Greetings friends of Hive today I come with my first publication in the community of Architecture+Design a few days ago I was in the French city of Soissons which was the first capital of France and of all the sites I met the cathedral was the one I liked the most, so meet the Cathedral of St. Gervais and St. Protasius its original name in French is basilique-cathédrale Saint-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais.

This is a cathedral of the Catholic religion that began to be built in 1176 and was completed on April 25, 1479, so it took several centuries to build, for which were used the stones of the area that also helped to build Paris because the stones are of high quality.

The style of architecture is known as French Gothic, the cathedral has a height of 66 meters at its highest point and has a width of 40 meters and 136 meters long.

I spent a very beautiful day in this cathedral, it is very impressive as you can see from the pictures, the entrance is totally free and they even give mass here, it's a pity I didn't make it to the mass.

The owner of the cathedral is the government of France but it is assigned to the catholic church so they are the ones who have the facilities.

I was able to learn that the cathedral was left in ruins in the first world war and was rebuilt with a lot of work, but it was decided to keep the gothic architecture, so what we are seeing is a restoration after the world wars, so the original cathedral was somewhat different.

The cathedral has a very impressive organ that was built in 1956, it is also known that the stained glass windows underwent a renovation in 1856 and are mostly of a green color.

The construction has a great design is noted that is very symmetrical and the windows are large and enjoy a good lighting.

The entrance to the cathedral is from the back, I like the color of the red door, I think it makes it very striking.

The tower has an octagonal design from what I could read in one of the informative posters and it is noticeable once you read the information you realize that it is so.

Most of the cathedral is covered with slate and only a small part is covered with tiles, exactly the part of the round chapel.

Among the most famous works of art is a painting by Rubens called the Adoration of the Magi, but the story that I could read on a poster here in the cathedral explains that the painter made several versions of the work until he reached the one that is in the museum of fine arts in Paris and in the cathedral rests one of the first sketches.

The work is very beautiful and you can feel a lot of spirituality, there are very beautiful works of art inside the cathedral and the benches are made of wood.

It has some well kept gardens in the surroundings, part of a tradition about the beans of the area, they say that it is something mandatory to eat when coming here, but I did not have the pleasure of tasting them, it will be another time.

The whole history of the cathedral is very interesting, they say it was built by the Merovingian kings who were the first kings of France.