Strasbourg Cathedral

As an important trade crossroads, Strasbourg benefited to the greatest extent from the increase in exchanges occurring in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. The city grew rapidly and was equipped with new defending walls. It was a stake in the struggles for the Empire and was politically transformed by the emergence of a burghers’ council as a counter-weight to episcopal power. Its rise in power was accompanied by an artistic transformation and a rapid opening out towards new trends. 


Strasbourg Cathedral de Notre-Dame is known as one of the most beautiful gothic cathedrals in Europe. The Cathedral stands on the exact site of a roman temple built on a little hill above the muddy ground. The first version of the church was starting to be built during 1015 by proposal of Bishop Werner von Habsburg, but fire destroyed most of the original Romanesque building. By the time that cathedral was being renovated (at the end of the 12th century, this time with red stones carried from the nearby mountains of Vosges), the gothic architectural style has reached Alsace and the future cathedral was starting to develop all characteristics of gothic aesthetics. The project of the first cathedral in Alsace was handed to craftsman and stonemasons who had already worked on the also famous gothic cathedral in Chartres.

  The building of the south arm of the cathedral transept was the first expression of the Gothic style in German lands. The sculptural work that it gave rise to, including the famous statues of the Church and the Synagogue, was not a provincial variant of French art but one of the great moments in the history of art as such. 

Among the works that were witnesses to this artistic revolution, the exhibition will feature all those that it is currently possible to bring together. Now widely dispersed, their importance is often equal to their lack of visibility. This exhibition will be a revelation to the general public, not least to the inhabitants of Strasbourg themselves, and the catalogue will offer the  first general study of art in Strasbourg in the opening decades of the 13th century.

sources: 

- Bruzelius, Caroline. "The Construction of Notre-Dame in Paris." The Art Bulletin 69.4 (1987): 540-69. JSTOR. Web. 05 Dec. 2016. 

-"The Cathedral of Notre-Dame." Office De Tourisme De Strasbourg Et Sa Région, Alsace. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.

-Doumato, Lamia. Strasbourg Cathedral: A Bibliography. Monticello, IL: Vance Bibliographies, 1990. Print.