In Sens (a photo gallery)

May 31, 2022

I almost forgot to include some shots from Sens, a town I wish we had stayed a second day at. Amazing now to realize that we came here only by chance when it turned out that there was no restaurant open on Sunday night in Montargis. If we return to this part of France someday I would certainly want to stay here again.

From Wikipedia:

Sens was an important and prosperous town during the late Roman Empire, located at the meeting point of two rivers and at the intersection of two major Roman roads. During the Carolingian Empire it became a major center of the early French Christian church.

A few houses about town:

The flamboyant Hotel de Ville, surprisingly recently built in 1904.

The covered market, on the opposite side of the square in front of the cathedral:

The market was closed for the day but I was able to enter and walk around the interior. Above each of the four entrances is a stained glass window, a primer on legumes, mushrooms, and flowers. Very helpful.

The centerpiece of the town is of course the cathedral. Until putting together this post though I wasn’t aware of the great significance of this structure. Built between 1130 and 1160, It was the first cathedral built in the gothic style, the beginning of construction predating Notre Dame in Paris.

Image not found :( — Sens Cathedral, the first cathedral built in the gothic style.

The gardens behind the cathedral:

The Wikipedia article on the cathedral has a wealth of information on its history, construction, architecture and significance. The next time we’re here I’ll reread it first and have a better understanding of what I’m looking at. What I found remarkable above all though were the astonishing richness, proliferation and variety of its stained glass windows.

The nave. The six part ribbed vaults were a revolutionary innovation, distributing the weight down to columns and bays. At his was the first cathedral to use them throughout the entire structure.

Several of the windows in the apse are from the early 13th century, and important early works of gothic art. Here is the Good Samaritan window. An information panel in three languages describes the window’s structure and the subject matter of each of its panels.

The Prodigal Son window:

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