TONNERRE
. The Gallo-Roman city of Tornodorum was situated among the pleasant farmland and
vineyards on the left bank of the Armaçon. Today, Tonnerre (Yonne) is dominated by the
towers of the churches of Notre-Dame and Saint-Pierre. The choir of the former dates
from the 13th century, that of the latter from the early 14th. Except for its choir and 15th-
century square tower, Saint-Pierre was rebuilt in 1556 after the town burned.
The real interest of Tonnerre is in its hospital, founded in 1293 by Marguerite of
Burgundy (d. 1308), the widow of Louis IX’s brother Charles of Anjou, and virtually
unchanged to our day. It consists of a large oak-vaulted ward (salle des malades)
terminating in a polygonal apse. Its forty beds were arranged in wooden alcoves along the
side walls, as at the more famous hospital of Beaune, which is 150 years later. In the
hospital’s chapel is a moving sculp-tural group (15th c.) representing Christ being placed
in his tomb. Similar groupings can be found at Semur-enAuxois and Dijon.
William W.Kibler/William W.Clark
[See also: BEAUNE; HOSPITALS]
Quénée, Noel. L’hôpital Notre-Dame des Fontenilles à Tonnerre. La Pierre-qui-vire: Zodiaque,
1956.
Salet, François. “L’église Saint-Pierre de Tonnerre.” Congrès archéologique (Auxerre)
116(1958):214–24.
——. “L’hôpital Notre-Dame des Fontenilles à Tonnerre.” Congrès archéologique (Auxerre)
116(1958):225–39.
TOUL
. Capital of the Gallo-Roman Civitas Leucorum, Toul (Meurthe-et-Moselle) was with
Verdun, Metz, and Trier one of the principal cities of Belgica Prima. For most of the
Middle Ages, Toul was ruled by its bishop, who had the right to appoint the count; the
county of Toul depended directly on the Holy Roman Empire. From the mid-13th until
the mid-15th century, there were frequent and bloody conflicts between the bishop’s
forces and the townspeople, punctuated in 1366 by the grant of a charter of freedoms to
the town by the emperor Charles IV, counter to the bishop’s claims.
A church dedicated to the Virgin and St. Stephen was founded in the 5th century on
the site of the present cathedral, and several successive structures occupied the site.
Construction of the Gothic cathedral of Saint-Étienne began with the chevet in 1221; the
west façade by Master Jacquemin was completed between 1460 and 1496. This façade,
one of the most distinctive of its period, features three portals in Flamboyant style with
flanking towers 214 feet high; the original matching towers for the chevet have been
lowered due to structural weaknesses, and the statues that originally stood in the portals
were destroyed in the Revolution. Gables over each portal, over the western rose, and on
each tower give a strong vertical thrust to the whole. This effect is echoed by a
multiplicity of pinnacles and spires.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1728