St. Peter and St. Florus Cathedral: A Flamboyant Gothic Cathedral in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- French
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page19 sections
History
St. Peter and St. Florus Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Saint-Flour, France, rebuilt in the fifteenth century in the Flamboyant Gothic style. It stands on the site of an earlier sanctuary associated with Saint Florus, a traditionally recognized Christian missionary and bishop whose historical existence remains uncertain. The cathedral became the seat of the Diocese of Saint-Flour in 1317 and continues to serve as a place of Catholic worship.
Early sanctuary and Romanesque foundation
A sanctuary connected with the relics of Florus existed on the rocky site by at least the late tenth century. Its existence appears in a papal bull issued by Gregory V. Florus was traditionally regarded as the first apostle of Haute-Auvergne, while Saint Peter, one of the Twelve Apostles and traditionally the first bishop of Rome, became the cathedral’s principal patron.
Around 1025, Odilon of Mercœur, abbot of Cluny, founded the priory of Saint-Flour and established a Romanesque basilica on the site. Pope Urban II consecrated the church in 1095 under a triple dedication to Saint-Sauveur, Saint Peter, and Saint Florus. The priory initially belonged to the Cluniac network, the system of Benedictine houses associated with the influential monastery of Cluny.
Creation of the diocese and Gothic rebuilding
In 1317, Pope John XXII reorganized the extensive Diocese of Clermont-Ferrand. Saint-Flour became a city, and its church became the cathedral of the newly created Diocese of Saint-Flour. The former Cluniac priory was transformed into a diocesan chapter, a body of clergy serving the cathedral. The church is now dedicated to Saint Peter and forms the seat of the Diocese of Saint-Flour within the Archdiocese of Clermont-Ferrand.
Parts of the northern side collapsed in 1396. Two years later, Bishop Hugues de Manhac commissioned Hugues Jolie to rebuild the church. The work proceeded during the Hundred Years’ War, the prolonged conflict between the English and French crowns, and amid outbreaks of plague. The resulting Gothic cathedral was consecrated in 1466 by Bishop Antoine de Montgon. An inscription on the facade names Antoine and his brother Pierre de Montgon, both bishops of Saint-Flour, as builders of the church and records its dedication to God, Saint Peter the Apostle, and Saint Florus.
Secularization and later history
In 1476, Pope Sixtus IV secularized the monastery, ending its remaining institutional links with Cluny. This change contributed to the prosperity and expansion of Saint-Flour. The cathedral retained its religious role until the French Revolution, when it was sacked in 1793 and converted into a temple of the Cult of the Supreme Being, a deistic revolutionary civic religion promoted for state-sponsored worship. Catholic worship returned in 1802.
Major restoration took place from 1846 to 1856 under Bishop Frédéric de Marguerye and Pierre Dessauret, director of the administration of worship. The two lateral towers were demolished between 1862 and 1866, leaving the pair on the western facade. The cathedral was classified as a French historic monument in 1906. Ceremonies marking the five-hundredth anniversary of the Gothic cathedral in 1966 were attended by Georges Pompidou, then prime minister, and senior Catholic officials.
In 2010, Bishop Bruno Grua commissioned the sculptor and goldsmith Goudji to create new liturgical furnishings, including the high altar, ambo, cathedra, seats for concelebrants, processional cross, altar candlesticks, censer, and boat. The cathedral remains within the parish of Saint-Flour-en-Planèze and continues its function as a Roman Catholic church.
Remains
The cathedral occupies the center of Saint-Flour’s historic upper town on the Place d’Armes, following the line of the former town ramparts. Behind the choir, a terrace overlooks the lower town, the Ander, a tributary of the Truyère, and the Margeride mountains. The building is a dark, massive Flamboyant Gothic structure built chiefly from volcanic basalt, including the black lava of Liozargues. It measures 65 metres in length and 24.60 metres in width. The main vessel is 44 metres long, the central nave rises 16.50 metres, and the surviving towers reach approximately 35 metres.
