Cahors Cathedral: A Romanesque and Gothic Cathedral in France
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- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
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- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- County of Toulouse, French
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page23 sections
History
Cahors Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to Saint Stephen in Cahors, France, and the seat of the Diocese of Cahors. Its construction began in the late eleventh or early twelfth century, producing a building that combines Romanesque, Gothic, and Romano-Byzantine elements. The chronology of its several parts remains debated, but the cathedral developed through successive campaigns that shaped the monumental church and its surrounding canonical quarter.
Early Christian and medieval predecessors
A tradition attributed an earlier cathedral at Cahors to Saint Martial around 260. The evangelization of Quercy by Saint Martial and Saint Genulphe, however, belongs to legend rather than securely established history. The first historically attested bishop of Cahors is Florentius, who was recorded in 405.
An early church may have been destroyed when Theudebert, son of Chilperic I, captured and destroyed Cahors in 574. A cathedral existed again by the time of Saint Didier. His life and testament refer to the cathedral and its associated buildings, including a double palace for the bishop and clergy and an oratory dedicated to Saint Martin.
The cathedral may have suffered another destruction during the Saracen attack of 732 or during Pepin the Short’s campaign against Waiofar, duke of Aquitaine, in 763. A later church was probably rebuilt under Charlemagne or his successors. That building may have continued in use while the present domed cathedral was being developed.
The Romanesque cathedral
From the eleventh century, the Gregorian Reform, an effort to strengthen clerical discipline and the Church’s independence from lay control, reshaped the cathedral institution. Bishop Géraud III de Cardaillac endowed the chapter through a testament probably written in 1090. With support from Pope Urban II and his successors, the chapter recovered properties that laypeople had appropriated. The resulting increase in resources helped finance a new cathedral and cloister.
The Romanesque building campaign began in the early twelfth century. Pope Callixtus II, who served from 1119 to 1124, consecrated the high altar on 27 July 1119, although construction continued afterward. One interpretation places completion shortly after 1140, when the north portal may have been added. Other analyses extend the work later, with the domes possibly dating from the late twelfth or early thirteenth century.
The cathedral quarter developed alongside the church. A Romanesque cloister, buildings for the canons, and a structure and tower known as the chapter granary were established in the early twelfth century. Two Romanesque towers dating from the eleventh century were discovered in 2003 against the eastern wall of the canonical enclosure. A second medieval tower, probably the one mentioned in 1308, was demolished in 1822.
The Sainte Coiffe, traditionally regarded as the cloth that covered Christ’s head at his burial, is preserved in the cathedral. Its arrival is associated with Géraud de Cardaillac, who was said to have brought it from the Holy Land. One tradition dates the event to 1113.
Gothic expansion and later medieval development
A Gothic building phase followed in the thirteenth century. It began either in the mid-thirteenth century under Bishop Barthélemy de Roux or around 1280 under Bishop Raimond de Cornil. The Romanesque lower sections of the apse were retained, while the apse was raised, the choir received a vault, and four lateral chapels were added.
The western structure was probably begun in the late thirteenth century rather than in 1309, as was once believed. The Gothic choir and western structure belong to the period of prosperity during the later thirteenth century. By then, the rear of the original three-domed arrangement had collapsed and had been replaced by the Gothic choir.
The Chapel of Saint Anne beside the south portal and the Chapel of Saint Martin probably date from the fourteenth century. Saint Martin’s Chapel was rebuilt between 1328 and 1337. It later became the sacristy, having previously served for synodal assemblies and, in the sixteenth century, as a chapter room.
Economic recovery after the Hundred Years’ War enabled further construction. The deep Chapel of Notre-Dame and the Holy Coiffe, built on the site of the former southern apsidiole, was consecrated by Antoine d’Alamand on 14 November 1484. A small chapel between the northern and eastern apsidioles was built late in the fifteenth century, and the present Chapel of Saint-Gausbert was constructed around 1500.
The cloister was rebuilt from the final decade of the fifteenth century. Work began in 1497 and ended in 1504. The archdeaconry of Saint John was completed in 1528, while a former Chapel of Saint John north of the cathedral was later destroyed.
Revolution, restoration, and modern conservation
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, balustrades were added to the domes, and the high altar and rood screen were rebuilt. A gallery for the choir organ was installed in 1722, while a gallery for the canons blocked the Romanesque north portal. A pulpit followed in 1738. Most Gothic paintings were covered with whitewash, apart from those in the domes.
