Nicolaï Karamzine et la cathédrale de Strasbourg

Abstract

The article focuses on Nikolay Karamzin's depiction of the Strasbourg cathedral in Letters of a Russian Traveler. Even though it is very likely that the Russian writer did not personally visit the cathedral, since, at the time of his stay in Alsace, the city was overtaken by mutinous soldiers, Karamzin could not avoid describing one of Strasbourg's main landmarks in his travelogue. In order to do so, he had to turn to written sources, the identification of which is the first aim of the present paper. The second issue adressed here is that of Karamzin's aesthetic appreciation of the monument and of gothic architecture in general. Aware of the current aesthetic debate on Greek and Gothic styles fuelled by the ongoing British gothic revival, Karamzin appears to approve of the gothic structural design. Furthermore, he seems to have valued gothic churches as places where one can experience Burkean sublimity, and as an expression of the bold génie of Nordic peoples, to which the Russian traveler is proud to belong.