RHEIMS CATHEDRAL

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 140, 13 June 1919, Page 8

RHEIMS CATHEDRAL

EXTENT OF THE DAMAGE. In view of the conflicting reports which have from time to time been published with regard to the damage done to Rheims Cathedral by the German bombardment, the following statement, whicii has received from an authoritative source, is interesting: — Rheims Cathedral was built on the spot which tradition assigned to the baptism of Clovis —an event whicii gave to the Kings of France their titles ol Roi Tres Chretien and Premier Fils di 1 Kglise. It early became the coronatior church of the Capetian dynasty, and tc it Charles VI. was brought by Joan ot Arc to receive his crown and to save his country. It was considered to be one of the most noble and most bean tif v examples of mediaeval architecture ir Europe. It was thus associated with the history, the patriotism and the heart o: France in an exceptional degree, anc perhaps appealed more to the Frencl nation than did Notre Dame or St. Denis Probably for these reasons the Herman; took special pains to reduce it to it: present lamentable condition, a memo ralile mark of their handiwork. The western facade and portal an severely battered, the greater numbei of pinnacles of the southern front hav< been shot away, the roof has sevcra rapin_ holes Ln it. the high altar is a formless mass of debris, and the choil as such has ceased to exist. The glass i:as entirely disappeared—some, indeed I lias been preserved, but most has beer I totally destroyed. All that really remain:----j is tlf core of the fabric —probably consid ieral.lv shakened and weakened—and ths remarkable series of statues within the west wall. Nothing in the way of restora lion has yet been begun, and the public aiv shown the church by a guardian whe I tells tiiem that it will take a generatior |to repair it. It is hard to conceive any "etter reminder of tiie German than the pathetic site of this monument of Ootbit art. which the vandals of the twentieth ycutury have left a shattered -hell.