 meters in diameter, weighs 697
kilograms and rings an F 3. It is also named "neufve" (because it
traditionally sounded the office of none) or "carsin" (for "fourth
signal"). It is dedicated to the apostles John and Peter, and sometimes
also bears this double name. Pothin, cast in 1820 by Chevalier, measures
96 centimeters in diameter, weighs 535 kilograms and sounds a sol 3. His
blessing took place on May 11, 1820 ; as its name suggests, it is
dedicated to Saint Pothin. Like Blandine, she is out of service in 2014.
Finally, Rappiau, cast in 1805 by Pancrace Bertaud, measures 83
centimeters in diameter and sounds an A flat 3. Rappiau is not a
baptismal name, but a dialect word meaning "reminder". This ultimate
bell is also nicknamed chiule, from a slang word meaning "shouting" or
dissonant (which is not the case, this bell ringing just an octave above
Anne-Marie).
In 1789, the bell tower had eight bells: not only
Anne-Marie, but also a bell by the founder Abraham Pose, dating from
1642, three bells by Leonard Dupont (1671), of which only Seral remains,
and three bells by Ducret father and son, dating from 1768. On August
29, 1793, the casting of all the bells, except the largest and the
fourth, was decided; it produced 18,666 pounds of bronze, shipped to the
arsenals. The Brottier report, submitted in 1999, on the occasion of the
restoration of the bell tower to electrical standards, recommends the
installation of two new bells (D-flat 3 and E-flat 3) to complete the
grand accord.
The apse of the primatial is polygonal in shape with seven sides and
closes a choir of two bays, along which are placed two chapels with flat
chevet. The sanctuary has three levels of Romanesque elevations: the
arcature of hanging arches that surrounds it, the three-lobed lower
windows, finally the triforium. Above the triforium was raised a fourth
level, that of the first floor, Gothic with crossed ogives. Guichard's
initial project provided for a cul-de-four on the apse and two ridge
vaults on the choir ; the architectural inspiration for this project is
to be sought in the current inspired during the renaissance of the
twelfth century by the gigantic church of Cluny III. This Cluniac trend
is found in particular in the colored marble motifs, in the Byzantine
inspiration of the decorations.
The realization of the triforium
on the initiative of Jean Belles-mains changes the perspective of the
future apse: it is therefore no longer a question of realizing a
cul-de-four, but a row of bays and a vault of ogives. The solution found
by the architect of Renaud de Forez is the implementation of a gallery
with boxes, a technical solution deployed elsewhere but improvised here
for structural reasons. Indeed, the Romanesque buttresses are not as
adapted as the buttresses to the counterbalance of the warheads. Each
lodge is vaulted with a broken cradle whose horizontal plane is
rectangular, but which covers a trapezoidal space, that is to say wider
at its (outer) end than the vault which covers it. The hiatus is solved
by the addition of intermediate consoles, on the one hand, and by the
construction of "wooden" columns, that is to say erected at a short
distance from the elements they support, on the outside. In the choir,
the high bays which constitute the clerestory are grouped in two groups
of three on each side, overlooking the external gallery. The openings
facing the outside are not in line with the bays, but enlarged in the
upper part, so as not to obstruct the zenithal light. The arc of the
outer bays of each group of three is monolobed, which is a practice
found only in the Germanic world in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. This may have constituted an indirect tribute to Guichard,
because this form is found in particular in the Cistercian abbeys of
Maulbronn and Sulejów; or it was simply a geometric calculation and load
transfer that determined the choice of this form.
The diameter of
the apse is 12.5 meters, which, on the one hand, places it in the upper
average of contemporary Romanesque buildings in the region, and which
corresponds on the other hand to the width of the apse of the church of
Patient, in the fifth century. The side chapels of the choir also have
two bays, the first of them communicating with it, the other being
separated by a wall. The engaged columns separating the two bays, on the
choir side as well as on the chapels side, are reduced to their
load-bearing function, without embellishment, in order to maximize the
space available in the choir.
The inner facing of the apse
consists of choin (see above), in the form of orthostats, that is to say
that the choins are placed vertically, in order to show a larger united
surface. Each choinstone forms the bottom of a pendant arch, delimited
by fluted pilasters, whose dimensions it matches (one meter by two). The
joints being thus masked, the builders gave the illusion of a single and
immense curved stone forming the entire bottom of the apse. Besides the
choin, the other limestone abundantly used for the apse is marble. It
was decided to use for the bases of the columns a white marble of a very
fine grain, which visually contrasts with the colored marble used to
build the pilasters and the arcades, as well as the supports of the
triforium.
The triforium of the choir and the apse is designed as
the gallery of a cloister, with an opposition in the series of columns
of the first and the second. The pilasters of the choir alternate
rectangular and circular base, smooth or fluted faces, the latter
straight, broken, undulating or chevron, with symmetry on both sides.
The pattern produced by the columns of the triforium of the choir forms
an ABACA-ACABA chiasm. Opposite, the triforium of the apse, with regular
columns, rectangular base and straight flutes) appears much more
classic.
The transept of the current building is designed by the architect
Renaud de Forez, whose name has not reached us. This one, while
respecting the style sought by the archbishop, in the likeness of the
buildings of Geneva and Lausanne, had to deal with the existing part, on
the one hand, and respect the specific specifications adopted on this
site: installation of an external gallery at mid-height and installation
of the canopies in the interior cladding. The transept is therefore an
architectural transition space between the choir, with a distinctly
Romanesque base, and the nave, entirely Gothic. Moreover, the architect
shows, in the way the stones are paired above the arches, that he is not
only a good technician but also a connoisseur of ancient architecture.
At the upper surface (the junction between the wall and the arch), the
arches do not draw a curve, but a staircase, or in places a series of
crossbones, or even a simple square. All these types of arches were used
in the primatial, but the architect still experimented with other
formulas, new these: square arches with passing key in inverted
trapezoid or rectangle.
A second architect, still anonymous, is
also working on the transept. Its field of action is very localized: the
first floor of the two extreme spans. Nevertheless, his style is clearly
distinct, albeit constantly evolving; the innovations he brings are
particularly important. The first is the transformation of the external
gallery into an internal gallery, following the example of what is
practiced in the Burgundian churches and in the north of France, and on
the contrary of what is carried out in Chartres. Here, on the model of
Notre-Dame de Dijon, the installation, at the level of the first floor,
of the gallery, rejects the canopies to the right of the external
facing, which visually detaches the vault from its support. The second
change is decorative: the eastern triplet of these spans follows an
extremely refined design, devoid of moldings and ornaments, following
what is done in Cistercian architecture. On the other hand, the Western
triplet is structured by columns whose capitals are with very prominent
brackets, representing figures and foliage, again following a sculptural
tradition present in Burgundy.
The finishing of the transept,
around 1230-1240, is most likely the work of a last architect, as the
followed party is different from what is done at the time in the region.
The north and south ends of the transept, then unfinished, are adorned,
instead of the planned triplets, with two large rosettes, the first that
were installed south of the Loire. This aesthetic choice involves
technical changes: the arch is raised by about 80 centimeters to give
the canopy a maximum diameter.
