LAON. Nobody seemed to have heard of it!!! But, it is a perfectly wonderful, small, medieval city about 1 ½ hours (by train) north east of Paris. It was great to leave the city in the early autumn to see the changes of the seasons. The farmers were busy plowing, getting the fields ready for sowing the wheat seed, the corn is nearly ready for harvest and you can see just a tinge of yellow among all the green leaves in the forests.
The first view of the Laon is of a magnificent Cathedral that sits up on a chalky hill. The Cathedral is surrounded by other buildings with different spires and roof slants, and probably half of the inhabitants of this small city of 26,000 people live on the hilly part of the Laon.
The crescent shaped hill area is surrounded by some of the remaining stone ramparts that were built back in the 11th century. There are four gates,one which is from 778.
To go to the upper city from the lower area, where we arrived by train, is an interesting trip. You have three choices: walk up a long, steep, and sloping staircase, ride a city bus, or ride the “poma mini metro”. The last option is the one that we chose, and it was an experience!! After buying a mandatory round trip ticket, we boarded a smaller, enclosed metro like car which then whisked us up a track inside the curve of the crescent shaped hill to the top. The metro was pulled by cable and is like a funicular in that it had one car going up while the other was coming down….meeting in the middle at an in between station.
After arriving at the Hotel de Ville (city hall) we started wandering down the street in the direction of the Cathedral. There was a picture to be taken at every turn and many medieval remnants to discover. All of this part of town is old, with some of it very old. The age is obvious from the crooked walls, roofs of many directions and slants, old support beams exposed, narrow cobbled streets, dates exposed on doors, etc.
For one example of old, Don discovered that over the portal entrance to one small court yard there was a plaque that said “Hotel De Ville” built 1736. The portal is all that is left of the Hotel De Ville building. Interestingly though, on the side wall of this entrance were iron rectangles embedded into the wall. According to the information those rectangles were the official sizes of the bricks and tiles that were made during this time. They were necessary because the official metre had not yet been calculated and thus no measurements could be written down.
The city of Laon was founded by the Romans in the first century. It was elevated to a bishopric in the 5th century by St. Remigius, a native of Laon, and the one known for converting Clovis to Christianity. The mother of Charlemagne, Bertrada, was from Laon which gave special status to the city. Louis IV of France was also born in Laon. Because of this special status a great Basilica was build. After it burned in 1143, a new even more splendid Cathedral was built starting in 1150. Chapels were added to both sides during the 13th century. This Cathedral served as a model for the Notre Dame in Paris and the splendid Chartres Cathedral.
The Cathedral is early Gothic, massive with four ornate, airy towers, (two more were never finished). Statues of oxen decorate the towers as a tribute to the animals who worked so hard towards the construction of the church. It has finely carved portals and lots of gargoyles including a rhinoceros one!! The first stained glass rose window dates back to 1210. There are four rose windows in all….three with religious themes. The fourth one contains scenes representing the sciences as practiced and understood in the 13th century: philosophy, rhetoric writing, grammar, dialectic, astronomy, medicine, geometry and music!!
There is much more stained glass in the Cathedral now. Some of the original windows were simply light colored glass with no pictures. But the later ones are a story book in color. Two large windows with many small “pictures” that caught our attention were themed “Mary and the childhood of Jesus” and “Jesus from entrance into Jerusalem until Ascension”. We chuckled at the one of the Nativity where Joseph just can’t stay awake.
Of course there are many other old churches, gates, portals, and buildings to note… much too much to view in a day. Now if you ever need a medieval “fix” you will know a place to go!!! And, we also have a good place to suggest for your lunch….
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