Laon Favorites

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Favorite thing: Study the Cathedral Rose windows carefully as they represent some of the earliest examples.Rose windows became a beloved feature of French churches starting in the 12C and quickly became larger and more complex over the next century. Obviously their antecedent was a simple oculus which became enlarged and ultimately decorated. The first decorative exploitation was to place reinforcing spokes (usually little columns with capitals at each end). In fact these were called wheels;religiously this was converted to a “wheel of fortune” or fate and Suger used one in St.Denis and there is one at St.- Etienne in Beauvais. Calling it a Rose came later. The window on the North transept at Laon shares the pride of “first” with the Rose on the West facade at Mantes (which we have never stopped to see) in the 1170’s. They are both of good size but that at Laon is really a set of 8 rosettes while that at Mantes has “petals”. The west portal Rose at Laon quickly followed. Obviously the designers were not satisfied with their first attempt because this one is twice as large and has incorporated the more mystical number 12 instead of 8 segments which is echoed again at the East end. The West facade Rose at Chartres was inserted about 1216.

Fondest memory: The beautiful West towers with the bovine statues peering out.