Facade, towers, and exterior structure
Western facade
The western facade is broadly symmetrical and contains three portals between two square towers. Relatively few small mullioned windows pierce the towers, reinforcing the heavy appearance created by the dark basalt. The central section projects slightly forward and follows a triumphal-arch arrangement. Together with the massive towers, the facade gives the cathedral the appearance of a fortress.
Buttresses and roof drainage
Flying buttresses, exterior arches that transfer the thrust of the vaults to supports beyond the main walls, are visible above the side aisles and choir. Small pinnacles or weights stand at the outer ends of the buttresses, while gargoyles carry rainwater away from the roof of the central nave. The original Gothic church was described as having three naves and four towers, with one tower on each lateral facade in addition to the two western towers. The lateral towers were later removed.
Nave and choir
Interior elevation
The interior is organized by tall vertical supports. The central nave has a two-level elevation without a triforium, a gallery or arcaded passage within the upper part of a church nave. Its supports have no capitals, the transverse arches rest on engaged shafts, and subordinate ribs rise directly from the masonry. The interior has also been described as containing five narrow naves directed toward the light, while earlier descriptions identify the original Gothic arrangement as three naves.
Choir furnishings
The choir contains an eighteenth-century high altar of polychrome marble, surmounted by a gilded wooden ciborium, or canopy over an altar. An eighteenth-century lectern also survives. The former credence table, supported by consoles carved with human and eagle heads, now serves as the altar facing the congregation. The chapter stalls were reinstalled in 1852 in the rear choir. Above them, stained-glass windows made by Étienne Thevenot in 1851 depict Saint Florus and Saint Odilon, identified as the founders of the town.
Chapels and devotional works
Saint Peter and Saint John the Baptist chapels
The Saint Peter and Saint John the Baptist chapels contain stained glass by Émile Thibaud, a stained-glass artist from Clermont-Ferrand. Above the altar in the Saint John the Baptist Chapel is a fifteenth-century Pietà of polychrome limestone. The subject shows the Virgin Mary mourning over the dead Christ.
Chapel of the Tomb
The Chapel of the Tomb contains a gilded bronze reliquary made in 1897 by the Parisian goldsmith Poussielgue for the relics of Saint Florus. It also holds Fauginet’s Christ in the Tomb, made in 1842, an eighteenth-century painting of Saint Vincent de Paul instructing the Daughters of Charity, and a marble statue by Alexandre Oliva depicting Bishop Pierre-Antoine-Marie Lamouroux de Pompignac, who occupied the see of Saint-Flour from 1857 to 1877.
Black Christ
At the entrance to the choir, against the pillar on the left, stands a large black Christ carved from painted walnut. Known as the Beautiful Black God, the sculpture is dated by a 2019 study to either the eleventh or thirteenth century. The origin of this designation is uncertain. It was originally polychrome, with pale pinkish-orange flesh and a blue loincloth decorated with small two-colored flowers. Fragments of metal show that the folds were later covered with thin silver sheets. Burn marks on the rear and left side may date from the Revolution, while its first darkening probably occurred in the nineteenth century to conceal damage and unify its appearance.
Paintings, organ, and bells
Murals and pulpit
A fifteenth-century mural beneath the organ gallery, near the entrance, was revealed in 1851 when whitewash was removed. It depicts purgatory on the left, including a priest celebrating Mass for the release of souls, and hell on the right. Another mural in the north tower shows a mounted chivalric joust. The pulpit was carved in 1868 by the local cabinetmaker Jean Peuch.
Organ
The organ was built in 1843 by the English organ builder John Abbey, and its case was carved by Gabriel Ventadour. Restored in 2008, it has 35 stops, three manuals, and a pedal, with mechanical action.
Bell frame
Four swinging bells hang in a wooden frame in the north tower. The bourdon was cast in Lyon in 1881 by the Reynaud foundry and weighs 3,156 kilograms. The second and third bells were cast in Lyon by Gédéon Morel in 1837 and weigh 1,562 and 684 kilograms. The fourth bell, which is unsigned, was cast in 1771 and weighs 413 kilograms.
