The medieval city of Laon
What to see and where to stay
The fine Gothic cathedral is the main reason to visit the city - but there are many other reasons to take a break in this charming city.
The Cour du Dauphin
Never mind whether the legend about Louis XIV being conceived here; it's
a fine little inn from the fifteenth century, built in timber with brick
nogging between the timbers. The little staircase turret has a fat little
angel corbel which has become a mascot of the local tourist office. The
wonderful open gallery dates from 1626. Imagine the courtyard full of horses
and perhaps a carriage, with people leaning over the gallery to see who
had arrived..
Rue Securier has some fine Gothic buildings, including the fine flamboyant Gothic gateway of the Cour de la Bourelle from the fifteenth century. The old town hall of 1736 has a rather charming gate of classical style, underneath which are mounted the standard measures for bricks and tiles. If the bricks didn't fit the templates, they were substandard – and the brickmaker could be fined. However, while that suggests honesty was the order of the day, this building is actually cheating us – if you go through to the back, you can see the interior is brick nogged half timber – the classical facade is just a pretty skin on a vernacular style timber building.
The Museum has two sights
worth seeing, and you can see both of them for free. In the entrance hall
is the 'gisant-transi' of Guillaume de Harcigny from 1394. A 'gisant transi'
is an effigy of the deceased, put over a tomb – but it's specifically
a statue of him as a corpse, meant to remind viewers of their own mortality.
This is probably one of the first such monuments and it's really quite moving
– we see de Harcigny emaciated, his skin stretched tight, his hands
mere claws, his face gaunt and his eyes sunken. This wouldn't have been
the whole monument though – there would probably have been an effigy
of de Harcigny alive placed above it, perhaps kneeling to pray.
De Harcigny himself is actually an interesting character. He was a canon of Laon cathedral and practised medicine here and in Paris; he's praised by the chronicler Froissart, and is said to have cured Charles VI of France of his madness.
In the garden of the museum is a Templar chapel. As usual with Templar buildings, it's built on a centralised plan, with the octagonal nave surmounted by a fine vault. The Lamb and Flag symbol is carved on the central roof boss. The main part of the chapel dates from 1134, though the second storey above the entry porch was added in the fourteenth century.
The Porte d'Ardon was one of the main gates of the city. It's still in good shape. Most intriguing is a little plaque on the gate which gives the distances of major pilgrimages from Laon – 235 km to Chartres, 1661 to Rome, and 4300 to Jerusalem. That's quite a challenge!
Saint-Martin is the second church of Laon, on the other extremity of the plateau from the cathedral. There were three great abbeys in Laon – Saint-Vincent, in the middle of the 'croissant', with a huge area of vineyards to the south of the hill, and Saint Jean, near the cathedral, have almost disappeared – there are no medieval buildings left from either. But the third, Saint Martin, has left us some fascinating buildings.
The church is a transitional building of about 1150, so about the same date as the cathedral. Premonstratensian monks replaced a house of canons here in 1124, and soon started work on a new and larger church for their monastery. The interior is much less complex than the cathedral, with no alternation of pillars, no capitals on the aisle arcade, no lantern tower; yet there's a definite similarity in style. Like the cathedral, Saint Martin has a square east end – an unusual form for larger French churches, perhaps stemming from the style of the Cistercian monks. There's even a rose window in the north transept that seems similar to the rose in the cathedral. The vault dates from nearer to 1200, when the engaged pillars and shafts were added and the transepts were raised. Again that's close to the date of the cathedral. And looking at this church really makes you appreciate what a master the architect of the cathedral was.
Some of the monuments are worth noting. There are two effigies inside the west door – a knight, in dark stone which might be Tournai marble, and an abbess with her crozier and, unusually for a woman, two lions at her feet. There's a little gisant-transi on the right hand pillar just before the choir – a little square tablet shows the abbot above in a realistic perspective room, praying to the virgin, and then his corpse underneath, covered with wriggly little worms. This gives you an idea of what de Harcigny's tomb must have looked like when it was intact.
One of the side chapels has a fine renaissance screen that seems to have been copied from the screens in the cathedral, or perhaps made by the same workmen. But it's even more ornate, with heads of the apostles leaning out from the top of the screen to look at you, and motifs including the skull and crossbones, helmets, and classical bucrania or oxheads. Inside, there's a fourteenth century carving of Christ on Golgotha.
The abbey of Saint Martin hasn't all been preserved but there are some fascinating buildings left, many of which are now part of the hospital. The 'vide-bouteilles' – a tiny pavilion in brick and stone – was apparently a tasting parlour for the wines made in Laon, an important vine growing area. Behind it is the abbot's house, in Louis XIII style.
The cloister, now occupied by the public library, now has a medieval garden with fruit trees and vegetables, and lovely modern grotesque brass plaques laid in the paving. The staircase leading up to the library is rather fine.
Recommended hotel: We
stayed at La Banniere
de France – a few minutes' walk from the cathedral and close to
the town hall. It's a family run, local hotel in the best French tradition
and has its own restaurant. Telephone: +33 323 23 21 44