It is most likely yet another master builder who works on the nave in
the years 1200-1210. His name has not reached us either. His direct
management of the construction site probably goes from the transept to
the fourth double span; but it is difficult to say, because it seems
that his project was scrupulously respected by his successors. Starting
the construction site, he installed the piers of the easternmost span,
while already vaulting the aisles. As we have seen above, the collateral
structures were already high, planned to accommodate a Romanesque vault.
More to the fact than his predecessors of the art of connecting the two
styles, or more skilful, the architect of the early thirteenth century
creates a type of ogive by aisle and cuts the ogives in a slightly
sketched bevel so that they adapt well to the supports. On the other
hand, to vault the nave, he chooses a rather old technique, then already
abandoned in the large buildings of the Parisian Basin: the sexpartite
vault, in which each arch span is supported by six supports, four
so-called "strong" at the ends, carrying the diagonal ogives and two
so-called "weak", carrying the central ogive orthogonal to the nave. The
vault is realized much later, when he no longer directs the construction
site; however, even after his departure, it is made necessary by the
alternation, which he created, of strong and weak supports.
It is
probably the architect of the transept rosettes who works on the high
canopies of the bays of the nave, in radiant style (or, in any case, it
is in the continuity of his style): the high canopies of the nave are
thus composed of triplets each surmounted by three multi-lobed roses,
forming an equilateral triangle. Three types of canopies are set up. In
the first type, the lancets, of equal height, are surmounted by the
three roses; the upper rose is larger and the other two are flanked by
oculi, also three-lobed. In the second type, the central lancet is
higher, the two lower roses are enlarged to the same dimensions as the
one that surmounts them, and the oculi are removed. The last type is
present in the western part of the second double span, built around
1270-1280; the filling technique is used; the roses are much larger than
in the first two types; the lower ones are with five lobes; the upper
one, even larger, is with seven.
There are eight side chapels: three on the southern side (to the
right of the nave) and five on the northern side.
On the right
side, the chapel closest to the transept is the Saint-Raphael Chapel,
named after the eponymous archangel. Built in 1495, it corresponds to a
span of the aisle (that is to say a half-span of the nave). It formerly
communicated with the cloister of the Chapter. Today, it is used to
preserve carved stones from deposits made during restoration sites. The
next chapel, going towards the facade, is that of the Blessed Sacrament.
When it was built, directed by Jacques de Beaujeu, from 1401, it had
been dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre, but it is sometimes also named
"Saint Vincent de Paul"; the heart of "Monsieur Vincent" was indeed kept
there until 1953, when Cardinal Gerlier returned it to the Daughters of
Charity. It houses in particular the tomb of Cardinal Coullié,
archbishop of Lyon in 1893, who died in 1912.
The most
spectacular chapel of the primatial is the last on the southern side,
that is, the closest to the facade. It is called "of the Bourbons"
because it was built by Cardinal Charles II of Bourbon. To this end, he
brings in artists from the court of Moulins (capital of the Duchy of
Bourbon), who perfectly know the springs of the "technological" Gothic,
in particular the implementation of hanging keys. The originality of the
keys made at the entrance to the Bourbon chapel lies in the terminal
button which receives the dummy ogives: it is not carved into the key,
but cut in tenon coming to adjust on the bottom of the mortise-cut key.
The decoration of the chapel is of flamboyant Gothic style, which is
illustrated in the richness of the decoration adorning walls, columns
and ogives, or the balustrade of the gallery which surmounts the chapel.
In 1816, thanks to the Restoration, the Bourbon chapel was set up as a
shrine to the glory of the reigning dynasty, and temporarily takes the
name of "Saint-Louis Chapel". From August 25 of this year, a weekly mass
is said there for the king and his family; this practice is further
reinforced with the death of Louis XVIII.
On the left side, five
chapels have been built. The first starting from the transept is the
chapel of the priest of Ars, formerly named Chapel of the Annunciation,
built at the end of the fifteenth century. The next is the chapel of the
Sacred Heart (formerly dedicated to Saint-Michel), built in 1448, the
only one and a half spans long. Then, after the passage that leads to
the archaeological garden, come the Saint-Joseph chapel, which dates
from the fifteenth century, the Sainte-Anne chapel (formerly
Notre-Dame), from the seventeenth century, finally the baptismal font
chapel (previously named Saint-Antoine), dated 1623, under which is the
tomb of the archbishops of Lyon. Apart from that of the Sacred Heart,
all correspond to a single aisle span (a half-nave span).
The first stained-glass windows of the current building date from the twelfth century and adorn the side chapels of the choir. However, most of the stained glass windows of Saint-Jean date from the first half of the thirteenth century and offer a coherent whole. The completion of the side chapels gave the cathedral a new collection of canopies in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The restorations and rearrangements of the nineteenth century were accompanied by a new program of realization of stained glass windows, as well as numerous restorations, not always happy. Finally, the destruction of 1944 forced the primatial to acquire new stained glass windows.
The only Romanesque stained glass window still in place is the stained glass window relating the life of Saint Peter, located in the eponymous chapel. It includes five registers which each consist of a medallion surrounded by borders. Almost the entire canopy is from the end of the twelfth century. The first register represents the walk on the waters (the one reported by Matthew), bordered on the left by the angel awakening Peter in his prison and on the right by the apocryphal scene of the "Quo vadis". The second register represents the death and the return to life of Tabitha, in a composition that goes from the left border to the right before returning in the central medallion which is read from right to left. The third register, which is read entirely from right to left, represents the arrest of Peter and his appearance before Nero. Only the fourth medallion, representing the torment of Peter, is not of the period; but the borders, representing two saints in prayer, if they do not come from this canopy, are however of the thirteenth century. Finally, the fifth register presents a Christ in glory surrounded by angels, and holding the key to the Kingdom of heaven as well as a scroll of parchment.
The lancets of the apse, for their part, present a medieval style
characteristic of the south-eastern quarter of France, which can be
found, for example, in Clermont. This style is characterized by a triple
influence. First of all, the Byzantine inspiration is sensitive; it is
sensitive in the choice and treatment of the scenes, in particular the
Annunciation and the Nativity; in the lengthening of the silhouettes,
the representation of space and in particular the interior volumes, as
well as in the very meticulous treatment of the folds. The second
noticeable contribution is of Germanic origin: it concerns the
monumentality of the canopy, which translates into an important
treatment of the borders to the detriment of the development of the
scene itself, and by the clarity of the compositions. Finally, the
Ile-de-France influence is noticeable in the decorative elements. The
lancets deal successively, from left to right, with the apostolate of
Stephen, the childhood of Christ, the resurrection of Lazarus, the
Redemption (central canopy at the back of the apse), the lives of John
the Baptist, the evangelist John, finally Saint Cyprian. Each canopy of
this set is composed of seven medallions.