During the French Revolution, the cathedral chapter was abolished and the building was assigned to the Cult of Reason. Catholic worship returned in 1795, but inadequate maintenance left the church in need of extensive repair. The eighteenth-century episcopal palace was converted into a prefecture during the Revolution.
Repairs to the choir and northern apsidiole took place during the first half of the nineteenth century. The Romanesque north portal was cleared in 1862. A complete restoration had been considered from the early 1840s, and work began in the late 1860s after Bishop Pierre-Alfred Grimardias pressed for the project. The apse was restored and reorganized, a funerary crypt was added, medieval paintings were uncovered, stained glass was installed, and roof structures concealing the domes were removed.
The western structure was reinforced in the 1950s because of subsidence, and the cloister was restored in the 1960s. A program begun in 1975 renovated the western porch and choir-organ case and uncovered Gothic paintings found in 1956. The axial chapel was restored in connection with the commemoration of the ninth centenary of the Romanesque cathedral and the consecration of 1119.
Modern stained glass was installed in the nave in 2013. The project followed a program begun by the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs in 2007 and was designed by Gérard Collin-Thiébaut with the glass master Pierre-Alain Parot. Cahors Cathedral has traditionally been an important station on the Via Podiensis, the pilgrimage route from Le Puy-en-Velay toward the Pyrenees and Santiago de Compostela. It forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage serial property “Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France,” inscribed in 1998.
The cathedral was classified as a French historic monument in 1862, and a new classification order issued in 2020 replaced the earlier entries. The organ’s instrumental section was separately classified as a historic-monument object in 1979.
Remains
Cahors Cathedral is an austere, fortress-like church with a fortified western front, a broad domed nave, a Gothic apse, side chapels, and a cloister to the south. Its Romanesque and Gothic elements are joined by a Romano-Byzantine domed design. The church has no transept. The rectangular plan consists of several bays and ends in a semicircular apse with apsidioles, while later chapels occupy spaces between the apsidioles and the piers supporting the domes.
Western front and domed nave
Fortified west front
The western structure resembles a castle wall. A narthex, or entrance hall, is surmounted by a belfry between two towers. The front contains six narrow openings, a triple-archivolt portal, a gallery, and a central rose window. Two additional chapels flank the entrance within this western structure. Fourteenth-century murals in the narthex were discovered in 1950 and cleared and restored in 1988 and 1989. Painted between 1316 and 1324 during the episcopate of Guillaume de Labroue, they cover three walls with scenes of the Creation, the making of the angels, stars and animals, Adam and Eve, their expulsion from Eden, Adam’s work, and Eve spinning wool in a fortified house.
Domed nave
The nave is approximately 20 metres wide and 44 metres long. Two large ovoid domes in the Byzantine manner cover it, each measuring about 16 metres across and rising approximately 32 metres high. Curved triangular supports called pendentives carry the domes above the square spaces below. Each dome rests on six powerful, nearly square piers, each almost 4 metres wide.
This arrangement belongs to the series-of-domes tradition of southwestern France, whose design is related to Saint-Front in Périgueux. The western dome retains a fourteenth-century mural of the stoning of Saint Stephen, surrounded by eight prophets with animals beneath their feet. The central dome formerly contained a representation of the Last Supper at the level of the nave and choir. That painting was concealed beneath cement during an earlier restoration.
Medieval paintings were also uncovered on the walls and pendentives. Two pendentives beside the triumphal arch portray Saints Urcisse and Genulphe. Paintings of the bishops of Cahors once filled the eastern dome, but deterioration and renewed whitewashing left only limited remains. The surviving paintings in the western dome were restored in 1891, 1953, and 1982.
Romanesque portals
The northern and southern sides of the nave each retain a Romanesque portal. The southern portal probably dates from around 1130. It has a trilobed, cusped arch, three decorated bands following the curves of the arch, and an outer band ornamented with billet patterning. Its form belongs to a portal type also found in Aquitaine and at the abbey church of Moissac.
The northern portal was made after 1140 and is generally dated to around 1140 to 1150. It projects from the north facade as a Romanesque entrance structure. Its sculpted tympanum, the field enclosed beneath the portal arch, depicts the Ascension of Christ and episodes from the life and martyrdom of Saint Stephen, an early Christian martyr traditionally regarded as the first Christian martyr.
