A 15th Century Gothic Masterpiece - a photo on Flickriver

            I composed this image while visiting Caen, in France’s Normandy region. It is of a small portion of the immense Church of Saint-Jean de Caen, built in the fifteenth century  on the remains of a Romanesque church of the twelfth century and classified as an historic monument in the list of French historic monuments protected in 1840.

The church has the distinction of having been built on unstable marshy soil, so that the bell tower is now leaning and has never been completed, and other parts of the structure can also seen to be leaning. 

 It is also remarkable for its evident creeping decrepitude, a masterpiece still functioning as a Catholic Church, while being allowed to decay.  Nonetheless, with its overwhelming Gothic style, it is one of the architectural jewels of Caen.

In WW 2, the church was slightly damaged by allied bombs, but subsequently repaired. For those interested, the following  is a summary of Caen's fate in the days after D-Day.

Just nine miles south of the D-Day beaches, the Allies expected to liberate Caen quickly.  The city was vital for transport through the region and if left in German hands would give German reinforcements good access to the coast. But they  underestimated resistance by German Panzer divisions who held the Allies away from Caen for some weeks. Eventually a major assault was planned on the city for 8 July.  Bombers would prepare the way. They started in earnest on  July 7th.

Survivors always said July 7th was the worst day for Caen. On that day records show Lancaster and Halifax bombers dropped 2500 tons of bombs on the city. Many people took refuge in the Caen Abbey because it was a very strong building but also because of legend they clung to:  William the Conqueror was buried there and they believed the Allies wouldn’t dare bomb the grave of an English king.  The rumour was that if William’s grave was ever destroyed, it would be the end of the English crown. 

The Abbey was next to the local hospital, and workers there dipped sheets in blood to create a red cross that was laid across the roof in the hope this would keep the bombers away.
Somehow the Abbey and the hospital survived, thanks to that huge red cross. Both buildings were still hit by nearly 200 shells, but around them city was hit with 600,000 shells in the weeks after D-Day.

Although parts of Caen were liberated on 9 July, still the enemy resisted and the Allies could not get across the Orne river that bisects the city.  A further 7,000 tons of bombs and 250,000 shells were aimed at Caen.  Finally the German army completely pushed back on 21 July.

The city had been reduced to rubble, impassable by Allied troops. But there was also the euphoria of liberation.  A man named André Heintz said: “I went to the northern part of the city, to the area that is now part of the university campus. The whole area looked like I imagined the moon to be, because the many bombs that had been dropped had brought lots of white stone to the surface.  When I saw the first Allied soldier I put my hands up, because I had no way of identifying myself. I was taken to the Intelligence Officer, who was very pleased to see me because I could pinpoint our location on a map. The soldiers gave me sugar, chocolate, jam and Spam. I took them to meet the Deputy Mayor at the Abbey, and remained their interpreter for the next five months.” “That day was the most beautiful of my entire life. I could hardly believe that I survived the German occupation and the battle, and I rushed to church as soon as I could to thank God for the privilege of being alive and being free again.”

The French call Caen ‘a city martyred for peace’.

Taken in: France / Normandy / Arrondissement de Caen / Saint-Contest (show map)

Taken on: May 16, 2024

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