2000 and 2002 World Monuments Watch
With its five-aisled choir and transept soaring to a height of 46.5 meters, St. Pierre Cathedral is an extreme expression of the gothic enterprise. Commissioned by Bishop Milon de Nanteuil, the cathedral was built over some four centuries, but not without incident. The choir was completed by 1272, but in 1284, part of the central vault collapsed, necessitating extensive consolidation, which continued until the mid-fourteenth century. The choir remained without a nave of transept until work resumed in 1499 under the direction of Martin of Chambiges. Completed by the mid-sixteenth century, the transept was crowned by the ambitious central spire that allowed the Gothic cathedral to rival its counterpart, St. Peter’s in Rome. Disaster struck once again, however, when the tower and its supporting vaults at the crossing collapsed on Ascension Day 1573. Repairs to transept vaults were rapidly completed, but by 1600, work on the nave was abandoned. The unfinished portion of the cathedral was closed off with the provisional west wall that one sees today.
Although St. Pierre survived the heavy incendiary bombing that destroyed much of Beauvis during World War II, the structure is as dangerous as it is glorious, being at risk from its flaws in its original design, compounded by differential settlement of the foundation and stresses placed upon its flying buttresses from gale force winds. The winds cause the buttresses to oscillate and the already weakened roof timbers to shift. Between the 1950s and 1980s, several critical iron ties were removed from the choir buttresses in a damaging experiment. A temporary tie-and-brace system was installed in the 1990s as an emergency measure when another collapse seemed imminent. Although St. Pierre Cathedral has been intensively studied, there continues to be a lack of consensus on how to proceed and keep this Gothic wonder standing.
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