Previous Cathedrals On The Site
The current cathedral is built on the site of an earlier edifice commenced under the episcopacy of Gerfrid (774 - 800). That Carolingian cathedral was consecrated on 6 September 800 in the presence of the emperor himself
The Carolingian building was replaced under Bishop Élinand (1052–1095). The present new building was inaugurated with the second coronation of the future King Philip I. This cathedral was torched during the Easter Insurrection on 25 April 1112. During the revolt Laon's unpopular Bishop Waldric (in French Gaudry) was killed, despite taking the precaution of hiding in a barrel in the cellar of the episcopal palace. The cathedral was not destroyed, however, and after a repair programme lasting two years it was rededicated in 1114 under Bishop Barthélemy de Jur.
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“I believe that there was a great age, a great epoch when man did not make war: previous to 2000 B.C. Then the self had not really become aware of itself, it had not separated itself off, the spirit was not yet born, so there was no internal conflict, and hence no permanent external conflict.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“I am not aware that any man has ever built on the spot which I occupy. Deliver me from a city built on the site of a more ancient city, whose materials are ruins, whose gardens cemeteries. The soil is blanched and accursed there, and before that becomes necessary the earth itself will be destroyed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)