Beauvais (Oise), Saint-Pierre, chevet.
Photograph: Clarence Ward
Collection. Courtesy of Oberlin
College.
project, the chapter also agreed to devote one-tenth of its revenue for the next ten years to
the building of a magnificent church, the cathedral of Saint-Pierre. A papal legate
approved the plan in 1245.
The foundation for the choir and apse was laid in 1238; had the catheral been
completed as originally planned, it would have been the largest Gothic cathedral in the
world. The irregular placement of pillars and buttresses, specified by the ambitious
architectural plan, resulted in structural weaknesses. The roof caved in twice, in 1247 and
- The unfinished cathedral is 239 feet long and 160 feet high. The choir alone is 121
feet in length. Its vaulting, supported by twelve double flying buttresses, opens on an
ambulatory by a succession of triangular arcades. A 14th-century clerestory, situated
within the three bays, is composed of triangular and trefoil arches. Above the seven
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