The glass roof of Saint
Étienne, to the north, is very strongly restored. She successively
presents the diaconal ordination of Stephen by Peter, then the
distribution of alms, the preaching to the Jews, his arrest, his speech
at the Sanhedrin, finally his stoning. The last medallion has
represented Christ in glory since the nineteenth century; before, it was
a representation of the appearance of God to the young martyr. The
second lancet, partially restored by Lucien Bégule, evokes the childhood
of Christ. In this composition, the borders are occupied, on the left by
seven vices and on the right by seven virtues. Each of these qualities,
whose theology is sometimes dependent on the artist's fantasy, is
represented in a four-lobed medallion by a character; it is also named
in Latin in a cartouche surrounding the head of the latter. Drunkenness
and Chastity thus surround the journey of the magi; Greed and Charity
make the right to the interview of the latter with Herod; Avarice and
Largesse border on the Adoration of the magi ; as for the appearance of
the angel enjoining them not to return to Herod, it is inscribed between
Lust and Sobriety. The border of the flight to Egypt is Pain and Joy;
the massacre of the Innocent is met with Anger and Patience. Finally,
Pride and Humility frame the Presentation at the Temple. The third
northern canopy first shows the death of Lazarus, surrounded by his
sisters Martha and Mary; then Martha leaves to meet Jesus, while Mary is
consoled by her friends; Martha announces to her sister that Jesus is
there; Mary comes to meet him ; Jesus cries and follows her; finally, he
brings Lazarus back to life and he leaves his tomb alive.
On the
southern side, the canopies have also faced important restorations. The
glass roof originally dedicated to Cyprian alone was transformed in
1842-1844; it now also evokes the founding saints of the Lyon Church,
Pothin and Irenaeus, as well as Polycarp. The first two medallions thus
show the journey of the first to Gaul and the ordination of the second;
the account of Cyprian's life begins only on the third medallion, with
the representation of an episcopal assembly headed by Cyprian. Then the
stained-glass window shows his appearance before the proconsul Aspasius
Paternus, the departure into exile, the appearance before the new
proconsul, finally the martyrdom. The stained glass window of John the
Evangelist draws its inspiration from three sources: the Acts of the
Apostles, the Apocalypse, finally the more or less legendary tradition.
The medallions successively present the healing of the Beautiful Door,
the torment of boiling oil inflicted by Domitian and from which he
emerges unscathed (apocryphal narrated by Tertullian in "De
praescriptione haereticorum"), the dictation of the Apocalypse by an
angel in Patmos. The fourth medallion represents one of the visions of
this last book, the Son of Man surrounded by seven candlesticks and
seven stars; the next shows Jesus announcing to the apostle his imminent
death, and the penultimate the teaching of John. The last medallion
shows John lying down in his tomb, welcomed by the light emanating from
God; he is presented as a bishop and not as an evangelist, in order to
emphasize the apostolic filiation of the Lyon diocese.
The
stained glass window of John the Baptist is mainly inspired by the
accounts of the first chapter of the Gospel according to Luke and the
fourteenth chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. The first
medallion, however, has nothing to do with the life of the prophet, but
represents Renaud de Forez presenting the stained glass window as an
offering. Then follows the announcement to Zacharias; the birth itself;
the attribution of the first name "John" by his father who, rendered
mute, writes it on a tablet. The three highest medallions show John's
martyrdom: Salome dances in front of Herod; the executioner beheads John
; his head is brought on a dish.
The central canopy of the apse
is occupied by the stained glass window of the Redemption: it regroups
the moments of the life of Christ which directly imply the redemption of
the sin of men. The first two medallions thus insist on the double human
and divine nature of Christ through the Annunciation and the Nativity.
The next two evoke the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. The last three
medallions represent the same scene, the Ascension of Christ: the
apostles and Mary occupy the fifth and sixth medallions, with their eyes
turned towards the seventh, where Christ is enthroned in majesty.
The high canopies of the apse are occupied by the twelve
stained-glass windows of the apostles, among which Matthias of course
replaced Judas Iscariot. These twelve apsidal stained-glass windows are
answered by twelve stained-glass windows in the choir, each representing
a prophet: Haggai, Jeremiah, Obadiah, Micah, Isaiah, Malachi to the
north, and Zechariah, Daniel, Amos, Habakkuk, Ezekiel and Zephaniah to
the south. Each of the prophets holds in his hand a verse from the book
that corresponds to him, a verse that generally refers to the coming of
Christ, and more particularly to the Redemption. These canopies of the
apostles and prophets were heavily restored by Lucien Bégule in the
nineteenth century: about half of the canopies are in the initial state.
On the other hand, the stained glass window that closes this set, at the
back of the apse, dates entirely from the end of the thirteenth century;
it represents a coronation of the Virgin herself surmounted by Christ
the Lamb of God. The organization of these canopies in triplets
indicates a hierarchization of the prophets and apostles, the central
character, a little higher, always looking straight ahead while his two
smaller neighbors are turned towards him. This treatment makes it
possible in particular to make the classic distinction between small and
great prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel).
The rose window located above the crossing of the transept and the
nave, which decorates the wall allowing the catch-up between the vaults
of the choir and the nave, is composed of eight very different stained
glass windows. Four of these medallions are pastiches of the nineteenth
century, little appreciated by specialists. The three upper medallions
would date from 1232 and would have been offered by Eudes III of
Burgundy. They represent two saints surrounding God the Father. Finally,
the medallion located at the bottom is a mosaic made up of pieces dating
from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The general meaning is
completely lost, but the center of the composition is occupied by a Last
Supper dating from the XVI century.
The medieval glass windows of
the transept no longer exist. They were replaced in 1860 by creations
complementing the prophets of the choir with four stained-glass windows
representing Hosea, Joel, Nahum and Jonah, as well as Melchizedek and
David. The north arm of the transept is also endowed with other later
stained-glass windows, such as the one installed at the request of
Cardinal Bonald, made by Antoine Lusson and representing the two
councils of Lyon.
The two rosettes that adorn the ends of the
transept, each with a diameter of six meters, are both divided into
twelve radiating dials separated by columns and surrounding a central
medallion with six lobes. Each of the columns comes to rest, not on the
peripheral band of the rosette, but on a three-lobed arch which comes
from it, which constitutes a technical feat made possible by the
addition of iron studs. In each of the twelve dials are represented two
medallions. All the medallions of the two rosettes are on a blue
background surrounded by a red border, with the exception of four. The
medallions stand out on an equally dark blue background, squared with
red squares in which a red flower with yellow pistil is inscribed. The
subtle mix of red and blue colors gives the northern canopy, less
illuminated, a dominant red and therefore a warmer tone, and the
southern canopy a more blue and colder dominant.
In each dial of
the northern rose window of the transept, the small medallion, closest
to the center of the canopy, figures an angel. The very visible
particularity of the north rosette is that one angel out of two is
represented praying, on his knees, while the next one is fallen,
falling, upside down; the outer medallions, for their part, also have
nine praying angels and a fallen angel. The theme of fallen angels is
indeed very rarely represented in the iconography of stained glass
windows. The large medallion located at the bottom shows the creation of
Adam and Eve, the one located above Christ in majesty. As for the
lancets of the apse, the style of the stained-glass windows is
characterized by a double Byzantine influence — by the themes addressed
and the type of representation of the events — and Germanic or more
precisely Rhenish — by the attention to detail in the representation of
clothing, decor and furniture. The glass roof of the north transept is
dedicated to the triumph of the Church. The central figure represents
the latter as a warrior woman, camped and holding a cross also taking
the place of an oriflame, in which Alphonse Sachet saw a figure of
Faith.
