By the year 1255 when
Louis IX. came to Rouen to spend Christmas, the choir, transepts and nave
of the cathedral, almost as they may be seen to-day, had been completed.
The chapel to St Mary did not make its appearance for some years, and the
side _portails_ were only added in the fifteenth century. The elaborate
work on the west front belongs to the century following, and although the
ideas of modern architects have varied as to this portion of the cathedral,
the consensus of opinion seems to agree that it is one of the most perfect
examples of the flamboyant style so prevalent in the churches of Normandy.
The detail of this masterpiece of the latest phase of Gothic architecture
is almost bewildering, but the ornament in every place has a purpose, so
that the whole mass of detail has a reposeful dignity which can only have
been retained by the most consummate skill. The canopied niches are in many
instances vacant, but there are still rows of saints in the long lines of
recesses. The rose window is a most perfect piece of work; it is filled
with painted glass in which strong blues and crimsons are predominant.
Above the central tower known as the Tour de Pierre, that was built
partially in the thirteenth century, there rises the astonishing iron spire
that is one of the highest in the world. Its weight is enormous despite the
fact that it is merely an open framework. The architect of this masterly
piece of work whose name was Alavoine seems to have devoted himself with
the same intensity as Barry, to whom we owe the Royal Courts of Justice in
London, for he worked upon it from 1823, the year following the destruction
of the wooden spire by lightning, until 1834, the year of his death.
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