ABSTRACT
Suger tells us that even as an oblate he longed to repair, rebuild, and embellish the crumbling fabric of the abbey church: like Peter of Celle and Henry of Blois, he had something approaching building mania. 1 He started work on the fabric of the abbey in the early years of his abbacy, and his relentless desire to rebuild and embellish was halted only by his death. As I have said, Suger did not turn to building, any more than he turned to writing, or concentrated on the administration of his abbey, as displacement activity when his political career faltered; though it is true that the choir, the most famous part of the abbey church, was built when Suger was out of favour with Louis VII in the early 1140s. But at all stages in his career as abbot, his passion for building coexisted alongside his involvement in court and church politics.
