Carpentras Cathedral: A Gothic Cathedral and Former Episcopal Seat in France
Site at a Glance
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- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- County of Toulouse, French, Papal States
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page29 sections
History
Carpentras Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church dedicated to Saint Siffrein in Carpentras, France. Built as a Gothic replacement for an earlier Romanesque cathedral between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it served as the cathedral of the papal county of Comtat Venaissin, whose capital was Carpentras, and was the seat of the former Diocese of Carpentras.
Early Episcopal Churches
Tradition attributes the first cathedral on this site to Siffrein, also called Siffredus, a monk of Lérins who became bishop of Carpentras. The original church was a small building with a single nave and was traditionally dedicated to Saint Anthony the Hermit. By the tenth century, the episcopal group had acquired a threefold dedication to the Virgin, Saint Peter, and Saint Siffrein.
A second cathedral was later built on the same site in the Romanesque style, together with a house for the canons, the clergy serving the cathedral chapter. Bishop Geoffroy de Garosse is associated with a larger Romanesque cathedral generally dated to around 1180. An epitaph connected with Geoffroy gives the date 1215, linking his memory with the building or its completion.
The Romanesque cathedral deteriorated severely during the fourteenth century. Its vault collapsed in 1399, and the building itself probably fell between September 1399 and March 1400. The ruins led to the replacement of the Romanesque church with the Gothic cathedral that survives in altered form today.
Gothic Reconstruction
During the Western Schism, the period when rival papal claimants contested leadership of the Western Church, the Avignon pope Benedict XIII ordered a new cathedral on 5 May 1404. The foundation stone was laid on 22 February 1405, and the building was consecrated in 1531.
Thomas Colin of Dinan, described in papal records as the magister operis, or master responsible for directing a medieval building project, was first placed in charge. His use of a square-bay plan produced a comparatively short, massive nave. Jean Laurent, known as “the Burgundian,” took over in September 1409. He later transferred the work to his son-in-law, the stonecutter Antoine Omède, who directed construction from 14 December 1449 until May 1467.
The papal treasury’s accounts show the breadth of the building workforce. Antoine Omède recruited stonecutters from the dioceses of Riez, Lyon, Geneva, Angers, Bourges, Toul, and Cologne. The final major medieval campaign was directed by Blaise Lécuyer, who built the Notre-Dame portal, also called the Jewish Gate, between June 1498 and January 1508. The cathedral was completed and consecrated in 1531.
Baroque and Early Modern Alterations
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Bishop Laurent Bufy commissioned Jacques Bernus to decorate the choir, high altar, tabernacle, and sanctuary. Bernus also made the bishop’s marble tomb. Bishop Horace Capponi ordered the embellishment of the western principal portal in 1615, giving the entrance its later early modern character.
The cathedral was also associated with an active musical tradition. Elzéar Genet, known as Carpentras, was a major Renaissance composer. Nicolas Saboly, a Provençal poet and composer, served as chapel master from 1639 to 1643, while Louis Archimbaud was the cathedral organist from 1727 to 1789.
The church historically housed the Holy Bit, a relic traditionally identified as one of the nails used in the Crucifixion. Its original gilt-silver reliquary, made in 1330, was destroyed during the French Revolution. A new shrine was produced in 1872 by Armand-Calliat, a craftsman from Lyon.
Revolutionary and Modern Changes
The French Revolution destroyed the marble statues of Saints Peter and Paul that stood above the western portal. Their niches remain empty, and a marble cross formerly placed in front of the cathedral was also destroyed. Ceremonial silver and gold objects donated by Archbishop d’Inguimbert were stolen during the same period.
The Concordat of 1801, Napoleon Bonaparte’s agreement with the Catholic Church that reorganized relations between the French state and the church, abolished the Diocese of Carpentras and incorporated it into the Diocese of Avignon, now the Archdiocese of Avignon. The former cathedral consequently became the Saint-Siffrein parish church. Since 2009, it has also been the seat of the titular bishop of Carpentras.
Several older structures around the church disappeared during the nineteenth century. The Romanesque cloister, regarded as the principal surviving remnant of the first cathedral, and the adjacent canons’ house were demolished in 1829. A prison was built on the site of the canons’ house. The surviving Romanesque bell tower was demolished in 1875.