The south rose window has the theme of the Two Adams (Adam
and Christ). The composition is identical: twelve dials, two medallions
of different sizes in each. The small medallions of the southern
rosette, they represent angels halfway, holding sticks or cassettes. The
large medallions can be read, for once, from the top down. The summit
medallion represents a Christ whose face is surrounded by a three-lobed
mandorla, thus representing the Trinity. The eleven other medallions
present two parallel stories: to the right, therefore to the left of
Christ, the story of the fall and original sin is outlined, through the
medallions representing the creation of Adam, that of Eve, the
consumption of the forbidden fruit, the couple expelled from the Garden
of Eden, finally Adam working, the only modern medallion of the canopy.
On the left, the history of salvation is outlined in response:
Annunciation, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, crucifixion and
Resurrection. The medallion located at the very bottom allows the
junction of the two stories: it represents a descent into Hell, in which
the dead Christ comes to pull Adam and Eve out of their fall, and
thereby all humanity, before attracting them to eternal life by his
resurrection. In addition to their presence in the small medallions, the
angels are present in some large ones of the southern rose window, in
scenes where it is not usual to see them, in particular the creation of
Adam and that of Eve.
Many of the stained-glass windows of the side chapels are due to the
patronage of Bishop Bonald: the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul chapel thus
receives in 1845 the canopies of the Deposition and the invention of the
cross of Laurent-Charles Marshal; that of the Bourbons is adorned with
four canopies, by the same artist, destroyed in 1944, representing
respectively Bonaventure, Louis, his sister Isabelle and Thomas Becket.
In the chapel of the Sacred Heart is installed in 1860 a stained glass
window by Émile Thibaud showing Gregory VII confirming to Saint Jubin
the title of primate of the Gauls, also disappeared in 1944.
The
rose window of the western facade, called "of the Lamb" dates from the
end of the fourteenth century: its structure is the work of Jacques de
Beaujeu, when its iconography is realized by Henri de Nivelle: it has
for theme the lives of the two patron saints of the cathedral,
Jean-Baptiste and Stephen. It measures 6.2 meters in diameter. Unlike
the other three rosettes, it is structured by a flamboyant filling,
depicting a flower with six petals ; each of these petals, of circular
shape, is divided into a bellows and two specks which leave, along the
peripheral band, a residual space. Each skullcap is adorned with a
narrative medallion, standing out on a green background adorned with the
same geometric floral patterns, red with gold pistils, as the transept
rosettes. The bellows also have a smaller medallion, standing out on a
blue background streaked with the same patterns. The residual space of
each petal, as well as the residual space between the petals, is on a
blue background streaked with red in a slightly different pattern, in
which each square is divided by four quarters of a disk. The space
closing a petal is decorated with a simple angel's head, when the one
that unites two petals and the peripheral band is centered on a
medallion representing a seraph with six wings. Originally circular, the
rose window has sagged by seven centimeters.
In this realization,
the change of vocation of the architectural work manifests itself: it is
no longer designed to teach the people, to serve a theological
didactics, but only to dazzle with architectural audacity. The overly
complex canopy is indeed difficult to read from the ground. In addition,
the use of silver yellow, if it makes it possible to create subtle
shades of color, on the other hand makes it difficult to read the whole.
The general composition is quite simple: the twelve external medallions,
those inscribed in the handkerchiefs, trace the life of John the Baptist
; the six little ones, inscribed in the bellows, that of Stephen. The
central medallion figures a lamb, hence the name of the rose window. Its
sacrificial lamb symbolism illustrates the martyrdoms of the two
disciples venerated at the cathedral. If the medallions are original, on
the other hand, their ordering has changed over the centuries: Lucien
Bégule describes a chronologically aberrant order; the restorations of
the twentieth century made it possible to restore the logical order.
The surfacing of the stone responds to an aesthetic in force since
antiquity. Five types of processing are applied to the material: the
boss, the sizes grainy (light bumps and hollows) and fine (dense traces
of the size hammer), polishing and carving. The choice presiding over
the preference for one or the other of the treatments depends on the
location of the surface to be treated. Thus, the grained cut is used for
the envelope of the bedside, the polishing for the interior facing, the
fine cut for the external splashing of the lancets of the apse and an
irregular boss on the base which carries the bedside. The same block can
be treated in different ways on its faces, if these faces are part of
architectural elements whose treatment varies. Thus, all the seats of
the bedside base, which constitute the base, are decorated with bosses,
except the last, slightly recessed, which is smooth and ends with a cut
angle to articulate with the wall cladding, considered more noble, still
recessed.
The capitals are decorated with hooks whose figuration
of the motifs evolves over time. The very simplified figuration of the
end of the twelfth century gives way in the following century to a
treatment more reminiscent of nature and technically bolder, the
projection being more protuberant. Finally, in the fourteenth century,
these realistic forms will tend to fade in favor of elegance alone. This
trend is also not observable only in Lyon: the models are spreading very
quickly throughout Europe.
On the other hand, the primatial is
one of the eighteen churches in Lyon that does not have an interior Way
of the Cross.
Each column of the apse is placed on a high pedestal carrying a
classic attic base (with two tori separated by a scotia, which is
generally a way, again, to practice a game of contrasts, in the manner
of a chiaroscuro) adorned with an animal's head, or sometimes human. The
capitals of the columns of the apse, on the other hand, are decorated
with six scenes from the childhood of Christ, three on each side,
surrounding a Christ pantocrator: these are the only carved narrative
scenes of the sanctuary. Indeed, the capitals of the lancets, for their
part, bear a decoration of smooth or serrated leaves, where an animal or
human figure sometimes lodges. The columns of the side chapels of the
choir, for their part, bear round-shaped sculptures that do not fit well
into the continuity: their role is above all to mask the awkward
junction between the Romanesque column and the departure of the Gothic
ogive.
The scenes of Christ's childhood are part of a very
particular iconographic program, which bear the mark of Guichard de
Pontigny and the liturgical and sacramental logic that he puts at the
heart of his Lyon program. The three scenes of the northern half evoke
exclusively the Three Wise Men. The southern capitals show a Virgin and
Child, and two apocryphal scenes from the Protevangelium of James: the
first bath of Christ, given by Zealomius and Salome, and the penance
inflicted on the midwife who doubted Mary's virginity. The two middle
capitals, which show this last scene as well as the hesitation of the
magi in front of Herod, thus respond to each other on the theme of
temptation and unbelief.
