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ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE 461
built in northern France in the first halfofthe thirteenth
century
by the fact that it is not intended to embody a ceremonial en/
trance to the church, which was provided by the north porch.
The fagade is therefore treated as a great screen of figure sculp/
ture in tiers, and the three doorways, corresponding to the main
vessel ofthe nave and the two aisles, are kept very small in re/
lation to the total height ofthe fagade; indeed, the aisle doors do
not reach above the plinth mouldings and the central door only
just above them. This device gives an extraordinarily enhanced
sense of scale to the whole composition. Wells is fortunate as
compared with other great thirteenth/century churches in that
its fagade has retained almost all its original figure sculpture,
much of it of very high quality.
The other great church which has retained a fagade of the
early thirteenth century ofimportance comparable to Wells is
the great monastic church at Peterborough. The Peterborough
front is one ofthe most original compositions which survive to
us from the middle ages (Pl.Si a). The completion ofthis great
Anglo/Norman church was begun in the last quarter of the
twelfth century when work on the two western towers
originally
intended was discontinued; the nave was then carried west/
ward two further bays and a western transept to the full height of
the main vessel ofthe church was begun (Fig. 103). In the first
years ofthe thirteenth century the work was continued on the
western transept, and a great portico, equal in length and height
and almost equal in width to the new transept, was built to the
west ofit. The is portico open to the west with three great arches,
the two outside ones being wider than that in the centre. These
arches rise the whole height of the
portico and transept, some
73 feet. They are flanked by two slender towers and surmounted
by three elaborate gables, having tall, spire/like pinnacles be/
tween them. The original intention was that the composition
should be completed with two substantial western towers rising
behind the gables of the portico above the bays of the western
transept, corresponding to the aisles of the nave. Only one of
these towers was built and has now lost the wooden spire which
was probably intended to finish it. This extremely original de/