Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Beauvais

The cathedral of Saint-Pierre de Beauvais was begun in 1225, after the fire of the previous building. The choir was completed around 1260, the transept in 1548, and a lantern tower was raised from 1563 to 1569. It remained unfinished: only the choir and transept exist, as the nave was never built.

Its vault, at 48.50 metres high, is the highest in the Gothic world. This boldness had a price: the choir vault collapsed in 1284 and repairs lasted until about 1347, then the lantern tower, which reached about 153 metres, collapsed in 1573. The absence of a nave weakens the building, which has been the subject of consolidation work since the 1990s. Inside you can see stained glass from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, a medieval clock in operation since 1305 and a great astronomical clock built between 1865 and 1868, made up of some 90,000 pieces.

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