Construction Sequence | Jumieges, Abbey Church of Notre-Dame | Briefing | Professor Lynn Courtenay

Early Roofing Systems in Northern Europe

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France, Jumièges, Abbey Church of Notre-Dame | Construction Sequence
Professor Lynn Courtenay

The initial layout for the 11th century church was based on Carolingian and Ottonian prototypes and likely dates to the last years of Abbot Thierry and William of Dijon, i.e. to about 1025–30. The work continued under Abbots Robert II of Champart (1037–1045), who became archbishop of Canterbury and the powerful, Robert III, abbot from 1059 to 1078.

Notre Dame is a three-aisled basilican plan consisting of four great square bays in the nave, a projecting transept, a vaulted entrance block (Westwerk) and projecting porch with a single portal, flanked by towers aligned with the nave aisles; the crossing is square and is marked by large compound piers.


France, Jumièges, Abbey Church of Notre-Dame, Plan	France, Jumièges, Abbey Church of Notre-Dame, west facade	France, Jumièges, Abbey Church of Notre-Dame, aerial view
France, Jumièges, Abbey Church of Notre-Dame, general view of nave	France, Jumièges, Abbey Church of Notre-Dame, Plan	France, Jumièges, Abbey Church of Notre-Dame, Plan

The original choir (excavated by Lanrfy) was two bays terminating in a hemicycle with an ambulatory but no radiating chapels (see Lanfry's restored plan). While the remains are meagre and the archaeological interpretation not straightforward, projections (dosserets) for attached shafts were recorded, and thus it is not impossible that these engaged shafts supported the ribs of a vault in the hemicycle. The nave is 48.25 meters long, about 13. 6 meters wide externally and about 25 meters tall; the westwork gable rises to 28 meters. The ratio of height to width is striking for this early date and looks forward to design proportions of later centuries that developed in northern France.

The monastic buildings and cloister were on the south side of the nave; the chapter house, a large double-bay structure with an eastern hemicycle, dates to the first quarter of the 12th century. From the ruins it is discernable that ribbed vaults were used in the straight bays. Archaeology informs us that most of the early abbots of Jumièges were buried here.

Based on archaeological investigation, stylistic analysis of the capitals, and documentary evidence, leading scholars of Norman Romanesque have placed the major construction for the abbey church of Jumièges between c. 1040 and 1067, with initial construction at the east end and also at the west block. Apart from other conventual buildings, this phase of construction included the westwerk, main nave and aisles, original Romanesque chevet with ambulatory and galleried transepts, which contain the earliest example of double-wall construction. (Cf. Durham Cathedral).

To conclude the Romanesque construction, evidence from dendrochronology and comparative stylistic analysis indicates that the high nave roof of Notre Dame likely dates to the middle decade of the 11th century c. 1050–60. Evidence for the original roofing system is discussed below.

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