Saint-Denis-en-France, Saint-Denis
construction history in phases
S-DEN-FR

Building Data for Saint-Denis-en-France, Saint-Denis

  •  
  • Type: Abbey
  • Affiliation: Benedictine
  •  
  • Region: Ile-de-France
  • Department: Seine-St-Denis
  • Coords: 48.935, 2.3598
  •  
  • Surveyed: 1969, 1977, 1980-83, 1992-98, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2015, 2017

Map

Virtual Tour

Studies These draft studies have been written as if all carvings were by an individual whereas they can equally be analysed as template modes employed by a number of carvers. The more personal approach was necessitated by the complexity of the data. The drafts will be reconsidered after I have added the rib vault material to the database.
X

These draft studies have been written as if all carvings were by an individual whereas they can equally be analysed as template modes employed by a number of carvers. The more personal approach was necessitated by the complexity of the data. The drafts will be reconsidered after I have added the rib vault material to the database.

Timeline and building units for Saint-Denis-en-France, Saint-Denis A 'building unit' is an arbitrary unit of work based on bulk billing techniques used by quantity surveyors. The unit is small enough to provide realistic figures in the small churches without becoming too huge in the large. Six units would pay for one small vaulted bay in an aisle about 3 metres square, or a small first-floor gallery. Such a bay would consist of an external wall with a small window, half of two columns about 3 meters tall, the floor and footings under them and the vault and roof overhead.
X

A 'building unit' is an arbitrary unit of work based on bulk billing techniques used by quantity surveyors. The unit is small enough to provide realistic figures in the small churches without becoming too huge in the large. Six units would pay for one small vaulted bay in an aisle about 3 metres square, or a small first-floor gallery. Such a bay would consist of an external wall with a small window, half of two columns about 3 meters tall, the floor and footings under them and the vault and roof overhead.

info

gray gray 190
1120		 1500
1130		 778
1140		 gray 45
1160		 gray 140
1230		 370
1240		 gray
1050 1120s 1130s 1140s 1160s 1230s 1240s 1250

Phases for Saint-Denis-en-France, Saint-Denis The building sequence is based on my on-site analysis of the construction history, using the techniques developed on the cathedral of Chartres called toichology, and described in a number of publications. The analysis of some of the smaller churches are more approximate than I would like, and need further analysis. <p>I have used 'phase' rather than 'campaign' to to identify a contiguous zone with similar elements. A campaign would be defined by recognisable breaks and construction joints in the fabric: there may be a number of phases within a campaign. One benefit is that separate programs by subcontractors, such as carvers, may be isolated, which is particularly useful in complex sections, such as portals. <p>Every phase has been assigned to a decade, so there may be more than one phase in a decade. <p>While this is certainly imperfect, it will allow us to explore all the data, including costs, across time. This is an on-going process, so as the data continues to be analyzed, the chronology and costing analysis will be further refined, and the synopsis updated. <p>Clicking on any of the decade graphics will display all buildings that had work being done during that decade.
X

The building sequence is based on my on-site analysis of the construction history, using the techniques developed on the cathedral of Chartres called toichology, and described in a number of publications. The analysis of some of the smaller churches are more approximate than I would like, and need further analysis.

I have used 'phase' rather than 'campaign' to to identify a contiguous zone with similar elements. A campaign would be defined by recognisable breaks and construction joints in the fabric: there may be a number of phases within a campaign. One benefit is that separate programs by subcontractors, such as carvers, may be isolated, which is particularly useful in complex sections, such as portals.

Every phase has been assigned to a decade, so there may be more than one phase in a decade.

While this is certainly imperfect, it will allow us to explore all the data, including costs, across time. This is an on-going process, so as the data continues to be analyzed, the chronology and costing analysis will be further refined, and the synopsis updated.

Clicking on any of the decade graphics will display all buildings that had work being done during that decade.

Short version of history

Earlier

Phase 1 - Earlier - crypt


Merovingian crypt under choir and outline remains of previous nave
1120

Phase 2 - 1120 [1125] - narthex (b) - 90 Units


Narthex foundations dug through soil and chalk to an uncertain depth, though photographs show some 9 courses of ashlar. The original bases were six courses lower than where they are today, as the floor was raised in 1806. The bases have concave facets around the roll: an extremely rare detail, found elsewhere only in the earliest parts of the north tower at Chartres and the castle at Etampes. The lower fa&ccedil;ade was built from regular beds of masonry measuring almost exactly the Roman foot of 295mm When examined over its entire height of 99 courses and one considers the pauses required while the mortar in the multitude of arches set, the rate of construction would have been about 8 courses per year, which was about average at that time.
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1120

Phase 3 - 1120 [1129] - w portal 1 - 100 Units

Subphase Link
West portals stage 1 with bases that were intended to be above head height. From discrepancies in the junctions between the jamb friezes and the decorated shafts (now in the Cluny Museum) the toichological evidence suggests these panels were carved over two (or three) campaigns during this and the previous years, during which time the height of the side panels was raised and, at a later moment, the central lintels lowered. The evidence lies in the decoration around the upper panels and the jamb figures, in the widths of the stones and their frames and in the necessary pauses while the upper stones were placed. One indication is the curtailed canopies over the upper jamb figures that would have been carved in an earlier campaign. Each vertical group of stones is illustrated separately as each group seems to have been the work of a different carver. These are more easily distinguished in the left portal than the centre or the right. For illustrated pdf go to blue navigation bar Explore Carvers/Articles/CARVED PORTALS/Anomalies ....pdf.
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1130

