Church of Saint-Pierre, Caen

Church of St. Pierre
Façade.
Church of St. Pierre

The Church of Saint-Pierre (Église Saint-Pierre) is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Peter situated on the Place Saint Pierre in the center of Caen in Normandy, northern France.

The construction of the present building took place between the early 13th and the 16th centuries. The spire was destroyed on the 9th July 1944, by a single 16 Inch shell, one of a fifteen-round salvo from the Royal Navy battleship HMS Rodney aimed at the 12th SS Panzer Division and has since been rebuilt.

The eastern apse of the church was built by Hector Sohier between 1518 and 1545.[1] The interior choir and the exterior apse display an architecture that embodies the transition from Gothic to Renaissance.

Until around the mid 19th century, the eastern end of the church faced onto a canal that was then covered and replaced by a road. Various artists and engravers recorded this relation of the church to the canal; for instance, the Scottish painter David Roberts made several very similar views, one of which (dated to c.1830) is in Musée des Beaux-Arts in the Château de Caen or Caen Castle [2]

References

  1. ↑ Frankl, P. Gothic Architecture, Pelican History of Art, 1962, 213
  2. ↑ For Roberts' paintings of St Pierre, see the list of his works recorded in Ballantine, J. The Life of David Roberts, Edinburgh, 1866
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Coordinates: 49°11′3″N 0°21′39″W / 49.18417°N 0.36083°W / 49.18417; -0.36083


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