The present bell tower was built between 1899 and 1902 in a Neo-Gothic style inspired by the tower of Saint-Martial Church in Avignon. Carpentras Cathedral was designated a French historic monument in 1840. The protected elements include works of art, wrought ironwork, stained glass, and an organ.
Remains
Carpentras Cathedral is a Gothic building raised on the site of the earlier Romanesque cathedral. A Romanesque dome survives within the present complex, while ruins associated with the Romanesque building remain on the northern side. The church is organized around a west front, a long nave with side chapels, and a choir ending in a semicircular apse. Its exterior combines the Gothic rebuilding with later portal work and the nineteenth-century Neo-Gothic bell tower.
Façades, Portals, and Bell Tower
Western Façade
The west façade has three parts arranged over two levels. Its portals have broken pediments and are framed by marble columns with Corinthian capitals. The principal portal dates from 1615, when Bishop Horace Capponi ordered its embellishment. Its walnut doors carry Capponi’s arms. Above them, two niches retain their carved fruit garlands, although the statues of Saints Peter and Paul that once occupied them were destroyed during the French Revolution.
Notre-Dame Portal
The southern Notre-Dame portal, also called the Jewish Gate, is a Flamboyant Gothic entrance built between 1498 and 1508. Flamboyant Gothic is a late Gothic style known for flowing tracery and elaborate ornament. The pointed arch rises to an ogee gable ending in a finial and is covered with carved foliage. Above it are the arms of the cathedral chapter and the Rostagni family, together with the “rat ball,” an emblem associated with a world corrupted by sin and heresy.
Nine statue niches are arranged around the southern portal. Its prism-shaped central pier supports a cast-iron statue of Notre-Dame des Neiges made in 1855, associated with the title of Saint Mary Major in Rome. A separate southern side door, also called the Jewish Gate, dates from 1840. Tradition connects its use with Jews newly converted to Catholicism entering the nave. The doorway is surmounted by the rat-ball motif and a tympanum depicting the Holy Trinity.
Neo-Gothic Bell Tower
The Neo-Gothic bell tower rises 58 metres and contains five swinging bells. The largest, the 2.8-ton Siffrède, was cast by the Paccard foundry in 1909 and sounds C3. A second Paccard bell from 1909 weighs 1.6 tons and sounds D3. The remaining bells include a 960-kilogram bell cast by Eugène Baudouin in 1896 and sounding E3, a 630-kilogram bell cast by Pierre Pierron in 1847 and sounding F3, and a 360-kilogram Paccard bell from 1909 sounding A3.
Nave and Choir
Nave
The nave measures 42 metres in length, 15.30 metres in width, and 23.25 metres from the floor to the vault. It contains six bays covered by rib vaults, which are ceilings carried by intersecting masonry ribs. The decorated keystones were all remade in the nineteenth century. The keystone nearest the main portal bears the arms of Joseph-Dominique d’Inguimbert, Bishop of Carpentras from 1738 to 1757 and also known as Dom Malachie. Five chapels line the south side and six line the north side, a difference attributed to the additional portal on the southern flank.
Choir and Apse
The semicircular apse is 12 metres high and is divided into twelve bays with radiating rib vaults. The choir measures 16 metres long, 11 metres wide, and 19 metres high. The keystones of its two rib vaults bear the arms of Benedict XIII and Pope Pius IX. An iron grille separates the choir from the nave. Joseph-Dominique d’Inguimbert donated the grille, which bears his coat of arms.
Two galleries occupy the choir. The gallery on the right contains the grand organ, made in 1455 and protected as a historic monument. Beneath the left gallery is a triptych, an artwork formed from three connected panels, showing the Coronation of the Virgin with Saint Siffrein and Saint Michael. Luc Ta-Van-Thinh established its attribution to Enguerrand Quarton in 2002. The choir also contains the tomb of Bishop Ayrard, a former provost of Arles who became bishop of Carpentras and founded the cathedral chapter in 982.
High Altar and Choir Furnishings
The high altar is made of white marble and dates from 1845. Two angels of adoration made by Jacques Bernus decorate it. The choir’s iron grille, galleries, altar, and sculpture preserve elements from several periods of the cathedral’s furnishing, from the medieval organ to Bernus’s later work.
