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Cathédrale Saint-Maclou de Pontoise

Pontoise

Dimensions
In the upper part of the old centre of Pontoise, on Place du Petit-Martroy; the 12th-century chevet overlooks Rue de l'Hôtel-de-Ville on a high base, and the west bell tower, capped with a Renaissance dome, rises to 45 metres
Period
Parish church begun around the middle of the 12th century (first known parish priest in 1165, parish attested in 1213); central bell tower brought down by a hurricane on 30 October 1309, nave repaired until 1325; Gothic enlargement completed in a first phase in 1477; Renaissance campaign from 1530 to 1585 (north portal 1540, Chapel of the Passion 1545, dome of the bell tower 1552); listed on the 1840 list; cathedral of the diocese of Pontoise created on 9 October 1966
What stands there
A hurricane of 1309 brought down its bell tower; the butchers of Pontoise paid for the nave, then the Renaissance dressed it anew

Saint-Maclou was not built for a bishop: it was the parish church of the north of Pontoise, raised around the middle of the 12th century, shortly after the choir of Saint-Denis, with a semicircular choir and an ambulatory with radiating chapels that still survive. Pontoise then came under the archbishopric of Rouen. On 30 October 1309, a hurricane threw down the bell tower that stood over the crossing of the transept; in its fall, it carried away part of the nave. It was the town's butchers who took on the cost of the repairs, completed in 1325. In the following century, the nave was lengthened by two bays, a new façade was raised and, to its left, the bell tower that still dominates the town. Then, from 1530, the church adopted the taste of the Renaissance: the north aisle was doubled, the north portal completed in 1540, the Chapel of the Passion in 1545. On 28 July 1541, Jean Delamarre, master mason, received the contract for a new crossing vault, in which the crowned letters F and H intertwine, an allusion to the passage from Francis I to Henry II. In 1552, Pierre Le Mercier, of Pontoise, capped the bell tower with a dome, and until 1570 the nave and the south aisle were remade in the antique manner. In the Chapel of the Passion, a Holy Sepulchre installed around 1550 shows Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus laying a marble Christ in the tomb, between Mary Magdalene, Saint John and two holy women carrying the spices; Noël Taillepied already mentions it in 1587. The church became a cathedral only with the creation of the diocese of Pontoise.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Saint-Maclou de Pontoise ↗

Further reading

Getting there : Place du Petit-Martroy, in the old centre of Pontoise; a side portal also opens at the top of a flight of steps climbing from Rue de l'Hôtel-de-Ville. Opening times, access from the station and visiting conditions to be checked; guided tours take place during the European Heritage Days.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

Cathédrale Saint-Maclou de Pontoise
P.poschadel · CC BY-SA 2.0 fr · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

In the same department

All places — Val-d'Oise (10).