Christ stands within an almond-shaped frame called a mandorla. He blesses with his right hand and holds a Bible in his left, while angels surround him. The Virgin and eleven apostles occupy the lower zone. Other scenes show Saint Stephen before the Sanhedrin, his expulsion by a high priest, his vision, and his stoning in the presence of Saul. A solitary figure dressed differently from the apostles probably represents the sculptor.
The portal’s archivolt contains elongated figures, hunting scenes, and imagery of the struggle between vices and virtues. Carved wedge-shaped stones and cornice supports complete the composition. The portal was walled up in 1732 when the canons’ gallery was built and rediscovered by F.-A. Calvet in 1840. A porch was restored in 1862 after humidity caused damage, and the tympanum was consolidated between 1908 and 1913.
A proposal to move the portal to the west facade was rejected after architectural and archaeological analysis showed that its northern position was determined by the urban topography. Work on the northern lateral chapel in 1982 confirmed that interpretation.
Apse and chapels
Gothic apse and axial chapel
The Gothic apse rises from a Romanesque base. It contains eight columns with carved capitals, a vaulted choir, and three sculpted apsidioles. Its white surfaces contrast with the painted and glazed decoration of the choir. The axial chapel was rebuilt in the nineteenth century. It is semicircular, has a half-dome vault, and is dedicated to the Holy Shroud. Before reconstruction, it was dedicated first to the Holy Spirit and then to the Holy Savior.
The tomb of Saint Géry was placed in the axial chapel in December 1526. After Protestants captured Cahors on 27 May 1580, they violated the tomb and scattered the bones. Paintings on the choir walls were made between 1316 and 1324, then whitewashed in the late eighteenth century and rediscovered by Cyprien Calmon in 1872. They depicted the stoning and burial of Saint Stephen, the baptism of the prefect Dioscorus by Saint Genulphe, the Adoration of the Magi, the Coronation of the Virgin, the consecration of the altar of the Virgin of Rocamadour by Saint Martial, and the martyrdom of Saint Valerie. Calmon began restoring them in 1873, extensively repainting some panels and composing others himself.
Northern apsidiole
The northern apsidiole was formerly dedicated to the Holy Shroud and was rededicated to Saint Peter by Bishop Grimardias. Its altar was traditionally said to have been consecrated by Callixtus II in 1119. A seventeenth-century restoration revealed the tomb of Pons d’Antéjac, who died in 1236. The chapel is now dedicated to Blessed Alain de Solminihac and contains his reliquary, a container made to preserve and display a religious relic, made by the contemporary goldsmith Goudji.
Southern apsidiole and Chapel of Notre-Dame
The southern Romanesque apsidiole served a funerary purpose in the thirteenth century and received the burials of three bishops of Cahors. It was replaced by the deep Chapel of Notre-Dame and the Holy Coiffe. Four large wall niches contain a seventeenth-century cycle depicting the Childhood of Christ, with the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds, and Circumcision.
The chapel’s gilded Assumption altarpiece was made between 1679 and 1681, probably from designs by Gervais Drouet, and donated by Canon Jean-Baptiste Dadine de Hauteserre. It contains a painting of the Assumption, a sculpture of the Virgin of the Apocalypse, and reliefs of Joseph and Joachim.
Later chapels and former sacristy
The Chapel of Saint Anthony was built in 1491 by Louis de Theiss between the axial and northern apsidioles. It was later converted into a lateral entrance. Its richly decorated vaults suggest that it was built at the same time as the cloister and probably served a noble family rather than the later penitential establishment for priests.
The former Chapel of Saint Martin lies between the axial and southern apsidioles and became the sacristy. It had served for synodal assemblies and became a chapter room in the sixteenth century. Valuable objects were formerly kept there. A building possibly added in the late fifteenth century stands east of it and contains a fireplace bearing the chapter’s arms.
A chapel on the north side of the nave, nearest the choir, was founded by Raimond de Cornil in 1294 for Saint Blaise and Saint Catherine. It later became the Chapel of the Annunciation and is now dedicated to Blessed Jean-Gabriel Perboyre. A tomb inscription identifies Sicard de Montaigu, bishop of Cahors from 1294 to 1300. The recumbent tomb figure once attributed to Sicard was incorrectly identified, although a bishop’s ring was found in the tomb in 1918.