Chapels and Baptismal Chapel
Baptismal Chapel
The baptismal fonts originally stood in the narthex, or entrance hall, and now occupy a separate chapel. They consist of a marble basin and support beneath a pediment bearing the arms of Carpentras. A marble cupola has covered the ensemble since 1835. A seventeenth-century stone balustrade, formerly used to close the choir, is also associated with the chapel.
Former Chapel of Saint John the Baptist
The former Chapel of Saint John the Baptist contains paintings of Saint Helena carrying the Cross and the Flight into Egypt, the latter dated 1840. It also has a seventeenth-century painted wooden altarpiece, originally polychrome, and an eighteenth-century altar.
Corpus Domini Chapel
A chapel formerly dedicated to Saints Zachary and James was later dedicated to Corpus Domini before receiving its present dedication. Its seventeenth-century altar and altarpiece are made of polychrome marble. A stained-glass window and a painting depict the death of Saint Joseph.
Chapel of Saints Sebastian and Roch
A chapel with a yellow Genoese marble altar contains seventeenth-century gilded wooden statues of Saints Sebastian and Roch. One wall carries a memorial stele to French military dead of the First World War.
Sacred Heart Chapel
The former Chapel of Saint Mark, now also called the Sacred Heart Chapel, contains a stained-glass window donated by Bishop Michel Anglici in the fifteenth century. It depicts Saint Siffrein between Saint Michael and Saint Catherine. The chapel also houses a sixteen-stop organ made by Pascal Quoirin in 1974.
Chapel of Saint Claude
A northern chapel dedicated to Saint Claude or the Guardian Angel contains a grey Louis XV-style marble altar made by the Mazzetti brothers of Avignon. It also holds the tomb of Jacques Sacrati, Bishop of Carpentras in 1572. The chapel served as the burial place of the cathedral’s bishops before episcopal tombs were established in the choir. A gated eastern door leads to the oratory of the Holy Bit.
Chapel of Saint Siffrein
Another northern chapel, formerly dedicated to Saint Louis and Saint Crispin, is now dedicated to Siffrein, the cathedral’s patron saint. Its seventeenth-century painted and gilded wooden altar and altarpiece were restored in the nineteenth century.
Chapel of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows
The former Chapel of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows provided access to the old cloister. Its original corridor is partly destroyed and blocked. The chapel contains the tomb of the Sadolet bishops.
Chapel of Saints Blaise and Eligius
The former Chapel of Saints Blaise and Eligius is the most richly decorated chapel in the cathedral. Its polychrome marble altar and altarpiece came from the Carmelite convent of Carpentras. They are decorated with statues of the prophet Elijah and Saint Teresa of Avila.
Chapel of Saint Crispin
A northern chapel contains an eighteenth-century altar, a seventeenth-century altarpiece, and wooden statues of Saint Crispin from the eighteenth century and Saints Blaise and John the Baptist from the nineteenth century.
Chapel of the Cross
The former Chapel of the Cross contains a marble plaque commemorating three Carpentras priests who died during the Carmelite Massacre in Paris on 2 September 1792. Above the chapel entrance is a small glazed loge, or enclosed gallery, created by Bishop d’Inguimbert so that he could attend services without leaving the episcopal palace, now the courthouse.
Relic and Ecclesiastical Collections
The Holy Bit
The Holy Bit is traditionally described as a horse bit made from one of the nails of Christ’s Cross by Helena, the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine. The relic was reportedly visible at Constantinople until the twelfth century and became visible at Carpentras after crusaders sacked the city in 1204. It became a symbol of the local bishops and, in 1260, of Carpentras. The original 1330 gilt-silver reliquary was destroyed during the French Revolution, and the present shrine was made in 1872 by Armand-Calliat.
Organs and Liturgical Furnishings
The cathedral contains two organs. The grand organ in the right choir gallery dates from 1455 and is protected as a historic monument, while the Sacred Heart Chapel contains the sixteen-stop organ made by Pascal Quoirin in 1974. The church also preserves collections of brocade chasubles, liturgical vestments worn by priests during Mass, and marble altars.
