Saint‑Denis West Front: Composition and the Spire Question

The west front frames arrival. Portals teach in relief, towers stage the skyline, and an absent spire invites debate about completion versus history. Composition, narrative, and urban memory converge.

🧩 Composition

• Portal band: Didactic sculptural program introduces theology.
• Rose window: A central eye mediating light and iconography.
• Tower pairing: Asymmetry as palimpsest of building phases.
• Buttress rhythm: Vertical members punctuate the facade.

⚖️ Spire or Not?

• Historical loss: Collapse removed the tallest marker.
• Restoration ethics: Should we reconstruct or respect absence?
• Urban reading: The skyline remembers even without the spire.
• Interpretive value: Absence teaches history as much as presence.

🗺️ Urban Memory

• Approach vistas: Street alignments stage the facade as event.
• Night reading: Illumination re‑writes perception.
• Community: The front acts as public pedagogy.

The front is argument and welcome — a catechism in stone.