Toulouse Cathedral (; ) is a Roman Catholic church located in the city of Toulouse, France. The cathedral is a national monument, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Toulouse. It has been listed since 1862 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. cathédrale Saint-Etienne
History The Romanesque cathedral (mostly replaced) The cathedral is said to have been built atop the foundations of a chapel constructed in the 3rd century by Saint Saturnin, sent to Christianize the Gauls and martyred in Toulouse. It is said to have been reconstructed by Saint Exuperius, Bishop of Toulouse, one hundred and fifty years later. This first documented cathedral is recorded at the beginning of the 5th century, but nothing remains of the original building.
A Romanesque cathedral was constructed on the same site beginning in about 1078. The Romanesque structure was smaller than the present church; it was probably about twenty meters wide and 85 meters long. It probably had a massive west front with two towers, a nave with three vessels, and a chevet in three parts extending outwards. The lower portions had oculi at the west. It included works of classical sculpture, such as a votive altar, probably from an earlier church. Examples are now displayed in the Musée Saint-Raymond in Toulouse. This early building was probably begun by bishop Isarn (1071 to 1105), and was continued by his successor Amiel (1105 to 1139).Archives de Toulouse : La cathédrale Saint-Étienne
13th–16th century: two distinct Gothic styles
At the beginning of the 13th century (1210–1220), as the church received several large donations, the nave was largely rebuilt atop the vestiges of the earlier cathedral. The style of the new nave is often called "Raymondine", for Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse. It was the first important example of southern French Gothic architecture. Most of the cathedral today dates from this period. The surviving Romanesque portions include the south wall of the choir and the partitions in the north and south of the present nave. Other surviving Romanesque features include the two oculi, or circular windows, and in a particular feature of southern Gothic, the walls are reinforced by massive buttresses against the wall, rather than the northern style of flying buttresses further away.
In 1271, with the death of the Count of Toulouse, the city and its province became part of the Kingdom of France. The new bishop, Bertrand de L'Isle-Jourdain, quickly adopted the High Gothic and Rayonnant style established in northern France. In about 1272, he commissioned a new architect, probably Jean Deschamps, who was building Narbonne Cathedral, to construct the new choir in the northern style. The new choir that he planned was entirely different from the earlier nave; it was much wider, and was set to one side, rather than on a straight axis with the nave. It was to be built and decorated largely with cut stone, like northern Gothic cathedrals, rather than brick. It was evident that the architect expected that the old nave would be demolished and rebuilt to match the style of the choir. However, the Bishop died in 1286, and financial and political difficulties intervened. The construction slowed down and stopped.Place Saint-Étienne et Cathédrale Saint-Etienne – patrimoines.midipyrenees.fr (fichier pdf)
The southern side of the cathedral was finally finished in the first half of the 14th century. The successors to Bertrand de l'Isle completed the vaults of the chapel in at the end of the 15th century. But the new choir still did not yet have its overhead vaults in place, and the walls were completed only as high as the middle triforium level. Pierre de Moulin (1439–51) modified the grand portal of the nave, destroying the major part of the west front of the 13th century church. Archbishop Bernard de Rousergue (1451–1475) enlarged the choir to the northwest by adding a new chapel, the chapel of Purgatory, on the exterior (it was destroyed in the 20th century in the rebuilding of the surrounding structures). He also created the Chapel of the Agony on the south side, at the entrance of the nave. The keystone of the arches displays his emblem. At the end of the 15th century, the nave and choir were finally joined with the construction of the two new walls on the north side.
At the beginning of the 16th century, a new bishop, Jean d'Orléans, launched a series of major works. In 1518, he commissioned the construction of a sacristy on the northeast side of the choir. He also built the imposing brick clock tower on the north side of the west front. It was built atop a Romanesque foundation, and topped by a gabled belfry, completing the west front. He launched a program to complete the choir begun by Bertrand de l'Isle. To this end he raised the pillars and buttresses on the south side of the choir, with an abundance of decoration in the Flamboyant Gothic style.
In order to make a longer choir and create the space for a substantial transept, he ordered the construction of a massive pillar (now known as the d'Orléans pillar) to support the new structure. He extended the choir to the southwest, with the construction of the Chapel of Notre-Dame des Anges. The pillar was completed, but he died and the rest of project was left unfinished. Those entering the nave are faced, not with the altar, but with the gigantic pillar, and the incomplete transept.
