Châlons-en-Champagne: The Statue-Columns of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux
Grand Est, France
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200
XP
+100 France
= 300 total
1 day
Châlons-en-Champagne: The Statue-Columns of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux
200 + 100 XP
The collegiate church of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux, on the pilgrim routes to Compostela and UNESCO-listed since 1998, has a carillon of fifty-six bells added in the 19th century. Its cloister, about 32 m square and pulled down from 1759, was carried on statue-columns carved by some of the greatest artists of the 1170s and 1180s; dozens of them, whole and in fragments, were dug up again by Léon Pressouyre's excavations from 1963 and are shown in the cloister museum opened on the site in 1978. The town is also threaded by the Mau, the Nau and four canals, and calls itself the European capital of circus arts.
Required Activities
1
of 4
At Notre-Dame-en-Vaux, find the south side portal of about 1170, with its carved tympanum and statue-columns, and see how much of it the Revolution cut back when the spires were stripped for their lead — and ask inside about the relic of the Holy Navel of Christ that drew pilgrims here until the bishop destroyed it in 1707
2
of 4
In the museum, which stands on the dug-out footprint of the cloister itself, work along the statue-columns and their capitals looking for the moment the carving stops being Romanesque and starts being Gothic, then find the sixteenth-century polychrome Pietà given by Jean and Alisson Poussin
3
of 4
Walk the water from the Marne through the old cathedral quarter between the river and the Nau, across the former business quarter between the Nau and the Mau, and find the spot on the Mau where the two lead-covered spires of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux are reflected in the water — the view the town uses as its emblem
4
of 4
Find the porte Sainte-Croix on the south side of the old town, the triumphal gate dedicated to Marie-Antoinette on her arrival in France and renamed the porte Dauphine for her, and read what is carved on it
At Notre-Dame-en-Vaux, find the south side portal of about 1170, with its carved tympanum and statue-columns, and see how much of it the Revolution cut back when the spires were stripped for their lead — and ask inside about the relic of the Holy Navel of Christ that drew pilgrims here until the bishop destroyed it in 1707
In the museum, which stands on the dug-out footprint of the cloister itself, work along the statue-columns and their capitals looking for the moment the carving stops being Romanesque and starts being Gothic, then find the sixteenth-century polychrome Pietà given by Jean and Alisson Poussin
Walk the water from the Marne through the old cathedral quarter between the river and the Nau, across the former business quarter between the Nau and the Mau, and find the spot on the Mau where the two lead-covered spires of Notre-Dame-en-Vaux are reflected in the water — the view the town uses as its emblem
Find the porte Sainte-Croix on the south side of the old town, the triumphal gate dedicated to Marie-Antoinette on her arrival in France and renamed the porte Dauphine for her, and read what is carved on it
Before you go
The cloister museum is closed on Tuesdays and on 1 January, 1 May, 1 and 11 November and 25 December. It opens 10h to 17h from mid-October to mid-April and 10h to 18h from mid-April to mid-October.
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About Grand Est
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
200 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
300 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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