Avignon Cathedral: A Romanesque Cathedral in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
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- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Papal States
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page19 sections
History
Avignon Cathedral, also known as Notre-Dame-des-Doms, is a Catholic cathedral in Avignon, France, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The present church has served as a cathedral since the 12th century and is primarily Provençal Romanesque, with Proto-Gothic and Baroque additions. Built on the Rocher des Doms beside the Palais des Papes, it is the seat of the Archdiocese of Avignon and received the title of minor basilica from Pope Pius IX in 1854.
Early church and cathedral complex
Local tradition identifies Saint Ruf, regarded as Avignon’s first bishop, as the founder of the church. According to this tradition, he built a chapel on the Rocher des Doms, while Charlemagne later established the basilica of Notre-Dame-des-Doms there. Saint Ruf’s relics were eventually brought to the cathedral in a silver reliquary. During the French Revolution, the reliquary was profaned and the relics were dispersed.
A cathedral complex existed at the site by the 10th century. It included Notre-Dame Cathedral, the parish church of Saint-Étienne, the Saint John the Baptist baptistery, and a cloister between the Romanesque apse and the edge of the rock. In the 14th century, Saint-Étienne was absorbed into the Palais des Papes and replaced by the chapel of Pope Benedict XII. The baptistery and cloister later disappeared.
Papal Avignon and medieval changes
In 1316, a chapel was built on the south side of the cathedral as the tomb chapel of Pope John XXII. It was later mutilated and profaned. In 1336, Cardinal Giacomo Stefaneschi commissioned Simone Martini to paint frescoes in the porch. The work was completed before Stefaneschi died in 1343.
Avignon became a metropolitan see in 1475, when its diocese was raised to an archdiocese. Its archbishop retained the pallium, a ceremonial woolen vestment granted to certain senior Catholic archbishops, until 2002. Avignon then became a suffragan diocese of Marseille, meaning a diocese subordinate within an ecclesiastical province, while the cathedral remained the seat of the Archdiocese of Avignon.
Siege, collapse, and rebuilding
During the five-year siege of Avignon under Pope Benedict XIII, houses between the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, and the Rhône bridge were demolished in 1403 to strengthen the defenses. High walls were built on the Rocher des Doms to connect the two palaces with the bridge tower, creating movement between them.
On 27 January 1405, the cathedral’s pyramidal bell tower collapsed during vespers and destroyed the ancient Saint John the Baptist baptistery. Catalan forces associated with Rodrigo and Antonio de Luna were accused of causing the collapse and used the ruins as an artillery platform. The stated physical cause was the weight of bombard weapons installed during the earlier siege.
The cathedral gained side chapels during the 14th and 17th centuries. In 1671, François de Royers de La Valfenière was commissioned to build a much larger apse. The following year, François d’Elbène and Pierre Péru created a gallery in the form of a tribune around the nave, cutting into the Romanesque supports. Around 1680, two more chapels were added on the south side, one for Cardinal Libelli by François d’Elbène and another by François de Royers de La Valfenière.
Revolution, restoration, and protection
The cathedral was looted during the French Revolution, and its pre-Revolutionary bells were melted down for cannon bronze. Restored under the First Empire, it returned to worship in 1822. During the restoration of the metropolitan church in 1825, a new large bell was cast at Avignon by Perre. It cracked in 1830 and was recast in 1848 by Perre and Pierre Pierron, together with a smaller large bell. Another bell was added in 1853, although the two poorly tuned additional bells were later transferred to the bell tower of Saint-Pierre Basilica in Avignon.
Eight further bells were added in 1854 and 1855. Jean Zeeh helped install four bells in 1980 and donated eight more in 1984. These were blessed in 1985 and installed on 18 March that year. In 1988, fourteen additional bells completed the present 35-bell carillon. The cathedral was included on France’s first list of historic monuments in 1840 and reaffirmed on the list published on 18 April 1914. Protection was extended to the entire complex by an order of 12 May 2023. The cathedral also forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage ensemble of the Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble, and Avignon Bridge, recognized in 1995.
The building closed for renovation from 2014 to 2016 and reopened during Holy Week on 24 March 2016.
Remains
Rock setting and exterior
Avignon Cathedral stands on the Rocher des Doms, a rocky prominence in northern Avignon above the left bank of the Rhône. Its elevated position, high tower, and statue of the Virgin make it visible from the opposite bank, from Mont Andaon near Fort Saint-André at Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, and from the Alpilles roughly 20 kilometers to the south. The building combines Provençal Romanesque construction with Proto-Gothic and Baroque elements.
Bell tower and entrance porch
The high bell tower takes the place of a conventional facade. Pilasters extend its full height, while engaged columns and two levels of pointed-arch openings form the bell chamber. The tower has no surviving pyramidal spire and is topped by a gilded lead statue of the Immaculate Conception. Installed in 1859, the statue weighs 4.5 tonnes and was regilded for the Great Jubilee of 2000.