The most original feature of the
decoration of the choir and the apse is formed by the inlays on white
marble. It makes the decorative pattern appear in white on a red-ochre
background. The technique used was a so-called "saving" cut around the
desired figure; then the background surrounding it was filled with a
brown cement; the secondary details (eyes, mouth, hair) were engraved
following the same technique in a second step. This element has been
deployed to dress three types of objects present in the sanctuary: the
abacus of the small capitals (priests' bench, lancets of the apse and
bays of the side chapels), the capitals of the three-lobed arches of the
choir, finally three horizontal bands placed at different heights. The
first serves as an architrave for the blind arcading running in the
choir, the apse and the chapels; the second is located just under the
triforium; finally, the third surmounts the latter 166. Very dirty,
these inlays were cleaned during the redevelopment of the choir, started
in 1990 and completed in 2011; it is the discovery of this white marble
that convinces Andrée Putman to change the altar in place to replace it
with an alabaster altar.
The seven columns at the back of the
apse have carved capitals. They are the only ones in the sanctuary
offering an iconographic composition. Six of them represent scenes
relating to the birth of Jesus, the seventh, in the center, depicting a
pantocrator Christ. Three of these capitals each represent one of the
three wise men, heading towards the manger in Bethlehem. The first one
starts his horse at a gallop, following the star. The second is
challenged by the devil (who here plays his own role as well, by
metonymy, as that of Herod. The third, finally, crosses the city gate,
while indicating with a gesture the detour of the return to avoid
Jerusalem. The other three capitals evoke the birth itself: The first is
a Virgin and Child adored by the magi; the second shows both Joseph in
doubt, Mary ready to give birth and the paralyzed midwife; the third
shows the first bath of Jesus. The characters of the capital of the
Virgin and Child as well as those of the third magus king no longer have
heads, probably marked by the revolutionary destruction or Baron des
Adrets.
The last access step to the cathedral, at the very bottom
of the apse, is engraved with a bearded head blowing in two horns.
Interpretations differ about him. According to Lucien Bégule, it would
be an allegory of a passage from the epistle to the Romans: "Their voice
has sounded throughout the Earth". According to Catherine Brisac, it
would be a figure of the earth itself.
The nave and some side chapels are adorned with much more recent statues, mostly dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The chapel of the Blessed Sacrament is thus adorned with a statue of Bishop Coullié in prayer, dating from 1916, by the sculptor Louis Castex. Similarly, the Saint-Raphael chapel has a statue of Francis of Assisi dating from 1891 and made by Jean-Marie Bonnassieux, and one of Antoine de Padua made by Joseph Belloni in 1938. The same Belloni sculpts in 1928 a Thérèse of Lisieux placed in the chapel dedicated to her. André Vermare, for his part, realizes a statue of the priest of Ars, placed in 1910 in the eponymous chapel; it is the only work of this sculptor, moreover almost exclusively specialized in the representations of Jean-Marie Vianney, which is exhibited in a Lyon church.
The cathedral was later decorated with tapestries and paintings.
These decorations were rarely used during the great Baroque period,
whether this habit stems from the canons' little taste for this kind of
decorum or the trauma of Calvinist destruction. According to some
visitors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, "no painting or
tapestry" adorns the primatial, which is of "great simplicity, which
gives it a certain air of grandeur and majesty that is not always found
in better decorated churches".
In fact, an inventory from 1672
shows that the primatial is not devoid of paintings. In the chapel of
Notre-Dame and Saint-Antoine (current chapel of the archbishops) is
installed in 1622 a painting of Horace The White commissioned by the
archdeacon Antoine de Gibertés, who died in 1639. This painting
represented the patron kneeling, presented to the Virgin by her patron
saint and John the Baptist. A chapel located next to the clock was
enriched with an Ecce homo between the Virgin and Saint Joseph, that of
the Bourbons was adorned with an Italian-made Last Supper (perhaps
painted by Giulio Romano). A burial attributed to Francis Stella was
naturally placed in the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. Other unidentified
tables are listed. The common point between all these works is that they
have all disappeared, with the exception of a Christ on the cross
painted by Karel Dujardin and today preserved at the Museum of Art and
History of Geneva.
The Revolution deprived the primacy of all its
canvases, as well as the fences of chapels, grills, stone railings and
the rood screen. During the Pentecost Mass on June 6, 1802, the absence
of any work of art in the building is attested. Some arrangements for
the arrival of the pope were made from odds and ends in 1804, thanks to
a grant of 80,000 francs from the Consulate, in particular thanks to the
recovery of equipment (woodwork and grills in particular) from the abbey
of Cluny. The arrival of Joseph Fesch to the archbishopric changes the
situation considerably. Rich and powerful thanks to his proximity to the
imperial family, he is above all a phenomenal collector, accumulating up
to 16,000 paintings. His priority for St. John is not primarily
artistic, but liturgical and pastoral: from his point of view, it is
necessary that the work of art contributes to the beauty of worship and
the edification of the people. Lack of time prevents Cardinal Fesch from
carrying out his very theatrical project. Nevertheless, he enriched the
cathedral with a rich collection of paintings. Among other things, on
November 28, 1810, he bought about twenty paintings from the seizures
carried out by the revolutionaries in Parisian convents and churches.
These canvases, usually of large dimensions, are purchased on a personal
basis. Moreover, it is probably he who buys seven tapestries of Brussels
origin.
As early as 1826, the cathedral's factory council
considers that it should not have "loaded the church with paintings
inconsistent with its architecture and capable of disfiguring it rather
than adorning it". Discreet negotiations are carried out with possible
purchasers, so as not to risk a challenge from the prelate in exile.
Bishop de Pins, for his part, had a dozen paintings removed from the
walls of the building to hang in the Saint-Jean Palace. Two others are
ceded to the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, five to the parish church
of Saint-Symphorien-de-Lay, etc. Finally, Cardinal Fesch's collection is
very popular with major museums, and in particular the Louvre, which
acquires several of them thanks to the various troubles of the twentieth
century. On the same date, the bishop commissioned four painters (Genod,
Biard, Soulary and Orsel), representing four martyrs of Lyon; only the
first three were made, and exhibited in the archdiocese. In 1909, they
moved to the primatial.
At the same time, in 1840, the city of
Lyon had tapestries made planned to increase the pageantry of the
"meetings of the civil, military, judicial authorities". The craftsman
having died childless, the master of ceremonies of the commune buys all
the stock. Completely secular tapestries are used to decorate the
cathedral. With the exception of major events during which they are
presented, the tapestries do not usually appear in the usual decoration
of the cathedral. An inventory was carried out in 1895 with the aim of
selling most of it; this sale did not take place in the end. On October
21, 1903, a certain number of these works were classified as historical
monuments. The last major exhibition of these tapestries dates from
1974, for the seven hundred years of the second Council of Lyon, where
the works of a religious nature are exhibited in the choir and the nave.
