Bayonne Cathedral: A Gothic Episcopal Church in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Aquitaine, English, French
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page21 sections
History
Bayonne Cathedral is a Gothic cathedral in Bayonne, France, built chiefly from the early thirteenth century in the Rayonnant tradition, a phase of Gothic architecture known for elaborate tracery and radiating window designs. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Mary and serves as the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Bayonne, Lescar and Oloron. Its long construction history reflects repeated fires, the transition from Romanesque to Gothic building, and the changing fortunes of Bayonne as a city under English and French rule.
Early Episcopal Church
Bayonne has been an episcopal seat since the late fourth century, and the cathedral appears to have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary from an early period. Around 900, Saint Leo, a Christian missionary and bishop traditionally associated with the re-Christianization of Bayonne, was said to have arrived after repeated Norman raids had left the region without clergy or a functioning church.
A tradition connects Saint Leo’s mission with a former Temple of Mars in the city center. After a miracle associated with the temple, part of the population converted, the building was demolished, and a cathedral was raised in its place. The church later suffered further attacks, including Saracen raids in the tenth century. The cathedral also preserves the reliquary of Saint Leo, a container for a sacred relic, maintaining his association with the religious history of Bayonne.
Romanesque Foundation and Gothic Rebuilding
In the twelfth century, Bishop Raymond de Martres planned a Romanesque cathedral dedicated to Notre-Dame and began collecting funds for the project. His successor, Arnaud Loup de Bessabat, probably laid the first stone in 1140 or 1141 on the site of the present cathedral.
Fires damaged the building in 1199 and 1224. A much larger fire in 1258 destroyed half of Bayonne and damaged part of the choir. The townspeople then rebuilt the church with new Gothic techniques. The architect known as the Champagne master constructed the eastern end, or chevet, and probably part of the transept and Gothic cloister, reusing Romanesque walls. After the earlier southern tower was damaged, he also erected a bell tower beside the chapels at the southern end of the chevet.
The Gothic cathedral is conventionally dated to 1213, although its successive construction phases extended through the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. In 1310, lightning caused a fire that destroyed the remaining Romanesque sections while leaving the Gothic work intact. Building then proceeded westward during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, helped in part by donations from Cardinal Guillaume Godin, a fourteenth-century cardinal and church patron from Bayonne.
The final bay of the nave was completed in 1404, followed by the aisles. The cathedral was almost complete when French forces retook Bayonne from the English in 1451. Work on the south tower began in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century under the lay treasurers Bernardon Lehet and his son Auger. In 1615, the tower received an eight-sided slate dome with a bulbous form and two crosses.
Revolution, Restoration, and Religious Continuity
During the French Revolution, the cathedral was profaned and converted into a fodder store in 1793. During the imperial period it served as a military warehouse. The building became suitable for worship again only after the signing of the Concordat, the formal agreement that regulated relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the state.
Major restoration and alteration took place between 1856 and 1896 under Émile Boeswillwald, an architect associated with the restoration of historic buildings. The work included the north tower and the Gothic spires, together with the replacement of furnishings and architectural elements damaged during the Revolution. Bishop Lacroix promoted the restoration, and a bequest from Lormand provided 40,000 gold francs for the work.
Resurfacing, structural restoration, stained-glass conservation, and other interventions continued during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The choir was rearranged to follow the liturgical reforms introduced after the Second Vatican Council. The cathedral remains part of the Latin Catholic tradition, the Western tradition of the Roman Catholic Church.
Bayonne Cathedral was used by pilgrims following the Voie de Soulac, a French route within the wider network leading to the shrine of Saint James at Santiago de Compostela. In 1998 it was inscribed as part of the UNESCO World Heritage property Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France. The entire building had already been classified as a protected historic monument in 1862.
The Organ and the Cloister in History
The first known organ was installed in 1488 by Dominique Castelbon. It was repaired around 1580 to 1590, restored or rebuilt between 1625 and 1631, and moved to a new west gallery in 1705. François Lépine restored it in 1725, and it was modified again in 1774. The cathedral’s conversion into a fodder store during the Revolution caused the instrument to deteriorate; Bordis of Pau restored it in 1803.
In 1865, Merklin-Schültze rebuilt the organ as a Romantic instrument with 36 stops on three keyboards and pedal, reusing the classified eighteenth-century case. The same firm raised it in 1891, and electric wind supply was installed in 1920. Victor Gonzalez built a new 53-stop organ between 1935 and 1937, incorporating elements of the Merklin instrument and replacing the console. A further intervention by Danion-Gonzalez in 1979 remained unfinished, and the organ was still in poor condition in 2022 despite several proposed restoration projects.
In the Middle Ages, the cloister served as a meeting place for neighborhood and guild assemblies. It also contained burials and continued to host cultural events in modern times. The cloister is currently managed by the Centre des monuments nationaux.
