Epiphanic Moments
On two glorious summer mornings, six years apart, we’re twice smitten by the shy charm of Calais and its most passionately historic monument. Eight centuries of art and beauty, faith and form, in glorious harmony. The grey spire of Notre Dame Church rising above the White City residential architecture of Calais is as beautiful as it is unexpected. What’s not to admire?
· 1214: A small stone church is erected.
· 1224: It is extended to become a parish church which will be subsumed into the final building.
· 1347: Calais is captured by the Plantagenets in August and the Archbishop of Canterbury becomes head of Notre Dame. The nave is heightened, the side aisles widened and a belltower is built above the intersection of the nave and transept. Flemish masons add their twist to the Perpendicular English architecture.
· 1469: On 11 July George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, marries Isabel Neville in the church.
· 1558: Calais remains under English control until it is recaptured in January by Scarface, 3rd Duke of Guise. It then falls under Spanish control for a while.
· 1560: St Nicholas Church is demolished making Notre Dame the top place of worship in the city.
· 1598: Under The Treaty of Vervins between King Henri IV and King Phillipe II of Spain, Calais becomes French again. Phew!
· 1600: A side chapel is built. The church is now 88 metres long and has over 6,000 congregants.
· 1624: Adam Lottman, a sculptor from Coulogne, creates the tripartite marble and alabaster high altar, 10 metres high by 10.3 metres wide. Statues of St Louis and Charlemagne are mounted on either side with Christ at the top of the retable.
· 1629: Assumption of the Virgin Mary, a vast painted by Gérard Séghers, a student of Rubens, is placed in the centre of the high altar.
· 1631: The Lady Chapel is added.
· 1802: After being converted to a Temple of Reason during the French Revolution, the church is reconsecrated. Double phew!
· 1863: The Dean of Calais commissions plasterwork decoration of the vaults.
· 1921: General Charles de Gaulle marries local lass Yvonne Vendroux in the church on 7 April. Signs will be erected throughout the city over the intervening years to remind visitors of the marriage.
· 1944: Allied Forces bombard Calais and the 58 metre high belltower of Notre Dame falls through the roof into north transept.
· 1963: Reconstruction of the nave and belltower begins.
· 1970: The roof is put back.
· 1976: Stained glass windows by Gérard Lardeur are inserted to fill the medieval mullions and transoms.
· 2009: The Association for the Development of the Architectural Heritage of the Calaisis begins restoration work.
· 2010: English landscape architect Caroline Holmes is commissioned by the Association to create a Tudor Garden. She explains, “The garden is named after the dynasty that ruled over Calais during the period 1485 to 1603. The design and planting of the garden is inspired by the interior of the church.”
· 2010: Queen Elizabeth II visits and inspects the new Notre Dame de Calais Rose in the Tudor Garden.
· 2014: The jewel of the Pale of Calais is fully restored. Our Lady lives again. Triple phew!
· 2018: Lavender’s Blue visit Notre Dame, inspecting the subtly restored interior and walking round the Tudor Garden which is taking shape.
· 2024: Lavender’s Blue revisit Notre Dame, inspecting the subtly restored exterior only as the doors are shut and walking round the Tudor Garden which is in full bloom.
