Serverine Cathedral: A Case Study

1365 Words3 Pages

Ste. Serverine is not the typical French town in the year 1280, out of touch with the dramatic new developments in building and artistic style near Paris. Although Ste.-Serverine is several days’ journey south of Paris, the town has the spirit and vitality of the Ile de France region. Named after Ste. Severine, a benevolent and religious wife of a nobleman, many regard the town as a center for medical learning, the exchange of ideas about art from people who come from all over Europe, and pilgrimage. Despite these many qualities, the town’s cathedral, an old, crumbling and decrepit Romanesque style structure, detracts from the community’s eagerness to enhance Ste. Severine’s reputation as a commercial, educational, and religious attraction and to increase …show more content…

Serverine Cathedral will not simply serve as a replacement for its current Romanesque style structure to reinvigorate the town. Alternatively, the new cathedral will signify the personality of the town, a center of eclectic thinking. I could have designed and proposed a structure similar to the decaying one, but such an action would be a waste of manpower and a lack of novelty. In other words, through the development of the building I have proposed, the Ste. Serverine Cathedral will complement the attitudes of the town: optimism, creativity, and worldliness. With that said, the cathedral must have a Gothic architectural style. The reason for this has to do with what Gothic represents; it challenges us as individuals to think, design, and create beyond what we think is possible; it calls for innovative techniques, which allow us to build more intricate, passionate, and expansive structures. Because of these ideas, the Ste. Serverine cathedral will not only reach higher into the sky, representing a closer connection to God, but it will reach farther across the world, encouraging merchants, intellectuals, and leaders to come together at this new capital of commerce and

Open Document