SENLIS
. Senlis (Oise) is best remembered for an event that took place relatively late in its
history, the election of Hugh Capet as king of France in 987. A favorite royal city of both
the Merovingians and Carolingians, Senlis takes its name from its first Gallic inhabitants,
the Sulbanectes (later the Sylvanectes), and not from its Roman name, Augustomagus.
The thriving Gallo-Roman town was destroyed in the 3rd century, an event that led to the
first city walls, the only ones of their date still preserved in France. Christianity reached
Senlis probably in the late 3rd century, although the first bishop we know by name, St.
Rieul, was probably active in the mid-4th century. Early references to the cathedral give
two names, Notre-Dame and Saints-Gervais-et-Protais, suggesting an episcopal group of
two or three (including the baptistery of Saint-Jean). The double vocable is still
preserved; the cathedral is Notre-Dame and the two-storied octagonal chapel (later 10th
or early 11th century) is Saints-Gervais-et-Protais.
Senlis, Notre-Dame, ambulatory and
chapels. Photograph: Clarence Ward
Collection. Courtesy of Oberlin
College.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1646