A major fire destroyed the earlier cathedral on the site, creating the conditions for a new High Gothic rebuilding campaign in which an unusually large, stylistically influential sculptural program would be developed.
Archbishop Aubry laid the first stone for the new cathedral’s chevet, launching the major 13th-century construction campaign that provided the architectural framework for the so-called “Reims” sculptural style.
The chapel at the east end entered use, signaling rapid progress on the building and supporting the start of large-scale production and installation of portal and exterior sculpture as construction advanced westward.
Work began on the west front, the zone that would become the cathedral’s most celebrated sculptural ensemble. This step is closely tied to the emergence of the classicizing, increasingly naturalistic figures often grouped under “Reims School” sculpture.
A violent civic conflict led the cathedral chapter to flee and the city to be placed under an interdict, disrupting building activity. Such interruptions matter for sculpture history because they can affect workshop continuity, phases of carving, and installation sequences.
Construction resumed after a multi-year pause, allowing major campaigns of façade and portal sculpture to proceed and helping consolidate the mature High Gothic sculptural language associated with Reims in the mid-13th century.
The celebrated Ange au Sourire (Smiling Angel), part of the west façade’s north portal sculptural program, was carved in the 13th century and became an emblem of Reims’s graceful, humanized High Gothic figure style.
The chapter was able to meet in the choir, indicating key parts of the eastern structure were completed. Progress like this typically coincided with continued commissioning of exterior statuary and the refinement of figure style (drapery, contrapposto, individualized faces).
The sculpted portals of the west façade were completed after 1260, marking a key milestone for the cathedral’s exterior narrative programs and the consolidation of Reims as a reference point for later Gothic sculpture.
The nave was roofed by 1299, a major construction completion that effectively closed the primary medieval building campaign and, with it, the most intensive period of 13th-century sculptural production associated with Reims.
During World War I, the cathedral suffered severe damage; the Smiling Angel was decapitated in the fire of September 19, 1914. The statue’s injury and survival made it a potent symbol in debates about cultural heritage and destruction.
After postwar conservation and reconstruction, the Smiling Angel was restored and put back in place, becoming a long-lasting icon of restoration practice and the modern reception of Reims’s 13th-century sculpture.
UNESCO inscribed the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, the former Abbey of Saint-Rémi, and the Palace of Tau, explicitly noting the cathedral’s exceptional integration of sculptural decoration with architecture—supporting continued scholarly and public focus on its sculpture.
Reims School Sculpture (c.1210–1300)