Thanks to the temporary dedication of the Bourbon Chapel in Saint
Louis, two paintings from the immense collection of Bishop Fesch are
installed there. The first, signed by Michel Corneille the Elder and
dated 1639-1642, is entitled Saint Louis receiving the crown of thorns
from the hands of Christ; the second, painted by Jacques de Létin,
represents Saint Louis dying of the plague in Tunis. These two
paintings, designed to embellish the Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis church in
Paris, were returned there in 1949 during an exchange carried out by the
administration of historical monuments. The chapel also has an Emmaus
meal painted by Jean-Baptiste de Champaigne as well, until 2003, as an
Adoration of the magi, painted in 1626 by the Flemish Henri Falange,
known as "Henricus Houyez". This last painting comes from the convent of
the Mathurins, in Paris, which Louis Petit, father superior of the
order, had decorated from 1610 to 1647 with paintings; then from the
collection of Cardinal Fesch. Since 2003, this painting has been
exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon.
The decoration of
the chapel of the Sacred Heart is the work of Bishop de Pins. It
includes in particular a painting by André Blanchard, painted in 1936,
and named the Adoration of the Heart of Jesus. This painting is still
located in the primatial. Statues of Mary and John the Evangelist are
also placed there, as well as a relief of Christ and the four
evangelists, all made by Jean-François Legendre-Héral.
The Chapel
of the Blessed Sacrament includes a Saint Sebastian cared for by the
holy anonymous women of the seventeenth century, a triptych by Tony
Tollet with a baptism of Christ in the center, finally a painting
representing Vincent de Paul (justified by the old dedication of this
chapel to "monsieur Vincent") teaching the ladies of the court of Louis
XIII to be charitable, painted by Charles Meynier in 1824.
The
Sainte-Anne chapel is adorned with three paintings: Christ and the
Canaanite by Nicolas de Plattemontagne, a Circumcision of Christ painted
by Claude Vignon in 1627, finally a Polycarp led to the stake by
Michel-Philibert Genod, painted in 1827. In the chapel of the cardinals
there is a Baptism of Christ signed by François Édouard Picot.
The Saint-Joseph chapel has three paintings: a presentation of Jesus to
Symeon, oil on canvas painted by the brothers Jean-Baptiste and Charles
André van Loo in 1725, a rapture by anonymous Saint Joseph of the
seventeenth century, finally Saint Pothin bringing the image of the
Mother of God, by François-Augustin Blond. That of the priest of Ars
includes a Transfiguration copy of that of Raphael as well as a saint
Irenaeus choosing the torment of the cross by Claude Soulary, painted in
1826. In the chapel of Saint-Raphael there is a copy of the flagellation
of Saint Andrew painted by The Dominik, as well as an incredulity of
Saint Thomas by Arnould de Vuez.
The northern transept, opposite
the clock, is occupied by a Visitation by Noël Coypel, coming from an
unknown Parisian church, then from the Fesch collection; in the transept
facing it, near the organ, a Saint John in Patmos signed by Louis Jean
François Lagrenée. The presentation of Jesus in the Temple, oil on
canvas by Hyacinthe Collin de Vermont, is exhibited in the chapel of the
canons. Finally, the south exit drum is surmounted by a Virgin among the
Virgins, or Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine, oil on canvas by
Abraham Janssens dated 1630. Facing Him, the Virgin handing the rosary
to Saint Dominic was painted by Brother André.
Five of the
tapestries are about Jacob's story: Esau abandoning his birthright,
Isaac blessing Jacob (tapestry stolen in 1979), Jacob's dream, the
meeting with Rachel, finally the departure from Laban's house. These
weaves are the work of weavers from Brussels of the seventeenth century,
Erasmus II of Pannemaker and Gilles Ijdens. Another tapestry, probably
originating in Aubusson and dating from the second half of the
seventeenth century, represents the triumph of Constantine. The other
tapestries have secular subjects.
Like many other cathedrals, the primatial Saint-Jean has two organs, one in the tribune (but located in the southern transept, not under the western rose window), and one in the northern transept, next to the clock; nevertheless, here it is not the alternation between a daily liturgy gathering a small number of people and solemn ceremonies involving a large crowd that requires this duplication, but the poor general condition of the tribune organ - mute since 2003 - that required its temporary replacement by a other instrument.
Unlike most of the great French cathedrals, but like most of the
churches of the diocese, the organ of the primatial of Lyon is very
little highlighted. Indeed, unlike these, intended for the Roman rite in
which the organ holds an important place, Saint-Jean Cathedral was
designed for Catholic worship in the Lyon rite, which forbade the use of
the organ: "Ecclesia lugdunensis non utitur organis". The introduction
of an organ into the primatial, wanted by Bishop Bonald, is not done
without difficulty. The chapter, an instance of Lyon conservatism, comes
up against this displayed and deliberate desire to "normalize" the
particular cult in the capital of Gauls.
Like the choice of the
Ultramontane (but diplomatic) Bishop Bonald as bishop of Lyon, the
choice to install an organ in the primatial, symbol of Lyon's resistance
to ultramontanism, is an eminently political act, and this is how the
canons perceive it. One of the missions of the new archbishop will
precisely be to modernize little by little the Lyon rite so that it
corresponds more and more to the Latin liturgy. The capitular act of
August 30, 1840 shows the prudence and diplomacy exercised by the
prelate, who first proposes to take an organ on trial for a temporary
period; the resistances already no longer relate to the liturgy itself
but to the tradition which is being breached. In parallel with this
rental, the archbishop insists to the chapter that a real purchase be
made. The ordination of Louis Rossat, the new bishop of Gap, in 1841,
provided the occasion for the inauguration of the organ. Moreover, it is
a modest organ, with only fifteen stops ; and above all, it does not
weigh on the finances of the diocese because the prelate commands it
from his own funds. Overall, this installation was a success with the
assembly, and the construction of several organs in the churches of the
diocese was decided in the following years.
The current tribune
organ dates from 1841; it was made by the Daublaine-Callinet manufacture
in a neo-Gothic style case, designed by Pierre Bossan and redesigned by
Tony Desjardins. At the time, it was placed in the north chapel
adjoining the choir. It is the carpenter Bernard from Lyon who realizes
the work. The first titular organist, from 1841 to 1874, was Félix
Bélin. From 1852, work was to be undertaken; they were carried out by
Pierre-Alexandre Ducroquet, who had meanwhile taken over the Daublaine
Callinet manufacture. The organ is enlarged there. A second restoration
dates from 1860 ; this time, it is the company Merklin & Schütze who
carries out the repairs, and adds a few games, bringing the total number
to twenty. But the condition of the instrument is so bad that an almost
complete reconstruction, still by Merklin, is necessary in 1875: the
postman brings the number of stops to thirty-two and enlarges the
sideboard in height. Work followed by the same factor in 1881 and 1883,
as well as by his son-in-law Charles Michel Merklin: seven games were
still added. On this date, it is Paul Trillat who has been titular
organist since 1874, and until his resignation in 1904 ; he was
succeeded by Édouard Commette, who was only twenty-one years old when he
was appointed, and who remained in office until 1967.
A lifting
was carried out in 1905 by Francisque Pic. Additional work took place in
1921 and 1923, executed by Charles Michel and his partner Kuhn. In 1927,
following a combination of circumstances, the organ of Saint-Jean was
the first in the world to be recorded; its position in the choir, which
made it possible to hang draperies improving the acoustics, encouraged
the engineers of Columbia Records to make the recording at the
primatiale.
