Notre-Dame de Senlis Cathedral is a church of Catholic worship located in the French city of Senlis. This cathedral was the former episcopal see of Senlis before being abolished by the Concordat of 1801 and made dependent on the diocese of Beauvais. It is classified as a Historical Monument of France since 1840.
It is one of the first Gothic cathedrals to be built in France, after Saint-Denis, which had been consecrated in 1144 by Abbot Suger, showing the possibilities of the new style, so it will spread quickly. It began to be built between 1151 and 1155, when Bishop Thibaut began the construction of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Senlis on the same site as the previous church. It was solemnly dedicated in 1191, although it only had a nave with three simple sections and three double sections framed in the collaterals, a rudimentary transept formed by a double section protruding from the first floor, a double section choir and a semicircular apse around a ambulatory to which five chapels were opened.
In the 13th century, when Saint Louis ruled France, the Gothic was already entrenched in its construction methods, throwing its stone vaults to ever more dizzying heights. Therefore, it is decided to expand the cathedral of Senlis, eliminating the central sections to raise a large transept and crown the south tower with a large arrow, which completes the construction of the building, which will later be added to the chapter house to the north and the Bailli Chapel. During the French Revolution it suffered serious damage, undergoing a somewhat controversial restoration in the 19th century.
The lintel appears divided in two, on the left is the scene of the " Dormition of the Virgin ", mutilated in the revolution, in which we can see that her body rests on a bed, surrounded by the apostles. In the form of a child, his soul rises to heaven carried by angels. To the right is the "Assumption of the Virgin", in which the angels prepare to take it. It is a scene full of naturalness and freshness, in which one of them lifts him from behind, while another bends the wing of a colleague, since it bothers him to see what happens.
On the tympanum, the scene "The Triumph of the Virgin" ends the western portal. Mary, already crowned, receives her son's blessing. A series of angels placed under a series of arches carried incense burners, thus sanctifying the scene. The archivolts show a series of characters and the longitudinal design of the new style.