17th and 18th century
On the night of 9–10 December 1609 a fire destroyed the temporary wooden roof of the choir and the furniture of the choir. The emotions caused by the fire inspired a fund-raising campaign from the public and local government to complete the cathedral. Pierre Levelville was the master builder of the new work. He added height to buttresses and put in place flying arches to support the higher walls and vaults. He completed he construction of the midlevel triforuim, and raised the vaults and walls of the choir to twenty-eight meters. This was less than the grand church planned by Bertrand de l'Isle, but the new exterior walls gave it the impression of greater height. He installed large windows in the upper choir, and decorated the walls and windows with Flamboyant tracery. The vaulting finally completed in 1611.
In the following years, the choir was extensively redecorated, with two new organs, choir stalls, and elaborate carved stone choir screens in the nave and choir. The new high altar of the choir, with its elaborate baroque sculpture by Gervais Drouet was installed between 1667 and 1670 The chapels around the choir were also redecorated in the last part of the 17th century with marble retables and paintings. The elaborate wrought iron choir screens of the choir were commissioned in 1764. The intent was to make the interior decoration more dramatic and appealing, in contrast with the austere interiors of Protestant churches.
In 1790, shortly after the outbreak of the French Revolution, the chapter of the choir was abolished, and a number of the funeral monuments in the interior were destroyed. In 1793, the nave was converted into a Temple of Reason. The retable of the parish altar was destroyed, and the sculpture of the portal was largely smashed. The sculpture of the tympanum depicting Christ blessing the world was replaced by a plaque declaring "Temple of Reason". The statues of the apostles, of Saint Stephen and of the Archbishops Pierre and Denis du Moulon were hammered to pieces. In 1794 and 1795, the cathedral served as a collection point for iron and other metal objects, notably the bells taken from all of the surrounding churches.
19th century: Damages, restorations, and competing proposals
Following the French Revolution, the cathedral was formally returned to the Catholic Church on April 19, 1802. The subsequent century was marked by a series of damages, ongoing repairs, and intense debates over the building's future. The stained glass windows, destroyed during the Revolution, were gradually replaced. However, the new windows were damaged again by a hurricane in 1808, and in 1816, the cathedral suffered further damage from the explosion of a nearby powder magazine. Napoleon contributed a sum to restore the unfinished roof, while repairs to the pavement and walls continued intermittently.
The striking lack of unity between the nave and the choir led to numerous proposals for the cathedral's "completion". The most ambitious plans involved demolishing one of the two parts. One proposal suggested tearing down the 13th-century nave, while a competing proposal suggested demolishing the newer choir. Other projects proposed removing all 17th and 18th-century decoration to restore the building to a perceived original Gothic appearance.
Amidst these debates, several restoration campaigns were undertaken. The architect Auguste Virebent restored the Chapel of the Relics (1842–1847) and produced several designs for a new, unified cathedral in the prevailing neo-Gothic style. The architect Jacques Jean Esquié redecorated the choir chapels between 1848 and 1868. In the early 1850s, a more scientific program of restoration began, based on the methods being used on Notre-Dame de Paris. In 1864, Cardinal Deprez received permission to hold a lottery to raise money for the demolition of the old nave, but the plan was never carried out.
20th century: Final unification Ultimately, all radical proposals for demolition were abandoned in favor of a more conservative and pragmatic approach. In the early 20th century, a compromise proposed by the chief architect of Historic Monuments, Auguste Saint-Anne de Louzier, was accepted around 1911.
His solution was to preserve both historical parts of the cathedral while creating a more harmonious transition between them. This was achieved by prolonging the ambulatory on the north side of the choir and constructing a new 15th-century style portal on the side where the two structures met. As part of this project, the maze of buildings clustered against the cathedral was demolished and replaced with a public garden. This project respected the complex, layered history of the building and resulted in the unique configuration seen today.
Exterior
The cathedral is built of brick, like many churches in southern France, due to a lack of suitable stone. The irregular west front exists because the cathedral consists of two incomplete churches of different periods, awkwardly put together. The first, the nave, dating from the early 13th century (1210 to 1220), includes the rose window from 1230 on the west front.
The choir was begun was about 1272, on a new plan and a different axis, was very slow in construction. The new, more ornate northern French Gothic style was introduced to fight Cathar heresy through preaching and more dramatic and inspiring architecture. It also signalled the adherence of Toulouse to France, following the Albigensian Crusade and the extinction of the lineage of the Counts of Toulouse.
The massive brick buttresses against the walls of the choir were built with the expectation that the choir would forty meters high; but due to delays and financial problems, it only reached a height of 28 meters.Toulouse et la brique – La cathédrale Saint-Étienne
The early bell tower, combined with a fortress-like donjon, was built in on the north side of the west front. It was supported by two massive buttresses. It was enlarged in the 16th century by a new tower built against its side, and eventually reached a height 56 meters and a width of five meters.
Interior