A new reconstruction, always by the same firm, was
carried out in 1935-1936: the organ was moved to the southern transept.
Indeed, conceived as an accompanying organ, the instrument actually
served as a large organ; the space allocated to it, under the arch
located to the left of the choir, did not allow it to develop and
drastically complicated maintenance. The choice to move the organ to a
gallery in the transept makes it possible to greatly increase its
capacities, in particular by going from forty-three to fifty stops, by
being equipped with a fully electric transmission. The organ also
receives a combiner invented by the Lyon organist Adrien Rougier and
named Acribès: this device makes it possible to record up to thirty-five
stop positions and to modify them instantly according to the chosen
setting.
In 1945, a lifting is essential: the explosion of the
Tilsitt bridge damaged the instrument. In 1954 and in 1963, the Merklin
company carried out stop modifications to lighten the sound palette of
the organ. In 1967, Commette's student, Joseph Reveyron, succeeded him,
and remained in office until his death in 2005. In 1974, a further
lifting was carried out: the 32-foot base was added.
Following
the European heatwave of August 2003, the grandstand organ is no longer
used due to fears of fire risk. Many initiatives are carried out in
particular by the Friends of the organ of the Cathedral of Lyon, which
is chaired by Jean-François Duchamp, honorary chapel master, with the
Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs. In 2017, the State, owner of
the instrument as of the entire building, agrees to take charge of its
restoration, estimated at 1.8 million euros. The postman Pascal Quoirin
is in charge of the work, during which a fourth keyboard is added, as
well as ten games, bringing the total to 67. On October 14, 2022, the
new instrument is blessed by Emmanuel Gobilliard, auxiliary bishop of
Lyon; from October 14 to 16, three days of concerts and conferences are
organized to celebrate the revival of the organ.
The organ of the northern transept was built in 1974 in Leer, by the
German builder Jürgen Ahrend, for the Church of Reconciliation, located
in Taizé. In 1979, it was dismantled and stored in a barn; in 1981, it
was reassembled in the Payerne abbey; finally, in 1996, it was installed
in Saint-Jean. The presence of this organ is due to the dilapidation of
the great organ, which requires a replacement from 1996 at least
temporarily.
Its initial use in a very sober liturgy, that of
Taizé, has earned this organ a great simplicity of design and
ornamentation. There are only twenty-eight games, eleven of which are
enough to fill the cathedral. The first holder of this organ was Fabrice
Pincet; since 2010, it has been Guillaume Prieur (also holder of the Q.
Blumenroeder organ of Charolles), professor of organ at the
conservatories of Mâcon and Chalon-sur-Saône.
The first mention of an astronomical clock dates from a chapter deed,
dated November 23, 1379, which appoints Sieur Loyat rector and governor
of the clock; an act of July 29, 1393 confirms that the instrument is
located in the left arm of the transept, next to the chapel of
Saint-Jean-l'évangéliste. In the fifteenth century, the clock is
designated, at least in an act of January 18, 1445, as the "clock with
small bells".
Throughout the fifteenth century, regular mentions
of the presence of craftsmen are made and testify to the care given to
the device: Jean Couturé is cited in 1461, Jean Prévost in 1488, Jean
Manguilliton in 1494 and a certain Claude in 1547. On the night of April
30 to May 1, 1562, like all the representations of God visible in the
building, those of the clock were destroyed by the troops of Baron des
Adrets. It was only on May 14, 1598 that the canons placed an order for
the repair to a master watchmaker from Lyon, Hugues Levet, assisted by
Nicolas Lippius. Less than four months later, the work was completed,
which shows on the one hand that the clock mechanisms were not
irreparably damaged, and on the other hand that the instrument has not
moved in the meantime.
Two major restorations took place
respectively in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The first,
commissioned by Claude II of Saint-Georges, then still canon of the
chapter, was carried out by Guillaume Nourrisson between 1660 and 1692.
Claude de Saint-Georges, a man of science, is undoubtedly the author of
the mathematical calculations that allowed the adjustment of the
astrolabe and calendars. Infant works especially on the aesthetic aspect
of the device to make it more monumental. The second restoration is the
work of Pierre Charmy, a watchmaker running a shop on Saint-Jean Square
; between 1776 and 1788, he was entrusted with the replacement of the
anchor escapement, in order to give the clock greater precision; this
piece, still in place, is still in operation at the beginning of the
twenty-first century.
Significant destruction was caused to the
aircraft during the French Revolution: badges, crowns, fleurs-de-lys
were systematically eliminated. The clock then remained abandoned for
half a century. A first restoration was attempted by Joseph Mourier in
1856, but, for lack of means, he was forced to stop the work. It was
only in 1894, and under the supervision of the historical commission,
that a real renovation work was carried out by the Chateau de Paris
house. The decorations are resumed, the calendars are updated.
An
overhaul, including the change of cables, cleaning, updating of the
calendar and a new size of the exhaust wheel, was carried out in 1954 by
the Ungerer house of Strasbourg; but dilapidation lurks the device
during the 1980s. A complete restoration is requested by Michel Caille,
chief inspector of Historical monuments, and carried out in 1992-1993 by
the company Desmarquest. Calendar corrections are carried out, deep
cleaning is undertaken, automata with complex operation are restarted.
The current device measures 9.35 meters in height and 2.2 meters in
width. The masonry tower containing the clock is original; three of the
sides of the device are visible, the last one leaning against the wall
of the transept. The clock works with a system of weights, wound every
five days, at a rate of four hundred and twenty revolutions for a
winding. Since 1993, the clock, in order to limit breakdowns, undergoes
annual maintenance: dusting and oiling.
The two dials of the
facade are respectively a perpetual calendar at the bottom and an
astrolabe above. The latter represents the most original and scientific
mechanism of the clock. The earthly vault is motionless, and it is the
heavenly vault that rotates inside. On the first are depicted the
Equator, the two tropics, the skyline of Lyon, the azimuths and the
almicantarats. On the movable part are placed the twelve months, the
twelve signs of the Zodiac and the 365 days of the year. A circle placed
on this part shows the trajectory of the sun in the Lyon sky; the phases
of the Moon are visible thanks to a globe rotating on itself; fourteen
stars visible from Lyon are placed in the sky.
The perpetual
calendar makes an entire turn of the dial in one year. The computer
takes sixty-six years to complete one lap; the current lap ends in 2019;
a new one will be set up by Charles Murt in 2020, and it is calculated
to run until 2084. They include the current year, the date of Easter and
all the Christian liturgical times associated with it, Advent, as well
as secular astronomical landmarks (epact, indiction). The clock makes it
possible to foresee the jubilee of the cathedral, which takes place
about once a century, when Corpus Christi falls on June 24, that is to
say the day of Saint-Jean-Baptiste.
Above the dials are various
characters. In the center, seven painted wooden statues take turns every
twenty-four hours and figure the days of the week. The risen Christ
represents Sunday; Death on Monday; John the Baptist on Tuesday; Stephen
on Wednesday; Christ Eucharist on Thursday; the cross on Friday; the
Virgin on Saturday. The ringtones take place four times a day, at noon,
then two, three and four in the afternoon ; they set in motion nineteen
automata: angels, rooster, Switzerland, scene of the Annunciation, the
Holy Spirit represented by a dove, finally God the Father blessing.
