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Cathedrals Of France: Notre Dame De Laon Notre Dame De Noyon Notre Dame De Soissons Notre Dame D'Amiens St. Pierre De Beauvais Notre Dame De Rouen Basilique De St. Denis Notre Dame De Paris St. Louis De Versailles St. Julien - Le Mans Notre Dame De Chartres Notre Dame De Reims St. Croix D'Orleans St. Lous De Blois St. Gatien De Tours St. Maurice D'Angers St. Pierre De Nantes St. Etienne D'Auxerre St. Etienne De Bourges St. Cyr And St. Juliette De Nevers St. Mammes De Langres Notre Dame De Boulogne-Sur-Mer Notre Dame De Cambrai Notre Dame De St. Omer St. Vaast D'Arras St. Etienne De Toul St. Etienne, Chalons-Sur-Marne St. Die St. Lazare D'Autun St. Benigne De Dijon Notre Dame De Senlis St. Etienne De Meaux St. Pierre De Troyes St. Etienne De Sens Notre Dame D'Evreux Notre Dame D'Alencon St. Pierre De Lisieux Notre Dame De Seez Notre Dame De Bayeux Notre Dame St. Lo Notre Dame De Coutances St. Pierre D'Avranches St. Samson, Dol-De-Bretagne St. Malo And St. Servan Treguier St. Brieuc St. Pol De Leon Vannes |
( Originally Published Ealry 1900's ) There is little to recount concerning the See of Avranches. Its bishopric and its cathedral were alike destroyed during the parlous times of the bickerings and ravages of Royalists and Republicans of the Revolutionary period. All that remains to-day is a trifling heap of stones which would hardly fill a row-boat, - a fragment of a shaft on which is a tablet reading: "ON THIS STONE, HERE AT THE DOOR OF THE CATHEDRAL OF AVRANCHHS, AFTER THE MURDER OF THOMAS A BECKET, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, HENRY II, KING OF ENGLAND AND DUKE OF NORMANDY, RECEIVED ON HIS KNEES, FROM THE LEGATES OF THE POPE, THE APOSTOLIC ABSOLUTION, ON SUNDAY, 22D MAY 1172." At its feet is another slab, the aforementioned door-step, on which, before the papal legate, the remorseful monarch did penance before his later expiation at Canterbury. A little farther on is a small heap consisting of shafts and capitals of columns, a stone sarcophagus and a brass plate stating that they are the " Derniers restes de la cathedrale d'Avranches; commencee vers 1090 et consacree par l'eveque Turgis en 1 121." The nave having fallen in, the rest of the edifice had to be taken down in 1799. Because of its picturesque environment and situation, Avranches is perhaps a more than ordinarily attractive setting for a shrine, and it is well worthy of the attention of the passing traveller, in spite of its ancient cathedral being now but a heap of stones. Apart from this it is of little interest, and hence, to most, it will probably remain, in the words of a French traveller, a mere " silhouette in the distance." |