Patricia Legorreta wrote:
>A friend traveled to Chartres recently and told me that the famous maze in
the cathedral is covered with a huge slab of concrete, bolted down.
I would appreciate if someone could tell me since when and the purpose of it.
Dear Patricia,
(Curious how rumors get started and propagate/transmografy)
I haven't been there for a decade now, so i suppose anything is
possible--maybe the whole cathedral has been replaced by a parking lot
(it does take up *so* danged much space, after all, and i wouldn't put
*any*thing past the "Authorities").
Back in the Old Days (pre-1989), however, the maze was indeed there, occupying
most of the width of the nave, well West of the crossing, somewhat visible
between the rows of fine chairs generously provided by the Cult.
And there was, indeed, a sort of slab of concrete(?) at the center
(though it is/was not really "huge" as you can see here:
http://www.cis.vt.edu/fac/pryds/labyrinth/labyrinth.jpeg
the base of one of the pier colonettes at left gives you some sense of
scale--it is about half a meter in diameter)
And there are, indeed, the well-worn remains of somethings which might have
been bolts in this center "slab."
i've always *assumed* that there was some sort of brass plaque there
which was taken up and melted down for cannon makings at the time of the
Revolutionary/Napoleonic wars, but i've never read anything on the Labyrinth
at all, so that's just a surmise happily unencumbered by the slightest
semblence of actual knowledge.
As best i can make out the purpose of the maze was to provide a source of
income for descendants of the far-sighted original builders via the production
of an endless number of "Mysteries of the Cathedral of Chartres" books, each
one more hoakie than the other.
Otoh, the Chartres maze is not the only one known to have existed--there was
one at Amiens and quite an interesting one at Reims which had images of the
four architects of the cathedral at the corners and, i believe, an archbishop
in the middle.
http://www.cis.vt.edu/fac/pryds/Labyrinth.html (bottom of the page)
Last year Ameia Carr posted this to a discussion on the history list:
"The labyrinth [at Reims] is no longer extant, and I am unable to
unearth a picture, but one textbook discussion of the Reims labyrinth includes
the comment that it 'was preserved until 1778, when one of the canons,
annoyed by the constant commotion caused by children and idlers following the
twisted path, donated 1,000 livres to have it replaced with plain paving
slabs.' We might want to make a distinction between pious intentions and
popular usage of church labyrinths."
You might find something interesting in an article by the late American
architectural historian, Robert Branner: "The Labyrinth of Reims Cathedral,"
JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS, Vol.
XXII, 1963, 1, pp. 18-25.
Best from this dark place,
Christopher
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