St Ouen was completed in the
sixteenth century, but the west front as it appears to-day has two spires
which made their appearance in recent times. The exterior, however, is not
the chief charm of St Ouen; it is the magnificent interior, so huge and yet
so inspiring, that so completely satisfies one's ideas of proportion.
Wherever you stand, the vistas of arches, all dark and gloomy, relieved
here and there by a blaze of coloured glass, are so splendid that you
cannot easily imagine anything finer. A notable feature of the aisles is
the enormous space of glass covering the outer walls, so that the framework
of the windows seems scarcely adequate to support the vaulted roof above.
The central tower is supported by magnificent clustered piers of dark and
swarthy masonry, and the views of these from the transepts or from the
aisles of the nave make some of the finest pictures that are to be obtained
in this masterpiece of Gothic architecture. The tower that rises from the
north transept belongs, it is believed, to the twelfth century church that
was burnt. On the western front it is interesting to find statues of
William the Conqueror, Henry II. and Richard Coeur de Lion among other
dukes of Normandy, and the most famous Archbishops of Rouen.
Besides the cathedral and St Ouen there is the splendid church of St
Maclou. Its western front suddenly appears, filling a gap in the blocks of
modern shops on the right hand side as you go up the Rue de la Republic.
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