The choir and apse of St. Julien are beautiful examples of Early Gothic architecture,
and were built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, around the same time as
the choir of Notre Dame, with which it is often compared. Today, it is no
longer possible to get a clear view of the lower half of the apse because of the iconostasis
(icon screen) but this old postcard shows
what the apse once looked like. Made by Georges Bitar, an artisan of Damascus,
the iconostasis has wood inlay and painted icons depicting Christ, the Virgin,
and various saints. It was erected in 1891 after St. Julien had become the church
of the Melkites, and it is a characteristic feature of churches that use the
Byzantine rite of worship. It divides the "sanctuary"
(a space representing Heaven, which only the clergy are allowed to enter)
from the rest of the church where the faithful worship. Notice that there is no
high altar visible at the front of the church. The high altar, or Holy Table, is
located behind the iconostasis in Eastern Rite churches. The iconostasis is pierced by
three doors with curtained trefoil arches, a large Royal Door in the center which
is only used by priests and bishops, and two smaller deacon's doors to either side
for the lesser clergy. Until the 1960's the iconostasis was much taller and stood
in the middle of the choir, but it has been shortened by the removal of a row of
icons and moved back so that it now stands at the opening of the apse.The choir of St. Julien is a double bay covered with a six-part vault, which is supported at the corners by four compound piers made up of many columns of different sizes. All of these columns have bases with griffes and foliage capitals. The transverse arch of the vault is supported by colonnettes rising from two large cylindrical columns with ornate capitals, which separate the narrow Gothic arches of the choir arcade. The alternation of support and six-part vault of the choir are among the elements that St. Julien has in common with choir of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The key of the choir vault is a rosette with two little human heads oriented along the east-west axis of the church. Note also the thick steel tie rods stretch across the vaults above the compound piers. These were added to help counteract the horizontal thrust of the vaults. The semicircular apse of St. Julien is covered with a four-part vault. The vault's keystone is a rosette with a single grimacing human head facing west. The apse has six Gothic windows in two rows. The lower windows are larger and are ornamented with colonnettes and moldings; the upper windows are small and have no ornamentation. None of the windows currently have stained glass, although old photos indicate that there used to be some colored glass in the apse. 
This is the northern elevation of the choir seen from the Chapelle du Saint Sacrement
on the south aisle. Here you can see the north arcade with its two narrow Gothic arches that
open onto the Chapel of Saint Joseph on the north aisle. Above
are two sets of double windows separated by a little detached colonnette. A number
of sources comment on the way these upper choir windows resemble a triforium, and some believe
that the choir and apse of St. Julien were originally supposed to have
had three levels instead of only two.
The large column in the northern choir arcade has an elaborately
carved acanthus capital with volutes and a
square base with griffes.
Here is the southern elevation of the choir, viewed from the north aisle. The arcade
on this side opens onto the Chapelle du Saint Sacrement on the south. The arches of
the southern arcade are narrower than the ones on the north. This is because the
compound piers on the south side are larger.
Topping the large cylindrical column of the southern arcade is the unusual
"harpy capital", the only anthropomorphic capital at St. Julien.
(A closer view can be seen below). The base
of the column has griffes identical to those of the acanthus column on the
other side. The ornate chair of inlaid wood you see in this 1999 photo was no longer
located at the foot of the column the last two times I visited the church in 2001 and 2004.
The "harpy capital" in St. Julien is similar to others located in Paris (one inside the
Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, and one in the porch of St.-Germain-des-Pres) in addition to
several other specimens in museums, which are believed to be from the old
cloister at the Abbey of St. Denis. This type of figured capital
was common in northern France through the late 12th century. The harpy capital
in Notre Dame is located on a pier on the south side of the ambulatory, and it is
a half-capital with only two harpy figures. The spread
wings of the harpies, the position of their feet and legs, and the style of execution
are very similar, so it is possible that they may have been carved by the same workshop. The capital I saw
at St.-Germain-des-Pres has been damaged and the harpy's head is missing, but the carving of the feathers
on its body resembles the one at St. Julien, and so do the shape of the wings, although they are much smaller.
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St. Julien le Pauvre url: http://www.people.ku.edu/~asnow/ Webmaster: A. Snow This site last updated 04/13/2006. |
