SENS
. Sens (Yonne) takes its name from the Senones, the Celtic tribe who first settled on the
island in the Yonne River, rather than from its Roman name, Agendicum. After the
Roman conquest, the town became an important center of trade owing to its location at
the junction of two important roads, east-west from Troyes to Orléans and north-south
from Lyon to Paris. Sens was a major center by the 4th century, with extensive city walls.
Nothing of the early city remains above ground—the last Roman gate was demolished in
the 1840s—although extensive archaeological finds of sculpture and architecture, today
in the municipal museum, attest to its importance.
Christianity probably reached Sens in the 3rd century. The 7th-century vita of St. Loup
repeats the legend that the first cathedral was built by St. Savinien on the site of a pagan
temple. Of the many parish churches and abbeys, only the cathedral and the 13th-century
church of Saint-Jean, now on the grounds of the hospital, survive.
The early episcopal group at Sens consisted of Saint-Jean (the baptistery), Saint-
Étienne, and Notre-Dame. The three portals of the Gothic cathedral commemorate these
three early churches. In the 9th century, Archbishop Wénilon
Sens (Yonne), Saint-Étienne, plans of
12th-century and present church. After
Clark/Bouy and Bégule.
The Encyclopedia 1649