On March 23, 2013, the eve of Palm Sunday, the astronomical clock
was seriously damaged. A 28-year-old man destroyed several parts of the
work with an iron bar before witnesses intervened to arrest him. He
would have explained his act "by the fact that the magnificence of the
clock would prevent the believers from concentrating on their prayer".
The cathedral is, etymologically, the place of the cathedral, that is
to say the seat of the bishop. But this one is not permanently present
in his church. The rector is the priest in charge of the cathedral as a
monument and as the first church of the diocese. The current rector of
the primatial Saint-Jean is Father Jean-Sébastien Tuloup. The cathedral
is also one of the two churches of the parish of
Saint-Jean-Saint-Georges, which, as its name suggests, counts in
addition to the primatial church of Saint-Georges.
As the high
place of the Church of Lyon, the cathedral is the center of important
events during the liturgical year; the most notable are the Festival of
Lights, on December 8 and the near days, during which the cathedral is
illuminated, but also generally offers numerous animations in the church
and on the forecourt; and the last weekend of June, during the deacon
and presbytery ordinations of the diocese.
Two masses are celebrated every Sunday at Saint-Jean, at half-past eight and half-past ten, the first animated by one of the singers of the choirs, the second at the organ and by one of the four choirs. On weekdays, the masses, at nine in the morning and at seven in the evening, are animated by the canons of the chapter.
The cathedral also lives to the rhythm of the Liturgy of the Hours: three services are said there daily. The lauds and tierce are also sung by the canons; as for Vespers, since 2004, they have been sung at half past six every evening by the Chemin Neuf Community.
At the beginning of the XXI century, the primatiale has four choirs. The first, directed by Thibaut Louppe, is the mastery of the Little Singers of Lyon, numbering about 70 boys, children and teenagers. The second, created as an echo in 1990, is called the Schola des Petits chanteurs de Lyon and consists of about as many girls, mainly educated with the Marists; it has also been directed since 2007 by Thibaut Louppe. The third choir, the Chapel of Saint-Jean Baptiste, has twenty-five men. Finally, the last is the mixed Choir of the primatiale, composed of sixty men and women, directed since 1984 by Jean-François Duchamp. The four choirs usually perform separately, except on special occasions when they are brought together.
Apart from the poems of Sidoine Apollinaire on the maxima ecclesia written in 469 or 470, but which therefore do not concern the current building, almost no traveler lingers to describe or comment on Saint-Jean until the nineteenth century. Claude Brossette, in 1711, however, extols "the noble simplicity of the interior". Even from the craze for medieval architecture, the primatial remains sometimes maligned. Stendhal sees in it "nothing remarkable but the piety of the faithful". On the other hand, Victor Hugo, as early as August 1826, raved about "the beautiful color that the centuries had given to the cathedral of the primate of Gauls". His brother Abel is more enthusiastic: "The painting of the stained-glass windows, which only lets in an uncertain and mysterious day, gives the building an air of grandeur and majesty that brings the soul to meditation". We must wait for Prosper Mérimée to read a more systematically flattering description of this "rather noble Gothic building, where we still find some memories of the Romanesque style". He notes in particular the "pretty Bourbon chapel", which is considered at that time as the jewel of the primatial. Pierre Clerjon notes its "pleasant position on the edge of a quiet river", and the "superb facade [of this] imposing building".
In a less prominent way than in words, the cathedral however appears
in canvases and engravings only as an element of urban decor until the
seventeenth century, with rare exceptions. The best known of these
exceptions is the cycle of Marie de Medici, painted by Peter Paul Rubens
between 1620 and 1625. The cathedral, the place of the royal wedding, is
represented there. In 1634, Francisco de Zurbarán receives the
commission of a Saint-Bonaventure at the Lyon council of 1274, but he
chooses an antiquizing decoration, and therefore does not represent the
primatial. From 1650, the Dutch painters in particular, during their
travels, stayed in Lyon and painted the city. In 1638 and 1639, several
engravings mark the arrival at the archbishopric of Lyon of
Alphonse-Louis du Plessis de Richelieu. On these engravings is
represented the cathedral. In particular, on the one executed by Claude
Goyrand, the cardinal is seated on a water chariot guided by Poseidon
and pulled by two horses swimming in the Saône; the primatial occupies
most of the background. On another engraving by Charles Audran, the
prelate is sitting, while the city, represented by a woman accompanied
by a lion, comes to pay tribute to him. The cathedral, again seen from
the east and therefore showing its bedside, is visible in an angle.
The primatial is one of the favorite subjects, in particular by
Karel Dujardin before 1655, but also by Johannes Lingelbach in 1644 or
Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraaten, who represents in 1652 the bedside of the
building overlooking not the Saône, but the sea, "transfiguring the
Rhone city into a Mediterranean port", according to the expression of
the historian Delphine Estier. On the other hand, both at Dujardin and
at Beerstraaten, the proportions of the building are not respected: the
nave is shortened and has, in both cases, only two buttressing arches
and not six.
François Cléric designed in 1719 the bedside of the
primatiale seen from the other bank of the Saône, as well as the port of
Quai Saint-Antoine (view engraved by François de Poilly). This angle of
view is repeatedly taken up by British artists, as well as by
Jean-Jacques de Boissieu. Charles François Nivard painted in 1804 a view
of Lyon from the Pont du Change; the cathedral is distinguished by its
mass and light effects. Jean-Michel Grobon, for his part, realizes
several views, including a painting painted in 1804 of the left bank of
the Saône in which the cathedral occupies a central place; the technique
of the darkroom used to enlarge the angle of view has browned the whole,
and the cathedral appears more golden than white. Nicolas Chapuy, in his
series "French Cathedrals", represents that of Lyon seen from an
unprecedented point, the so-called "Tirecul" climb. Thomas Allom,
passing through Lyon, makes an engraving testifying to the fervor that
surrounds the liturgy, as well as the architectural richness of the
Bourbon chapel.
From the mid-nineteenth century, the simultaneous
uses of the aerostat and photography made painters and engravers a fully
artistic mission and no longer strictly historiographical. On the other
hand, this is also the period when the construction of the "second
cathedral", the Notre-Dame de Fourvière basilica, begins, and when the
monumental courthouse ends. The artists' gaze changes profoundly as a
result. The gigantic works of development of Lyon carried out during the
Second Empire and the beginning of the Third Republic, which create a
modern Lyon and pulled to the strings, put off many artists who find in
the Old Lyon an authenticity destroyed elsewhere. Many painters, at the
end of the nineteenth and during the twentieth century, took refuge in
the hills to paint a picturesque Lyon from which the mass of the
primatial emerges: Nicolas Chapuy from 1844, Joannès Drevet, Emmanuel
Vingtrinier, then Luc Barbier, Paul Janin or the photographers Théo
Blanc and Antoine Demilly as well as Robert Doisneau in 1963.