Remains
Bayonne Cathedral stands in the historic city center on a hill overlooking the Adour and the Nive near their confluence. The building has a Latin-cross plan, with a central nave, two aisles, and a transept. Its walls combine ochre Mousserolles stone with white Bidache stone. The cathedral measures 76.96 meters in length and 33.40 meters in width. The central nave rises 26.50 meters, the aisles reach about 12 meters, and the spires rise approximately 70 meters.
Gothic Layout and Exterior
Chevet and Towers
The eastern chevet, the end of the church that includes the apse and related chapels, is the oldest surviving part of the Gothic cathedral. It dates from the thirteenth century and shows a marked influence from the Champagne architectural tradition. The apse and ambulatory, a passage around the choir giving access to radiating chapels, form the eastern focus of the building. The transept, nave, and aisles were built mainly during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with later work continuing into the sixteenth.
The west front, the most recent major part of the cathedral, faces the municipal library, formerly the episcopal palace. A large portal is framed by two towers. At the opposite end, the chevet faces the Nive. The southern bell tower stands beside the chevet chapels, while the northern tower contains five ringing bells. Jacques was cast in 2003 by Cornille-Havard, Marie in 1819 by Jean Delestan of Dax, and Léon, Christ Roi, and Jeanne d’Arc in 1955 by Paccard of Annecy.
Jeanne d’Arc rings the quarter hours, Marie strikes the hours, and Léon rings the Angelus three times each day. Jacques was donated by the municipality of Bayonne and the French state, cast on 11 July 2003, baptized by Bishop Molères on 20 September, and installed in the belfry on 1 October. Marc-Antoine Orellana decorated it with the cathedral and cloister, a ship surmounted by the tree of life, and the cathedral portal. Its crown evokes the celestial Jerusalem. The bell is polychrome, with a browned metal surface, colored decoration, and an asymmetrical oak stock carved and inlaid with bronze. Its clapper is also decorated. An inscription reads, “At every age, choose to love, in truth.”
Nave and Vaults
The nave contains seven bays with quadripartite rib vaults and rises in three levels: large arcades, a triforium, and tall windows. The triforium is a gallery-like passage or arcade above the main arcades. The first bay may function as a narthex, or entrance vestibule, and its heavier piers support the two towers. The organ gallery occupies this bay, while the chapel in the northern aisle contains the baptismal font.
The six regular western bays have painted heraldic bosses, projecting decorated stones at the intersections or ends of vault ribs. Their imagery recalls Bayonne’s history under the dukes of Aquitaine, who were also kings of England. French fleurs-de-lis appear beside the three leopards associated with the English kings’ Gascon possessions. The triforium opens from the final nave bay onward.
A boss in the south transept depicts a Bayonnais ship with eight sailors. Its sternpost rudder, mounted at the rear of the vessel rather than operated as a side-mounted steering oar, is traditionally linked with Bayonne, and Basques are said to have spread the device through Europe in the early twelfth century. The eagle of John, the ox of Luke, Matthew at the bow, and the lion of Mark beneath the hull surround the ship. Together, the composition represents the Church as a ship.
Choir and Chapels
Raised Choir and Liturgical Furnishings
The raised choir occupies the chevet and the crossing of the transept. In the apse, a richly decorated high altar of Carrara marble stands beneath a high ciborium, a canopy over an altar. Its tabernacle, the container for the reserved Eucharistic sacrament, is set within the canopy. The polychrome marble pavement forms crowned lions and eagles facing the altar. Louis Steinheil designed the pavement, which was executed by the Géruset workshop of Bagnères-de-Bigorre.
The pavement motifs derive from those on a chasuble, a vestment worn during Mass, brought back by Bernard de Lacarre from the Third Crusade and rediscovered in a tomb in Saint Anne’s Chapel in 1853. A quotation from the First Book of Kings is inscribed between the columns of the apse.
The neo-Gothic ciborium forms a large pointed canopy resembling a miniature Sainte-Chapelle. Four angels bearing the instruments of Christ’s Passion guard its corners. At the transept crossing, modern liturgical furnishings made of beechwood by Dominique Kaeppelin in 2003 include the altar, ambo, credence table, cathedra, and other seats. The ambo, a liturgical reading stand, depicts an oak recalling the Oak of Mamre and serving as a Basque emblem. Birds in its foliage symbolize spiritual life, while oak leaves appear again on the cathedra, the bishop’s seat.
The 2003 altar depicts the Resurrection and the crossing of the Red Sea, interpreted as the Jewish and Christian Passovers, with animals of Creation on its sides. A figure of the resurrected Christ stands on the right transept pier at the entrance to the choir.
Aisle and Ambulatory Chapels
Seven chapels line the northern aisle: the Baptismal Fonts Chapel, Saint Michael, Saint Teresa, Saint Leo, the Crucifix, Saint Jerome, and Saint John the Baptist. Seven more open from the ambulatory: Saint Martin, Saint Peter, Saint Joseph, the axial Chapel of the Virgin, Saint James, the Sacred Heart, and Saint Anne.
