Thursday March 17 and Friday March 18 will see filming at Lincoln Cathedral on the Apple TV production, directed by Sir Ridley Scott, which chronicles Napoleon's rise to power through the hot-and-cold relationship he had with his adulterous wife Josephine - played by Vanessa Kirby and Joaquin Phoenix.
Under the code name ‘Marengo Project’, a note spotted on the film set would suggest Lincoln Cathedral is taking on the role of another iconic cathedral, the Notre Dame. This week will see some road closures in the steep hill area of Lincoln during filming. You can see the full list of closures and dates here.
Napoleon first married Josephine, who was six years his senior, in a civil ceremony in March 1796 that was later deemed invalid as they both lied about their age and Napoleon gave a false address. When the pope came to crown Napoleon Emperor eight years later, the consecration could not go ahead without Josephine and Napoleon being religiously married. Thus, Napoleon’s uncle, Cardinal Fesch, arranged a secret and hasty marriage on 1 December 1804.
Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of the French on 2 December 1804, at Notre Dame in the choir Cathedral in Paris. It is recorded that Pope Pius VII anointed Napoleon’s head, arms, and hands in accordance with the ancient tradition. Napoleon then took the crown and put it on his own head. He also crowned Josephine, who began to cry. They then proceeded up some steps to the throne. No one saw anything of the ceremony except those in the choir-stands on the grand level or the first tier.
At the time construction of the famous Parisian Cathedral was completed in 1345, Lincoln Cathedral was celebrating a brief period of history as the tallest building in the world. Following early fire and earthquake damage, reconstruction of our cathedral completed in 1311 included three lead-tipped wooden spires, the tallest on the central tower reaching 525ft (160m).
During 1548, the central spire collapsed during a fearsome gale and was never replaced, thus relinquishing the title of tallest building after a near 250-year reign. The other two spires were eventually removed in 1720.
For further reading see The Lincolnite March 11, 2022 by Ellis Karran and ‘Tall Stories’ by Cory Santos.
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