Limoges Cathedral

Limoges French: Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Limoges
Limoges Cathedral
Religion
Affiliation	Roman Catholic Church
Region	Haute-Vienne
Rite	Roman
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Cathedral
Status	Active
Location
Location	Limoges, France
Geographic coordinates
Architecture
Type	church
Style	Gothic, Renaissance, Romanesque
Groundbreaking	1273
Completed	1888

Limoges Cathedral (French: Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Limoges) is a Roman Catholic church located in Limoges, France. it became part of the new administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, in 2016. It is a national monument and the seat of the Bishop of Limoges. The cathedral contains elements of Romanesque architecture, Gothic architecture and Renaissance architecture. It is noted for the Flamboyant facade of the transept, vestiges of Romanesque architecture, particularly in the bell tower, and the Renaissance rood screen with reliefs of the labors of Hercules, built in 1534.

History

(Portions of the text below are translated from the article in the French Wikipedia (Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Limoges))

Early Churches

The presence of a bishop and a cathedral in Limoges was recorded in 475 A.D.; Gregory of Tours mentioned a church the city, facing the chateau off the vicomte and the Abbey of Saint-Martial. In 2005, archeologists found the traces of an hexagonal baptistry dating from the 5th century under the north face of the cathedral. During the enlargement of the church in 1876, workers found subbasements of an early church of the Carolingian period, and the nave of a Romanesque church. The discoveries included fragments of Roman columns, bas-reliefs and Latin inscriptions, suggesting that the church was built on the site of a former Roman temple, palace or villa.

The early cathedral was constructed in the center of the city in the valley of the Vienne River, not far from the Abbey of Saint-Martial and the former chateau of the Viscoun of Limoges. In July 817, the Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious presented documents granting legal immunity to the clergy of the Cathedral. A clerical city gradually grew up along the Vienne River. Archeologists have found traces of a cloister, a baptistry, a Bishop's palace, and residences of church dignitaries.

The Romanesque Church

Sacrementaire of Saint-Etienne de Limoges (about 1100)

The Romanesque cathedral was dedicated by Hilduin or Aduin, the Bishop of Limoges, and was consecrated by Pope Urban II. who passed through Limoges on his return from the Council of Clermont, which had launched the First Crusade in 1095. in 1095. In 1074 and again 1105, the church was set on fire by mobs from the rival district of Saint Martial du Vicompte. from rival districts. After the 1105 fire, the Romanesque nave, covered with wood, was rebuilt with a vaulted stone roof. Traces of the Romanesque cathedral can be seen today in the lower three levels of the bell tower and in the crypt under the choir

The Romanesque church was enarrower and not as tall as the later Gothic cathedral. Some vestiges of this early cathedral remain, including the crypt and three lower floors of the bell tower. It was in the form of a Lain cross, and was about sixty meters long and seventeen meters wide, with a transept forty meters long, on the site of the present transept. It originally had a wooden roof, which was replaced with stone vaults after two large fires in 1074 and 1105.

The Gothic Church

By the mid-13th century, the Romanesque cathedral had become too cramped for the growing city population. Aymeric de la Serre, The Bishop of Limoges from 1246 to 1272, proposed to rebuild the church on a much grander scale, using his own personal fortune. The architecture was inspired by the new Gothic style which had appeared in the Ile-de-Frane in the 1140s, particularly at The Basilica of Saint-Denis and Chartres Cathedral.

The architect of the Gothic church is not known for certain, but was likely the Paris architect Jean de Deschamps, who had been working in the South of France at the time and taken part in the construction of the cathedrals of Clermont (1262), Toulouse and Narbonne ((1272) and Rodez (1277).

Bishop Aymeric de la Serre died in 1272 before construction began, but in June 1273, his project for the new cathedral was taken up by doyen of the chapter of the Cathedral, Helie de Mamemort, who laid the first stone of the Gothic chevet,

Work began in 1273; the sober Romanesque architecture was gradually replaced by more exuberant Gothic forms, largely in the new Rayonnant style. In 1270s The first file rayonnant chapels were constructed, followed by four more to the wast of the right side of the choir. In the 1280s, a new architect and team of workers built the chapels of the Madeleine and of Notre Dame of the Three Kings, each with two traverses.

In the early 1300s, a fourth team of architects and workers completed the choir vaults and built the high windows of the east wall of the south arm of the church, and constructed the rose window.s, a news team architect and team of workers in the 1380s added the grand arcades of the central Vessel and added the vaults of the disambulatory, then built the elevation of the choir and the triforium and the and high windows, then the wall of the transept as far as the triforium. The work was made more difficult by the steep slopes of the site, requiring the building very large terrace which served as the sub-basement of the chevet. Furthermore, due to the growth of the city closer to the walls of the church on the north side,the chapels on that side had to be smaller than those on the south side.

A further complication had appeared in 1259, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris between France and Britain. The town was divided between a British sector and a French sector, with the borderline close to the cathedral, which lay within the French sector.

The construction of the cathedral was halted in 1327. due to ta lack of money. It was resumed in 1378, when the Chapel of Saintg-Marechal was built, and a part of the north transept was constructed. The Romamnesque bell tower was reinforced with with new masonry.

After the Hundred Years War, between 1458 and 1499, the first two traverses of the Gothic nave were constructed. Between 1516 and 1541, Phlippe de Montmorency and Charles Villiers built the portal of Saint John, a major work of Limousin architecture and Flamboyant architecture. The Chapel of Saint Martial was brought into the cathedral complex by the building of a new wall,

In 1533, Jean de Langeac commissioned the ornate jube to close the choir, and began work on the next four traverses of the nave.

Construction was halted after the death of the archbishop, due to a shortage of funds. The final three traverses of the nave and the narthex connecting the bello tower to the Romanesque cathedral was not completed 1888, when the Romanesque entry porch was topped with decorative new Gothic levels. and attached to the nave."Cathédrale de Limoges", Centre de la Culture du Limousin Médiéval ([[1]])</ref>

Description

The crypt of the cathedral is the most historic portion of the cathedral. It contained the tombs of the bishop, but it is not open to the public today because it was filled with earth the during the Gothic period to support the new Gothic structure above it. However, Romanesque paintings from the same period are visible in some of the chapels. The lower portions of the bell tower were also built at this time in the Romanesque style.

Architecture

Nave and choir, respectively, looking east, through a "folding out" lens that nearly flattens out the steep Gothic arches.

The walls of Romanesque crypt have beautiful frescoes representing Christ in glory. Some medieval paintings are still visible in some chapels (including representatives of angelic musicians) but almost all are frescoes of the 19th century.

The Cathedral of Limoges has two organs: a neoclassical instrument built by Georges Danion in 1963 and a choir organ, installed in 1850. and restored 1891 by Merklin. Every summer, the association of the cathedral organizes organ concerts to highlight the major organs of this building.

Gallery

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