Phase 4 - 1130 [1130] - w portal 2 - 100 Units

Subphase Link
There are thin shafts flanking the jamb sculpture and the figures, entirely replaced. The remains are scattered, mostly in the in the Mus&eacute;e de Cluny. We do not know which locations they had. In those that flank the doorways it looks like additional ashlar was inserted to make for changes in heights.
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1130

Phase 5 - 1130 [1130] - w portal 3 - 100 Units

Subphase Link
West portals stage 3 central capitals and imposts and start of erection of lateral archivolts; the intended height of the central portal was considerably reduced on erection as can be seen in the curtailed canopies over the upper jamb figures that had been carved earlier, as well as the adjacent right capital.
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1130

Phase 6 - 1130 [1131] - w portal 4 - 100 Units


West portals stage 4 erect remaining archivolts and outer arch framing decoration; the erection was a slow process that would have been in tandem with the interior walls and the two levels of capitals that support the aisles and clerestory archwork.
1130

Phase 7 - 1130 [1131] - narthex aisle (a-) - 100 Units


Lower capitals for aisle ribs, large single stones, placed at the same time as the erection of the lateral archivolts and their encasing buttresses.
1130

Phase 8 - 1130 [1132] - narthex aisle (a) - 100 Units


Upper aisle capitals to support doubleau and arcade arches with up to four layers of voussoirs.
1130

Phase 9 - 1130 [1132] - narthex clerestory (c) - 100 Units


Capitals for central vaults placed with erection of the arcade arches and the walkway on the west wall over the central portal which would have been complete by then.
1130

Phase 10 - 1130 [1133] - narthex aisle windows - 100 Units


Completion of aisle windows set well into the cells of the vaults and therefore constructed at the same time, and with the external frieze over the central portal; sill to the west window that may be one of the widest constructed to this time.
1130

Phase 11 - 1130 [1132] - narthex raised vault - 100 Units


Additional capitals on east side of central piers to raise the vault spring on this side only, on the opposite side springing remains at lower level; this may have been during the pause while the masons were waiting for the mortar of the vaults to harden; during this period they may have been able to continue with the arch structure of the central vaults, but little would have happened along the encasing walls.
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1130

Phase 12 - 1130 [1134] - narthex w walkway - 100 Units


Shafts and capitals on each side of the western walkway and stairs to the towers; the string courses underneath the lateral openings into the towers have different profiles and are at different levels suggesting a number of campaigns at this level.
1130

Phase 13 - 1130 [1133] - narthex responds (c+) - 100 Units


In the eastern clerestory bay capitals were added under the responds; floor of the towers laid and the west walls were raised higher than the side walls, presumably to provide lateral support for the rose window.
1130

Phase 14 - 1130 [1135] - narthex side openings - 100 Units


Capitals and arches over the openings on each side of the central space about the same time as the sills to the tower windows.
1130

Phase 15 - 1130 [1135] - west exterior - 100 Units


West exterior window head with frieze and completion of the upper vault in north bays ready to receive the chapel; there would have been a pause while the mortar in the cells set and during this time they may have continued to work on the towers, the vaults underneath having properly set by this time.
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1130

Phase 16 - 1130 [1136] - narthex upper chapel (b) - 100 Units


Chapel floor level established with walls and start of rose window over western frieze.
1130

Phase 17 - 1130 [1137] - narthex upper chapel (a) - 100 Units


Springing for chapel ribs with impost carried around piers.
1130

Phase 18 - 1130 [1138] - narthex upper chapel (aw) - 100 Units


Chapel openings with capitals and arches, arches for the vaults and wall around rose half way up.
1130

Phase 19 - 1130 [1139] - west towers (w)


Chapel vaults, plastered and painted ready for the consecration; maybe a little later the tower vaults and window heads, and completion of western rose.
1140

Phase 20 - 1140 [1140] - choir (b) - 100 Units


Choir foundations and bases, possibly begun earlier, with evidence for at least two, if not three, crews in the different layouts for the buttresses in the lowest courses.
1140

Phase 21 - 1140 [1140] - choir (u) - 100 Units


Choir crypt walls with their large windows and piers, much masonry and many capitals restored.
1140

Phase 22 - 1140 [1141] - choir walls (a) - 100 Units


Ambulatory walls seem to have been designed for a single passage and deep chapels supporting a groin vault; this phase incuded the window sills and wall, the capitals alongside the windows and the arches over them.
1140

Phase 23 - 1140 [1141] - double ambulatory - 100 Units


Choir redesigned for a double ambulatory, rib shafts and higher capitals for the doubleau arches, marked '5' on the section where you can see that wokr would have stopped over the window arches while the work had to pause to give time for the mortar to settle.
1140

Phase 24 - 1140 [1142] - choir drums (a) - 100 Units


Choir intermediate piers; capitals carved by a separate crew to the previous.
1140

Phase 25 - 1140 [1143] - choir windows - 100 Units


Chapel window arches and external capitals.
1140

Phase 26 - 1140 [1144] - choir (rc) - 100 Units


Choir cornice with the completion of the aisle vaults; there is no evidence that work continued above this level; as in the narthex the construciton rate was about 8 courses each year.
1140

Phase 27 - 1140 [1145] - north portal Stage 1 - 50 Units


North portal stage I, left incomplete at the start of the crusade and the call for funds: see Avista, 2014.
1140

Phase 28 - 1140 [1145] - e tower I - 28 Units


East tower level I
1160

Phase 29 - 1160 [1166] - n portal 2 - 45 Units


North portal stage 2
1230

Phase 30 - 1230 [1231] - choir (a) - 140 Units


Replace choir piers with drums, some building on the transepts walls
1240

Phase 31 - 1240 - nave (a) - 300 Units


Nave and transept dado, aisle walls and vaults
1240

Phase 32 - 1240 - south-s - 70 Units


South transept door