Artois through marriage, and Saint-Omer enjoyed another period of prosperity, in spite of
the decline in the cloth industry, as part of the Burgundian state.
The church of Sainte-Marie, founded by St. Omer in 663, belonged to the monks of
Saint-Bertin until Abbot Fridugisus (r. 820–34) replaced the monks with canons. Later
known as Notre-Dame, this church became a cathedral in 1559, after the destruction of
Thérouanne. It is now a parish church. The present Gothic building replaces a
Romanesque church, under construction in 1052, of similar dimensions. The new Gothic
east end was begun between 1191 and 1207. By ca. 1225, the choir, ambulatory, radiating
chapels, and detached octagonal tower were complete. The original transept was
completed by 1263, but it was extended by two bays on the south in 1375–89 and two
bays on the north in 1449–72. The nave and aisles date from ca. 1400–44. The chapels
flanking the north aisle were undertaken ca. 1379–1403; those on the south, from 1378 to
the beginning of the 16th century.
The 13th-century east end is an important Flemish example of the Gothic style also
found at Saint-Yved at Braine and typified by a three-story elevation with relatively short
clerestory, diagonal chapels placed at the intersection of choir and transept, and an
exterior clerestory passage or loggia. At Saint-Omer, these features appear along with a
tall triforium typical of Flanders and triplet clerestory windows known from the
cathedrals of Arras and Cambrai.
Also dating from the 13th century is the poorly preserved sculptural decoration of the
main south-transept portal. Reassembled in the 14th century, this decoration (ca. 1250–
75) includes a Last Judgment tympanum and socle reliefs of the life of St. Omer. The
cenotaph of St. Omer (ca. 1250), now in the nave, was originally in the ambulatory. Other
significant works of sculpture preserved in the interior of Notre-Dame are the
monumental Last Judgment group (ca. 1230) from the south-transept gable of the
cathedral of Thérouanne and an early 13th-century Sedes Sapientiae from the chapel of
Notre-Dame-desMiracles, Saint-Omer.
The entire east end of Notre-Dame, including the transept, was covered with an
elaborate incised stone pavement encrusted with colored cement, completed in 1263,
depicting religious, secular, and decorative subjects of which only fragments remain.
The monastery of Saint-Bertin, the major landholder in the region during the
Merovingian and Carolingian periods, fell under the domination of the counts of Flanders
in 892. Under the counts, who frequently served as lay abbots, Saint-Bertin became the
center of Flemish historiography and one of the necropolises of the house of Flanders.
The monastery was reformed by Gérard de Brogne in 944, by a pupil of Richard of Saint-
Vanne in 1021, and by Cluny in 1099.
Excavations undertaken in 1831 and 1845 revealed the foundations of two earlier
churches beneath the present ruins of the Gothic building. These are the 8th- and 9th-
century church of Saint-Martin, in which St. Bertin was buried (ca. 700), which replaced
St. Peter’s as the main abbey church by the 10th century, and the Romanesque church
begun ca. 1045, dedicated in 1105, and repaired after a fire in 1152.
The Gothic abbey church was begun between 1311 and 1326. Almost finished in
1350, the choir was rebuilt from 1396 to 1429. The transept and nave date from ca. 1420
to ca. 1473. The single-tower west façade, typical for the region and serving as a model
for Notre-Dame, was built between 1431 and ca. 1500. The church was elegant but
conservative in style, with only the west façade and tower expressing the Flamboyant
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