The chapel opposite it on the south side was known as the Chapel of Mirrors because its altar was made from mirrors transferred from the former Capuchin chapel. It was restored in the late nineteenth century by a person identified as M. Maury. The Chapel of Joan of Arc, north of the nave beside the Chapel of Blessed Perboyre, contains the recumbent tomb figure of Bishop Grimardias. The Chapel of Saint Joseph stands opposite it. The sarcophagus of Blessed Alain de Solminihac was transferred there from the chapel of the Augustinian canons on 7 August 1791.
Paintings, glazing, and organ
Medieval and nineteenth-century decoration
The western-dome composition shows Saint Stephen praying at the centre of his stoning, with Saul holding a raised sword and thirteen soldiers, nobles, and peasants representing medieval society. Eight prophets, Daniel, David, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Ezra, and Jonah, occupy compartments about 4.5 metres high. Each holds a named scroll and tramples an animal symbolizing the vices condemned in his prophecy. A full-scale reproduction of the western-dome paintings has been displayed in Paris since 1945.
The seven-window choir cycle was made in 1872 and 1873 by the glass painter Joseph Villiet for Bishop Grimardias. Its subjects include Saint Lawrence, Christ, the Virgin Mary, Saint Genulphe, prophets, Saint Namphase, Saint Spérie, Saint Ambrose, and Saint Urcisse. No earlier stained glass survives, although such windows were mentioned in the seventeenth century.
Modern nave glazing
The modern nave glazing occupies eleven windows covering about 90 square metres. Grouped around the four Evangelists, the windows combine images derived from paintings, frescoes, film frames, and photographs. Pierre-Alain Parot printed enamels onto the glass and fired them at 760 degrees Celsius, then added a second glass layer with lead lines to emphasize forms and colours. The installation was inaugurated on 8 June 2013.
Cathedral organ
The cathedral organ was originally built between 1712 and 1714 by François Picard de Lespine as an instrument with four keyboards. Its surviving sculpted case is made of solid oak. The instrument was worked on in 1838 and restored in 1849, then reconstructed in a pre-Romantic style by Jean-Baptiste Stoltz between 1861 and 1863. Maurice Puget restored it in 1922, and it was electrified in 1936.
Further work between 1939 and 1945 electrified and revoiced the organ without changing its pipework. It became unusable in 1984 and was dismantled during restoration of the narthex. Gérald Guillemin restored it between 1987 and 1990. The original case was returned to its former condition, while a contemporary case was added behind the instrument. The organ now has 41 stops, three manual keyboards, and a pedalboard. Jean Daldosso carried out a further overhaul between 2017 and 2019.
Cloister and canonical buildings
Flamboyant cloister
The Gothic Flamboyant cloister lies south of the nave and replaced the earlier Romanesque cloister. Flamboyant is a late Gothic style known for elaborate, flame-like tracery and intricate ornament. Reconstruction began in 1497 and ended in 1504, although the first floor was never built. A doorway beside the choir leads into the cloister.
The galleries contain heraldic references to Antoine d’Auriolle and several bishops. Their secular sculptures include shell-bearing pilgrims, drinkers, musicians, and an architect at work, along with two quarrelling pilgrims and a small Virgin beneath a shell canopy. The inner courtyard has exactly the same area as the surrounding gallery, an arrangement associated with the geometric problem of duplicating a square and with the square root of two.
Chapel of Saint-Gausbert
The Chapel of Saint-Gausbert, also called Saint-Gaubert, stands on the eastern side of the cloister and is oriented north to south. Its single nave is divided into two bays. Highly decorated clustered ribs rest on fluted pilaster capitals, and each bay has a large eastern window.
Renaissance Italian-style paintings cover the vaults, while fifteenth-century frescoes of Hell and the Last Judgment cover the walls. The chapel houses a museum of sacred art displaying priestly vestments and portraits of 93 bishops of Cahors. Its altar originally came from the cathedral’s Chapel of Saint Peter and was consecrated to the Holy Shroud in 1733 before being moved to Saint-Gausbert in 1875.
Chapter granary and surviving tower
The chapter granary stands between the southern cloister gallery and Saint James Street. Dating from the thirteenth century, it retains an ogival doorway, a window with a central small column and a foliage capital, and sixteen carved corbels, most of them well preserved.
The surviving tower south of the cloister has small paired, round-headed windows. It is traditionally identified with the tower built by Bishop Géraud III de Cardaillac to protect and guard the cathedral and cloister. A second tower formerly stood opposite the episcopal court and chapel, but its remains were demolished in 1822.
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