1950s stained glass designs at St-Nicolas de Blois

The stained-glass windows of the église Saint-Nicolas de Blois, on the banks of the Loire River, were destroyed by Allied bombardments in 1944, as were the town's bridge and several of its neighborhoods. In the 1950s, it was decided to replace the older Saint-Nicolas windows with new, contemporary windows rather try to restore or imitate the old ones. (My source for this information is this web site in French about Saint-Nicolas de Blois.)

A competition was launched in 1955 to award the work of creating new windows to one or more stained-glass artists or workshops. Requirements were that the new windows be very colorful  — for 10 years after the war, plain dull-looking glass panels had replaced the older glass destroyed by the bombings. The organizers of the competition wanted the interior of the church building to be bathed in mult-colored light as it  had been before 1944.

Four artists — Max Ingrand, Pierre Gaudin, Jacques Le Chevallier, and François Bertrand — were awarded the contract. Max Ingrand, the best-known and most-experienced of the four, was chosen to lead and coordinate the project. Some of the new windows were in place by 1959, but then a good amount of the stonework of the church's larger window openings was found to need extensive restoration work before the glass could be put up. Work stopped as scaffolding was erected in the church and stone masons began the needed repairs. Years passed.

In 1964, church authorities complained that the scaffolding was an eyesore. The church was a major tourist attraction in Blois, and churches in France are owned by the government. It took four more years for the repair work to be finished and the new windows to be installed. The planned arrangement of glass panels of different colors was respected for the most part — Max Ingrand saw the work through but passed away in 1969.

The windows in these photos are ones that are more abstract in composition. Others depict historical figures and scenes. More about those tomorrow.

In this post there are ten pictures of nine of the Saint-Nicolas windows, arranged in five composite images. As always, you can enlarge them to see more detailed views. My friend Sue took four of these photos when she visited the church in June 2018. I took the others on July 5, 2019.

Inside Saint-Nicolas de Blois

In its description of Blois, the Cadogan guide to the Loire Valley says: "St Nicholas church has retained its medieval grandeur, even if it looks a bit grim in parts." I'm not sure I agree with the grim part.

When I was in Blois Saturday afternoon, it was very hot outside and the sun was shining brightly. That kind of weather takes away some of the grim feeling old stones and dark interiors can inspire.

It also makes for very strong contrasts in photos like these. I'll just let the images speak for themselves.

It certainly wasn't dark in the church, but it was refreshingly cool compared to 35ºC temperatures outside.

L'église Saint-Nicolas also features dozens of modern, highly colorful stained-glass windows that — quoting and translating a city of Blois historical web site — "create a unique atmosphere that is bathed in blue or yellow light perfect for meditation."

The towers of Saint-Nicolas à Blois

The église Saint-Nicolas de Blois was originally a monastery that had been founded before the year 1000. Construction of the church began in the year 1138 and continued for nearly a century. It replaced an earlier church on the site that had been destroyed by fire.

The church became an important pilgrimage site because it contained the relics of several saints and a fragment of the cross on which Jusus was crucified. At the time of the Hundred Years War the church was fortified to resist attacks by English forces.

Toward the end of the 16th-century French Renaissance, the church was severely damaged during the religious wars that opposed Catholics and Protestants. It was restored over the course of the 17th century.

During the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century, the cloister at Saint-Nicolas served as a hospital. The church has been classified as a Monument National in France since 1840.

Originally, there were three large statues on each side of the main doors of the church. Those disappeared long ago. The neighborhood around Saint-Nicolas de Blois was badly bombed during World War II, but the church itself suffered only minor damage.

Blois on the Loire

Yesterday afternoon I drove up to Blois. It was a detour on my way to Tours. I had time, and took advantage of it. It was also an opportunity to spend several hours in the car with the air-conditioning running full blast. The car's thermometer said it was 35ºC outdoors when I got to Blois, about 25 miles north of Saint-Aignan.

Here's a panoramic shot of the Blois riverfront and skyline. This is the biggest town in our département (county), with a population of about 50,000 in the town itself and more than twice that in the urban area. It's an old royal city. I took this photo from the left bank of the Loire River, which you see in the foreground. The water level in the river is pretty low right now.

I was in Blois with a friend from California a year ago, and we tried to go inside the Église Saint-Nicolas (above), which dates back to the 12th century. That makes it nearly a thousand years old. That day in June 2018, I couldn't find a place to park the car. My friend went inside and took some photos while I parked illegally and stayed close to the car. For a year, I've been trying to get back up there and take some photos. Yesterday I finally did.

This photo shows the cathedral of Blois, which isn't as old the the Saint-Nicolas church. It towers over the old city, though. Why was I out and about? Well, our friend Peter finally arrived yesterday, about six hours late, after his plane developed a mechanical problem and had to make an unscheduled stop in Newark (New Jersey). I drove over to Tours to pick him up at the TGV station, where his train pulled in at 8:10 p.m. It's a long story. Mieux vaut tard que jamais, as they say.

Oh, and here's a photo of the old bridge at Blois that I took from near the Saint-Nicolas church on the right bank the the Loire. It was built in the 1700s and has been dynamited and bombarded several times in its history during revolutions and wars (1793, 1870, 1944), and then rebuilt in the old style.