The High Gothic Church of St Ouen in Rouen with marvelous stained-glass windows and a magnificent Cavaillé-Coll organ is even bigger than Rouen cathedral.
The former Benedictine abbey (abbaye) church of St O
The High Gothic Church of St Ouen in Rouen with marvelous stained-glass windows and a magnificent Cavaillé-Coll organ is even bigger than Rouen cathedral.
The former Benedictine abbey (abbaye) church of St Ouen in Rouen, Normandy, is one of the jewels of Gothic architecture. Many bishoprics would be honored to have such a church as a cathedral but in Rouen, it plays a secondary role to the Cathédrale Notre-Dame. Both churches are High Gothic with equal lengths but the nave of St Ouen higher and longer than that of the cathedral. The former abbey church is less loaded with decorations making the purity of its Gothic lines even easier to appreciate. St Ouen is mostly used as an exhibition and concert venue – its Aristide Cavaillé-Coll organ is one of the best-known and most-recorded pipe organs in the world.
The Abbey Church of St Ouen in Rouen
The High Gothic Église St-Ouen was the church of the former Abbey of St Ouen in Rouen, Normandy. The abbey was established in the 7th century and was one of the richest and largest in Normandy during the 14thcentury. This allowed the abbots to try and outdo the bishops by building a new Gothic church even larger than the Rouen Cathedral, which was under construction at the same time.
The construction of the Gothic church of St Ouen, to replace a Romanesque structure damaged by fire, started in 1318 – roughly a century later than the cathedral. The church was thus built in the High Gothic from the beginning but like the cathedral, the Hundred Years War interfered and construction dragged on until the 16thcentury. The western façade was not completed during the Middle Ages.
The abbey was closed permanently during the French Revolution. The city government moved into the abbey buildings, while the church itself served temporarily as a weapons factory. The church, and its magnificent stained-glass windows, largely survived in good shape to the present. The Neo-Gothic western façade added during the 19th century probably did more esthetic damage than wars and revolts.
The Benedictine abbey of St Ouen has a recorded history since around AD 1000. However, its history has been described as unremarkable.
The Gothic Church of St Ouen in Rouen
Construction of the Gothic Church of St Ouen started in 1318, at a time that the abbey 