Amiens Cathedral with and without nave chapels

The earlier plan (right) shows the cathedral with the addition of the nave chapels (1290s-c1400) and the treasury housing John Baptist's head still intact on the north side of the choir (it was demolished some twenty years later). Note the detailed rendering of liturgical furniture including the choir screen (jubé), the principal altar and relic gallery and the altars in all the chapels. In the nave chapels the altars are placed against the eastern wall of each chapel: in the eighteenth century the altars were moved to the outer walls and surrounded with elaborate wood panelling (boiserie).

The modern plan (left) was measured out by Stephen Murray and James Addiss and drafted on a 1:50 scale by Addiss and Murray. A fifty-meter steel tape was used to grasp the main dimensions, all pier and respond sections were measured with calipers and orthogonal accuracy established by extensive triangulation.