Outside the Basilica of Saint-Remi

I was finally back visiting UNESCO World Heritage sites again after the pandemic break. Technically, the pandemic is still ongoing but I think I got a chance to visit safely. The virus isn’t going anywhere but as long as I take precautions, I should be okay. The city of Reims in France is my first stop and it happens to have a few sites which are part of the UNESCO World Heritage site listing – Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Former Abbey of Saint-Rémi and Palace of Tau, Reims. As you can see from the name, there are three parts to the world heritage site. I am currently starting at the Basilica of Saint-Remi which happens to be nearest the hotel I would be staying at. It was hard to miss the basilica since it was that large. As I was riding the bus to the hotel, there was a rather large open space and there was the basilica beside it.

The Basilica of Saint-Remi is dubbed the largest romanesque church in Northern France. It is actually one of the largest churches in France itself. I can see why. The current basilica is the result of numerous buildings and extensions that were done over the centuries. It seems like Reims likes its churches very large and they got what they wanted. It is so large that the only larger church which is Amiens Catherdal was built to be just slightly larger than Saint-Remi if only to be bigger than it. You can see that the church actually has a mixture of architectural styles. It was originally designed to be a romanseque church which you can see with the rose window that is typical of this architectural style. Then suddenly, the style changed to gothic and there was an explosion of gothic style which produced the unique basilica that we see today.

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