M. Häcki: The Cathedral of St. Pierre in Lisieux - Early French Gothic in Normandy

The Cathedral of St. Pierre in Lisieux - Early French Gothic in Normandy

The Cathedral of St. Pierre in Lisieux in Normandy is one of the earliest French Gothic structures but is virtually unknown compared to its surrounding contemporaries. After large parts of the previous building fell victim to a fire in 1136, reconstruction began from the 2nd half of the 12th century under the patronage of the then Bishop Arnulf of Lisieux. Over the next three centuries, various additions and renovations followed, anchoring the cathedral in different Gothic styles. The cathedral largely escaped the destruction caused by the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century as well as the great French restoration waves of the 19th century, was classified as a “monument historique” in 1840 and survived the two world wars without major damage. As a result, the cathedral still shows traces of the original Romanesque sacral building, as well as influences from the Anglo-Norman and Île-de-France Gothic styles.

The aim of the research work, which started in March 2022, is to trace the architectural history of St. Pierre Cathedral on the basis of a comprehensive building survey as well as observations in situ and the study of archives and sources. The development of the Gothic style in Normandy as a point of conflict between the French and Norman kingdoms will be the focus of attention, as the architectural style was always influenced in parallel by the new forms of the French Île-de-France and the Norman Gothic. Thus, the cathedral of St. Pierre is to be appreciated as a building in itself and appropriately placed in the long series of Gothic sacred architecture. In the process, the attitude fixated on the Île-de-France with regard to the development of the Gothic movement in France is to be questioned anew. Precise surveying techniques such as 3D laser scanning and photogrammetric surveying by real-time kinematic (RTK) drone will be used for the methods. From this, the potential of these tools in the process of historical building research will be demonstrated. The most efficient and partial automation of data processing, for example through the automatic recognition of stone formats or processing traces, will also be a part of the work as a method. The result of the dissertation is a monograph on the building, which presents the history of the construction and development of St. Pierre Cathedral in a new way.

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