France: One-thousandth anniversary of the cathedral of Strasburg
On September 5, 2014, a one-to-a-hundred scale model of the cathedral of Strasburg as it was built in 1050 was inaugurated and installed in the narthex of the Alsacian cathedral.
Made in sandstone, the model weighs about one hundred kilograms. The Œuvre Notre Dame, a historical confraternity of stone sculptors, presented it for the beginning of the thousandth anniversary of this cathedral dedicated to Our Lady.
Werner de Habsbourg, bishop of Strasburg nominated by the emperor Otto III around the year 1000, had the cathedral built in 1015. The model replicates the building at its completion in 1050. It then had two 58-meter façade towers (at present 66m, and 142m with the spire). Victim to fires in the 12th century, the Roman edifice was replaced by a Gothic one in the 13th century and received its present form in the 15th century.
(sources: apic/imedia – DICI no.301, dated Sept. 26, 2014)
