Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile d'Albi

Bonjour!

Oh, my this week has been busy! Classes are in full swing now and they keep me verrrry busy, when we're not busy with one of our other many activities. Anatomy & Physiology is already weighing heavy on the shoulders of myself and the other five students taking the course (it's online). However, we all knew what to anticipate, so I can't say it isn't what I expected. Just today I finished the chapter on blood, subset of the circulatory unit. In comparison to our previous chapter, the endocrine system, I was deeply engaged in this subject. In our corresponding lab class we did blood typing and had to prick our fingers with little, flimsy lancets. That, I did not enjoy. Overall, the lab was very intriguing and I confirmed what Red Cross has always told me..I'm blood type B! 

French class has been an entirely different challenge, but an extremely beneficial one. Marie, our professor is incredibly patient with all of us and makes the experience incredibly more tolerable. I have been loosely applying my newly acquired skills while popping in-and-out of shops, while viewing artwork, and even while singing (that I will explain).

Art/History has also been a very enlightening course. In the past week and a half I have been assigned the artists Pierro della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, and Albrecht Dürer (with three different groups). Every class our new group presents a piece of work by the artist. We even speak French! Well, only when we begin the presentation by introducing the artist with a few descriptive traits. After we finish our presentation, our brilliant professor, Gerry briefly discusses some deeper aspects of the artist, his work, and any-and-every other interesting thing he has to say. Not only am I gaining a respect for artwork that I did not know was inside of me, but I am utterly thrilled to see  some of the original pieces by these artists during my travels while I am here.

On that note, let me briefly give you the rundown on the list of places I will be traveling while I am away...

(locations below are school related excursions)

-Toulouse, France

-Narbonne, France

-Barcelona, Spain

-Avignon, France

-Paris, France 

(locations below are my mid-semester break destinations)

-Rome, Florence, and Venice, Italy

-Munich and Stuttgart, Germany

-Salzburg and Vienna, Austria

-Zurich, Switzerland

I am so fortunate to be able to visit all these amazing places! Although, I must say, I have devoted entirely too many computer hours to nit-picking for the best deals, so I can afford to see all these places!

Now, back to my classes. The last class I care to share anything about is my pilgrimage class. In short, our professor, Eric, another incredibly brilliant teacher, meets with us once a week to prep us for the excursion to come. He gives us a lecture on some important background information and he provides us with the necessary tools to thoroughly benefit from the trip/lesson. The following is the excursion we took to The Cathedral of Saint Cecelia, in Albi.

Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile d'Albi 

(Cathedral Saint Cecelia of Albi)

St. Cecelia is the massive cathedral that I posted a picture of in an earlier entry. I will post it again...

This is now the main entrance. (there used to be only one small door, because the building was a fortress. Notice how huge this entrance looks and then look at the next picture..

The entrance you just saw is located on the far left side in this picture. It gets even bigger...

The tower on the West end soars 100 feet above the roof of the building. (the tower on the left is the one clearly visible in the previous picture.)

(picture from the internet)

In the class the night before Eric gave us a run down on the popular architecture between the 11th century and the 16th century.  Here is a very vague (but relevant to what I will be showing you) description; there was a shift from Romanesque architecture (characterized by the semi-circle) in the mid 12th century to Gothic style architecture (characterized by pointed arches). You can see in this picture that are dominating Romanesque features, yet some Gothic ones too. 

The main part of this building began construction in the late 13th century, during the time that Gothic architecture was becoming popular. So why create such a massive building in a "out-of-style" architecture? In this particular region of France there was a group of people called Cathars, who were considered heretics by the Catholic Church. The outspoken Cathars combined with the omnipotent Catholic Church led to the Albigensian Crusade, which took place from approximately 1209-1229. The Cathars renounced the Church (the political establishment)  for being corrupt and exploitative. If you know anything about the story of the Cathars, you know that it does not end well for them. By the beginning of the 14th century the last known person to professed Cathar beliefs was killed; a genocide of Cathars had taken place. I will be learning a great deal more about their story, because many of the places we regularly visit or will eventually travel to (Albi, Toulouse, Narbonne, Chordes) hold a piece of their history inside their walls. The extinguishing of the Cathars plays a major role in the description of the architecture of St. Cecelia that comes next...


