(Re)building the sacred landscape: Orléans, 1560–1610
* Andrew Spicer is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern European History at Oxford Brookes University. He is also the director of the AHRC project, ‘The Early Modern Parish Church and the Religious Landscape’. He may be contacted at aspicer{at}brookes.ac.uk
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Abstract |
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The seizure and subsequent occupation of Orléans by the Huguenot forces in 1562–1563 and 1567–1568 was accompanied by iconoclastic outbursts and the destruction of the religious landscape, which culminated in the demolition of the central tower of the cathedral. This article examines the ways in which the religious and civic authorities reacted to this destruction and their attempts not only to bring about a renewal of the sacred landscape of the city but also to assert the importance of Catholicism within that landscape. This was achieved against the background of the ongoing religious conflicts which wracked France during the second half of the sixteenth century. The article looks at how this was achieved not only through the reconstruction of the city's religious buildings but also through the use of religious rituals and sacred relics. Furthermore, a figure from the city's past, Jeanne d’Arc developed as a local cult symbolizing the triumph of Catholicism over the Huguenots.