The ambulatory and radiating chapels have a single skewed vault, an unusual feature also found at Soissons Cathedral. Behind Saint Jerome’s Chapel, the chapter room is a small vaulted chamber with liernes and tiercerons, secondary ribs added beyond the principal structural ribs. It first served as the canons’ sacristy and later became the chapter room.
Saint Leo Chapel and South-Aisle Rooms
A large nineteenth-century Saint Leo Chapel, also called the Blessed Sacrament Chapel or parish chapel, occupies the site of the former north gallery of the cloister along the south aisle. The chapel itself was built in the sixteenth century in the Flamboyant style, a late Gothic manner known for intricate tracery and elaborate vault decoration. Its vault contains liernes and tiercerons.
After the Second World War, Bishop Terrier installed an armorial window with twelve coats of arms of Bayonne bishops, together with his own arms and those of Pope Pius XII. This accounts for the occasional name “bishops’ sacristy.” A passage between the chapel and the former prebendaries’ sacristy leads to the cloister. Beneath the south tower, the former Chapel of the Virgin later became the prebendaries’ sacristy and subsequently a storage room.
Choir Alterations, Cloister, and Bell History
Choir Arrangement
The choir formerly included a large enclosed canons’ choir near the middle of the nave, probably built toward the end of the fifteenth century. Its seats also accommodated the governor, justice officials, and magistrates. Bishop Beauvau ordered its removal in 1702 and moved the choir toward the high altar, which was advanced to the head of the crossing.
South Cloister
The south cloister is an irregular four-sided polygon and is generally described as Rayonnant Gothic. Its construction includes work from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and it formerly contained 28 small vaults. The galleries preserve funerary enclosures, wall tombs called enfeus, tombs, and gravestones dating from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The outer west wall is probably the oldest surviving element of the architectural complex.
The cloister originally contained several entrances to the church, the choir stairs, and the street. Its north gallery was removed in the nineteenth century to create the Saint Leo parish chapel and sacristy. This alteration concealed the only portal said to have survived the French Revolution and described by Victor Hugo; the former outer wall of the south aisle was reworked as an arcade.
Bells and Earlier Bell Tower
Archaeological remains found during construction of the neighboring municipal library indicate that bells were formerly cast on site. In the Middle Ages, the bell tower stood near the chevet beside the present cloister entrance. The bell-ringer used a double sundial, one vertical and one equinoctial, near his dwelling, and the sundial remains visible. Bayonne installed a clock in the cathedral tower in 1595.
Stained Glass, Organ, and Furnishings
Windows and Painted Decoration
The stained glass ranges from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century and depicts biblical subjects, episodes from the life of Christ, and the lives of saints. A notable window in Saint Jerome’s Chapel dates from 1531 and shows Christ expelling the demon from the daughter of the Canaanite woman.
The early twentieth-century choir windows are signed by Paul Louzier and Edmond Socard. Five three-lancet windows in the triforium depict the fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary. The upper windows show the Ascension of Christ and the Assumption of the Virgin, flanked by the four Evangelists and the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Nineteenth-century Gothic-style windows in the apsidal chapels were made from designs by Louis Steinheil, who also produced their wall paintings and the decoration of the ambulatory’s skewed vault.
Organ
The organ case is made of chestnut and fir. It combines a three-turret positive organ with two V-shaped flat sections and a five-turret grand organ with four flat sections of equal height. Laurel garlands, trophies, flaming urns, and corbels decorate the case. The present instrument has three 56-note keyboards and a 32-note pedalboard, with mechanical key action operated through a Barker machine and electrically operated stop action.
Paintings, Pulpit, and Altars
The cathedral contains paintings, altars, and furnishings listed in the French Ministry of Culture’s cultural-property inventory. Bishop Guillaume d’Arche commissioned six paintings of the life of the Virgin from Claude Joseph Vernet for the choir between 1761 and 1768. Other identified works include Birth of the Virgin and Presentation of the Virgin by Jacques-Philippe Caresme, with the latter in the sacristy; Education of the Virgin by Jean Bardin in Saint Anne’s Chapel; and Flight into Egypt by Nicolas Brenet in the parish chapel. A monumental Last Supper occupies the south transept, while fourteen paintings form a Way of the Cross along the aisles.
An octagonal mahogany pulpit from the Canary Islands, dated 1760, stands against the fourth pillar. Canon Clérisse donated it. Its eighteenth-century Rocaille decoration, a style of asymmetrical shell-like and rock-inspired ornament, includes allegories of Hope, Charity, Faith, and Justice. The forged-iron stair rail bears intertwined letters representing Ave Maria. The original sounding board and back were lost during the Revolution and later replaced.
