Toulon Cathedral: A Roman Catholic Cathedral in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- County of Provence, French
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page9 sections
History
Toulon Cathedral, also known as Notre-Dame-de-la-Seds, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in France dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The present building is commonly dated to 1096 and combines Romanesque, Gothic, and classical architecture. It developed from Toulon’s medieval cathedral, later served as the seat of the city’s bishops, and now functions as the cathedral of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon and as a parish church.
Early cathedral and medieval foundation
A first cathedral existed at Toulon in the fifth century. Traditions concerning the foundation of the present church differ. One places its beginnings in the tenth century under Boson of Arles, a medieval Provençal count who wished to establish a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Another tradition dates construction to 1096 and attributes it to Gilbert, Count of Provence, whose foundation was associated with gratitude for his safe return from the Crusades.
The cathedral was consecrated on 19 July 1517 by Jean Colombi, titular bishop of Troy and suffragan of Nicolas Fieschi, Bishop of Fréjus. A titular bishop held the title of a historic diocese without governing its active territory, while a suffragan bishop belonged to an ecclesiastical province headed by a metropolitan archbishop.
Expansion and changing claims
Toulon’s naval port expanded under Henri IV and Louis XIV, kings of France, and the city’s growing importance led to enlargement of the cathedral. Between 1654 and 1659, work enclosed the earlier Romanesque church and incorporated the fifteenth-century Chapel of Relics. A further extension toward the north, set perpendicular to the axis of the Romanesque building, was undertaken in 1661 by the master builder Jean Ribergue.
During the winter of 1543 to 1544, Toulon hosted the Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa and his fleet under the Franco-Ottoman alliance, a partnership between the French monarchy and the Ottoman Empire against common Habsburg opponents. A modern claim that the cathedral was converted into a mosque for about 30,000 sailors remains disputed. Cathedral registers record baptisms during the fleet’s stay, and contemporary observers do not mention such a conversion.
Classical façade, revolution, and diocesan change
The classical façade was built from 1696 to 1701 under Louis XIV. Albert Duparc received the sculpture contract on 22 May 1696 in association with Antoine Fleury, a sculptor from Toulon. The bell tower followed between 1737 and 1740.
The cathedral was stripped during the French Revolution and returned to Catholic worship in 1802. Its furnishings and decoration were completed further during the nineteenth century, while the façade, badly damaged during the Revolution, was restored to its original appearance in 1816. The original bells had been removed and melted down during the Revolution; four replacement bells were installed in 1806 and 1807.
Toulon Cathedral remained the seat of the Bishops of Toulon until the Diocese of Toulon was suppressed in 1801. On 12 January 1958, the episcopal seat was transferred from Fréjus to Toulon, and the cathedral became the seat of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon. The building entered the register of French historic monuments in 1949, and this registration was replaced by classification as a historic monument on 14 November 1997. It is owned by the municipality of Toulon.
Remains
Medieval structure and enlarged plan
The cathedral has three naves of unequal width, five bays, and an overall length of 50 metres. Its nave is covered by a rib vault, a vaulted ceiling supported by intersecting stone or masonry ribs. The principal nave ends in a flat termination, while the choir, the part reserved for clergy and choral worship, is rectangular.
The first three bays survive from the eleventh-century Romanesque church. The present Chapel of Saint Joseph originally served as the choir’s apse, a terminal space at the end of the church. The fifteenth-century Chapel of Relics was incorporated into the enlarged building, and the chapels face one another at the lower end of the nave.
Façade and bell tower
The classical façade presents a monumental porch supported by Corinthian columns. Angels on its tympanum, the central field within or above a classical façade, hold the arms of Toulon. A memorial plaque dated 1239 commemorates Gilbert of Baux, who died in that year, as well as Gaufridet of Trets and Toulon and his wife, Dame Guillaumette, who both died in 1234.
The bell tower rises approximately 36 metres and is about three metres thick at its base. It is topped by an iron campanile, a structure designed to hold bells. A bell had kept time in Toulon from 1524. The tower contains four bells dating from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Chapels and altar sculpture
The Corpus Christi Chapel contains a Baroque retable for the Holy Sacrament. A retable is an ornamental structure placed behind or above an altar. The original wooden work was designed and made by Pierre Puget, a French Baroque sculptor and painter, but it was destroyed by fire in 1661. In 1681, his nephew and pupil Christophe Veyrier replaced it with a work in marble and stucco.
The retable is accompanied by The Triumph of the Eucharist by Jean-Baptiste van Loo and The Sacrifice of Melchizedek by Jean-Baptiste Achard. A sculpted bas-relief from the 1746 high altar was later moved when the 1863 altar was created. The present flat altar replaced the 1864 altar in 1961, while a bas-relief from the earlier altar survives.
The former apse contains Pierre Puget’s Saint Roch Praying for the Plague Victims. Saint Roch is traditionally associated with protection against plague. The chapel also called the Chapel of Saint Anne contains Puget’s The Vision of Saint Felix of Cantalice, originally made for the Capuchin church and transferred to the cathedral after the Revolution. Saint Felix of Cantalice was a sixteenth-century Capuchin friar and saint.
Paintings, furnishings, and organ
The cathedral contains a gilded wooden statue of the Virgin Mary by Vian of Pignans, dated 1838. Other paintings include Puget’s The Annunciation from 1650, Damery-Walter’s The Virgin of Carmel from 1664, and Jacques Voltaire’s Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from 1745. The choir is enclosed by stalls made by Bernard Sénéquier, who lived from 1784 to 1868, and Sénéquier also made the pulpit in 1829.
Statuettes and a medallion depicting Saint Augustine were made by Joseph Louis Hubac, a Toulon sculptor who served as master sculptor of the Navy. Elements destroyed during the Second World War were replaced by modern works. The gallery houses a large organ dating from 1851, installed by the Frédéric Junk firm of Toulouse and completely renovated in 1965.
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