So, the Church built this cathedral in a time of conflict and accusation against them. They clearly wanted to convey a single message, "submit or be crushed." They built the cathedral out of brick (a less expensive building material), with almost no detail. Despite the lack of detail it was/is certainly intimidating. This way the Church would be the authoritative focal point of the town, while simultaneously sending the message of being modest and financially respectable.

By the late 15th century the Church no longer felt threatened by accusations of flaunting their financial worth, additions to the cathedral were made.

This is more fitting for the time-Gothic style entrance.

All of these intricate designs are carved from stone. 

 Here you can see a difference in brick color, where they added about 7 meters to the ceiling, making the gargoyles useless (at least for water drainage purposes). You can see the arches are now pointed..

Saint Cecelia (center) greats you at the street entrance...

She was a Christian martyr who is now the patron saint of music. Her story is quite incredible and I recommend reading a bit about her.

This view is opposite of the entrance arch with St. Cecelia.

There used to be statues in the openings on the left and right side of the doorway, but look underneath where those statues would have been and notice the small carvings. They are reminders to the people leaving mass of the world they are about to enter..

 Eve, portrayed with an apple in her hand and wild loose hair (a symbol of the temptress)

And even more interestingly..."The Wild Man of the West."  This addition to the church occurred in the late 15th century, when the United States was first discovered. So, there was knowledge of life in the West, but the Church portrayed the inhabitants as barbarians with hair covering their arms and clubs in their hands.

The entrance to the cathedral is surrounded by holy figures. The angels at the top of the entrance each hold a different tool symbolizing the passion of the Christ. The rest of the holy figures hold an object symbolizing who they are or how they died.

 The inside of the cathedral, like the outside, was plain until the 14th century. Now, the entire inside, from floor to ceiling, is hand painted. 

The organ was added in the 18th century and was playing while we were there! 

The ceiling is a representation of the Bible, reading from west to east, the Old Testament to the New Testament.

 (Mehga's picture)

 Separation of the enclosed choir

 Last Judgement

 Side cathedrals surround the entirety of the main space inside the cathedral and are each painted and decorated differently.

\

 Tomb on the floor

 Carved solid wood doors

 The symbol underneath the point of the arch has the letter I, H, and S intertwined. It is Latin for Iesus Hominum Salvator or "Jesus the Savior of Humankind."

 The orient (east side=most holy)

 (Amy's picture)

Inside the choir (this section was reserved for those of the religious order)

 Inside the choir

 Stone carvings of the  fleur de lisse and the cross surround the uppermost part of the choir

 Those of the religious order would be in the choir the majority of the day, having mass somewhere around 7 times a day! They were expected to stand for most of the time in the choir, so these nifty seats helped them out. They would fold down into a chair and fold up into a stool. When the clergyman would be "standing" they could rest their bottom on the stool and their gown would hang to the floor masking the fact that they were not on their feet. This way it looked just like they were standing without taking such a toll on their body.

Eric is demonstrating..

If you have made it this far, I am impressed if you have, and you have any questions just send me an email!

That was just ONE excursion we took and I learned a lot! (A lot more than I wrote about). Quickly, I wanted to mention one other cool thing I did this week. I went to the mass they hold every Sunday at the church attached to the monastery. I was a bit nervous, because I am not Catholic and did not know what to expect. (However, I am not living in France to be comfortable, but to experience new things) There was a congregation of about 10 people, not including my fellow peers, and we all huddled our chairs up to the alter in the historical church. The entire sermon was in French, aside from a few passages read by one of my peers, Colleen. We even sang in French! Thankfully, a group of us had gone to a couple named Peter and Margaret's home a few days before to practice the songs we would sing. They are a lovely couple from Great Britain who visited Ambialet years ago and never left! 

Well I am afraid I have stayed up too late once again! I have my first oral French exam tomorrow, so I must practice a bit before I snuggle up! We have some great things planned for this week, so I will be updating you all shortly!

à bientôt!

kmh