COLLECTION NAME:
Archivision Base to Module 9
Record
Preferred Title:
Basilica of Saint Sernin
Alternate Title:
Basilique Saint-Sernin
Image View:
Detail, Porte de Miegeville (south porch, 1098)
Creator:
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (French restoration architect, 1814-1879); unknown (French)
Location:
site: Toulouse, Midi-Pyrénées, France
GPS:
+43.6084+1.442
Date:
ca. 1080-1120 (creation)
Cultural Context:
French
Style Period:
Romanesque
Work Type 1:
abbey church
Work Type 2:
basilica
Classification:
architecture
Material:
pink Toulouse brick; stone
Technique:
carving (processes); construction (assembling)
Measurements:
115 m (length, external)
Subjects:
architecture; Restoration and conservation; Toulouse (France : County)
Description:
The Basilica of St. Sernin is a former abbey church of the Abbey of St. Sernin or St. Saturnin. It is located on the site of a previous basilica of the 4th century which contained the body of Saint Saturnin or Sernin, the first bishop of Toulouse in ca. 250. Although the monastic buildings were destroyed after the Revolution, the basilica, which was restored from 1860 by Viollet-le-Duc, has survived intact. The arms of the cruciform building, including projecting transepts and a five-aisled nave of 11 bays flanked by towers, radiate from a square crossing surmounted by an octagonal tower, and they open through twin portals. The ambulatory surrounding the hemicycle enclosing the Early Christian shrine opens into five radiating chapels; the aisles are surmounted by tribunes that continue around the entire perimeter of the church as far as the west façade. These features were combined here for the first time and were imitated only once, at Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The superstructure is built of a unique
Image Description:
Three capitals were used to decorate a portal in the eighth bay of the nave facing the city to the south. Called the Porte Miégeville because it was joined by a road to the centre of the city, this came from donations by Duke William IX of Aquitaine in 1098. The tympanum represents the Ascension of Christ.
Collection:
Archivision Addition Module Six
Identifier:
1A2-F-T-BSS-A2
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.
Basilica of Saint Sernin