At the tower’s base, an ancient-style pronaos, or porch before a temple-like entrance, has a large semicircular arch decorated with an egg-and-dart frieze and closed by an iron grille. Fluted engaged columns with acanthus-leaf capitals and Corinthian half-columns at the corners support the entablature. Its decoration includes a Greek-key frieze and acanthus-leaf modillions, while the pilasters have egg-and-dart capitals. A triangular pediment contains a small splayed oculus with stained glass showing the Virgin and Child.
Interior arrangement
Nave, chapels, and narthex
The interior has a single nave of four bays covered by a pointed barrel vault. Eight rectangular side chapels open from the nave, four on each side, and a continuous Baroque tribune with a marble balustrade runs above them. A narthex, or entrance vestibule, lies between the entrance and the nave bays. It contains statues of Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Martha, together with a painting of the Presence of the Virgin.
The third chapel on the left is dedicated to the Resurrection and has an octagonal plan with a dome. The fourth is dedicated to the Holy Spirit and Saint Névia Félicité. The first chapel on the right, known as the d’Anglezy or Saint Roch Chapel, contains a primitive altar from the 6th century.
Rear chapels and presbytery
At the rear, the Chapel of the Flowers contains paintings of the Healing of a Possessed Person, the Rest of the Holy Family, and the Adoration of the Shepherds. The group includes an 1851 work by Eugène Dévéria, as well as a 17th-century lectern. The chapel also contains the burials of Pope Benedict XII and Archbishop Domenico De Marini. The Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament contains a stone Ecce Homo from around 1500.
The polygonal apse is lit by round-headed openings containing portraits of popes. A domed bay connects it to the nave, and the raised presbytery beneath the bay contains the high altar, an ambo, and the 12th-century episcopal cathedra. This ceremonial bishop’s chair is made of white marble. One armrest bears the lion of Saint Mark and the other the ox of Saint Luke.
Tombs and statues
The cathedral contains the Gothic tombs of Pope John XXII and Pope Benedict XII. The tomb of John XXII is associated with the southern chapel built in 1316. Three statues of the Virgin Mary are recorded in the building, including Notre-Dame de tout Pouvoir and two statues of Notre-Dame des Doms. One of the latter is the gilded lead statue on the bell tower.
Other statues include the Christ of Pity, Saint Agricol of Avignon, Saint Martha, Saint Roch, the Virgin Mary, the Child Jesus, Saint Bénézet, Saint Peter, Saint John, Saint Nicholas, the Sacred Heart, Saint Joseph, Saint Thomas, the Virgin of Pity, Saint Mary Magdalene, Padre Pio, and the Virgin and Child known as Notre-Dame de tout Pouvoir.
Music and bells
Carillon
The 35-bell carillon is distributed across four levels of the bell tower and covers three chromatic octaves. Fifteen bells can be swung, and the total weight is approximately 14 tonnes. The largest bell, Maria de Domnis, weighs about 6,300 kilograms and was cast in 1854 by the Avignon founder Pierre Pierron.
Organs
The gilded organ on the tribune above the cathedra dates from 1819. It was built either by the Lombard organ builder Lodovico Piantanida or by his pupil Giovanni Mentasti. The instrument retains the complete pipework of the Ripieno, Flûtes, and Voce Umana stops, along with its keyboard, pedalboard, and stop action. Its large spring chest contains 15,000 separate pieces and took three workers seven months to construct. The organ moved from the choir to the tribune above the entrance in 1829, then to the tribune above the 14th-century episcopal throne in 1837, when its case was installed. Maison Puget of Toulouse restored it in 1860 and 1881, it was restored again in the 1960s, and it was reassembled and retuned after restoration begun in October 2003.
A former 16th- and 17th-century organ had been badly damaged after the Revolution. A choir organ by Charles Mutin, dated 1902, stands on the floor opposite the cathedra. It has mechanical action, two 56-note keyboards, and a 30-note pedalboard, enclosed in a neoclassical wooden case.
Paintings and medieval drawings
Macabre fresco
A fresco of the encounter of the three dead and the three living was uncovered in the cathedral. Its figures stand beneath individual arcades, framing another macabre scene in which Death shoots arrows at people gathered on both sides. A paleographic study of the inscription naming the donor Pierre de Romans dates the ensemble to the second half of the 13th century, making it one of Europe’s earliest surviving macabre works.
Simone Martini’s preparatory drawings
The porch tympanum preserves traces of two sinopias, preparatory red-pigment drawings used beneath frescoes. One depicts Christ the Redeemer in Glory surrounded by angels, while the other shows the Virgin and Child with angels. Made in the 1340s, the drawings were detached from the tympanum, transferred to panels, and exhibited in the Consistory Hall of the Palais des Papes.
Historical views
The cathedral appears in several historically important images. Antoine Rozen’s 1520 Crucifix Altarpiece is regarded as the second-oldest realistic depiction of the Palais des Papes and Notre-Dame-des-Doms. Étienne Martellange’s realistic drawing of 1617 shows few differences in the cathedral. Later views by James Carroll Beckwith, Paul Signac, and Adrian Stokes present the building in varying visual relationships with the Rhône, Avignon Bridge, Palais des Papes, and Rocher des Doms.
