Vaison Cathedral: A Former Roman Catholic Cathedral in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- County of Provence, Holy Roman Empire, Merovingian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Cathedral
On this page11 sections
History
Vaison Cathedral is a former Roman Catholic cathedral in Vaison-la-Romaine, France, dedicated to Our Lady of Nazareth and predominantly Romanesque in character, with origins on a site occupied by an early Christian episcopal church in the sixth or seventh century. It stands in the lower town on the right bank of the Ouvèze and should be distinguished from Sainte-Marie-de-l’Assomption, the cathedral in the upper town. The site formed part of the Roman city of Vasio Vocontiorum, and a bishop of Vaison attended the Council of Arles in 314.
Early Christian and Romanesque origins
The sixth- or seventh-century church belonged to the Merovingian period, the era of the early medieval Frankish dynasty that ruled much of Gaul from the fifth to the eighth century. Its builders reused material from Roman villas. The surviving eastern end, including the apse and two subsidiary apses, is associated with this early phase.
The exact date of the present cathedral is uncertain. It preserves the Romanesque tradition while incorporating elements from the earlier Merovingian church and later Gothic alterations. Around 1040, Bishop Pierre de Mirabel commissioned the first Romanesque cathedral and its adjoining cloister. The cloister and the buildings used by the canons belong to the first quarter of the eleventh century, approximately 1010 to 1030.
Conflict and the move to the upper town
Vaison suffered severe disruption during the conflicts involving the Counts of Toulouse. In 1160, troops of Raymond V, Count of Toulouse, heavily plundered the city, expelled its inhabitants, emptied the palace of Bishop Béranger de Mornas, and burned what remained. Bishop Bertrand de Lambesc retook the city and cathedral by force in 1178.
In 1185, troops from Toulouse again expelled Bishop Bérenger de Reillane and the inhabitants. Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, returned the cathedral to the bishop in 1196. During the thirteenth century, however, the bishop and the population moved to the more defensible upper town on the left bank of the Ouvèze, accessible only by the Roman bridge. Raids and persecution connected with the Counts of Toulouse led to the abandonment of the lower-town cathedral.
The Hundred Years’ War, a series of conflicts between the English and French monarchies and their allies from the fourteenth to the fifteenth century, contributed to the building’s neglect. The medieval lower town became deserted. In the seventeenth century, Bishop Joseph-Marie de Suarès reinforced the vaults, although the cathedral continued to stand unused. Later bishops altered the interior while enlarging or enriching the episcopal palace. One removed the rood screen, while another stripped the choir of its marble facing.
Restoration and ecclesiastical status
Major restoration took place in the nineteenth century, including the complete rebuilding of the southern cloister gallery. Vaison Cathedral was classified as a French historic monument in 1840. It became a parish church in 1897 as the lower town expanded.
The former Diocese of Vaison was formally abolished in 1801 under the Concordat associated with Bonaparte, a formal agreement between the Catholic Church and a state concerning ecclesiastical affairs, and was incorporated into the Archdiocese of Avignon. Since 2009, the building has been the seat of the titular bishop of Vaison, a bishop who bears the title of a historical diocese that no longer functions as a territorial diocese. It remains affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Avignon.
Remains
Eastern end
Apse and apsidioles
The eastern end forms a tripartite chevet, or eastern part of a church, composed of a rectangular main apse and two semicircular apsidioles, which are smaller subsidiary apses. The main apse is a massive block of highly irregular rubble masonry supported by two small buttresses. Its pointed axial window contrasts with the small round-headed windows of the apsidioles. Beneath the apse, exposed foundations contain fragments of ancient columns. Above it, a triangular gable carries a carved frieze, a row of small tooth-like blocks, and a fluted pilaster.
The apse and apsidioles use horseshoe-shaped arches that extend beyond a semicircle. Their late-fifth-century arrangement illustrates the development of this form from the round arch in the later Roman Empire and its adoption by early Christian architecture. The main apse is covered by a semi-dome, the half-dome commonly used over an apse, and its masonry resembles, though less regularly, late Roman small-block construction. Five round arcades decorate the interior, with voussoirs, the wedge-shaped stones forming an arch, originally resting on six white or gray marble columns probably taken from an ancient building.
The apse was altered over several centuries. During the second half of the fourteenth century, the first arcade on the left was enlarged for an episcopal tomb, requiring the removal of one column. A deep niche beneath the second arcade was probably made in the thirteenth century for liturgical objects, and its small round-headed window is now blocked. In the fifteenth century, the central arcade was raised to frame the enlarged main window. At the rear, three steps lead to a stone episcopal throne surrounded by a three-stepped clergy bench. The throne stands before the tomb of Saint Quenin, the city’s patron saint.
Bell tower
A square bell tower rises above the last bay of the northern aisle beside the northern apsidiole. Its upper section retains putlog holes, openings that held horizontal scaffold beams, together with a vine-scroll frieze, a projecting bracket cornice, and openings framed by decorative small columns. Its crenellated appearance and ornament, including the vine-scroll decoration, are comparable to the portal of Saint-Michel in Salon-de-Provence. Embedded in the tower’s eastern face is a funerary cippus, a small stone monument often used for burials, bearing a portrait of Publius Atilius Ingenuus.
Cloister
The cloister adjoins the cathedral on the northern side. Four ground-level galleries surround a garden, and two small doorways connect the cloister with the church. The complex once supported the canons’ residences, refectory, dormitory, and chapter house, but those buildings have disappeared. Extensive restoration makes the dates of individual parts difficult to establish. Some western-gallery small columns without bases may belong to the eleventh century, while the galleries were almost entirely rebuilt in the early thirteenth century, when the canons reconstructed residences damaged during earlier conflicts. The southern gallery, alongside the cathedral’s northern aisle, was completely destroyed and rebuilt in the nineteenth century.
The galleries contain small arcades arranged in groups of three beneath substantial round relieving arches. At the center of the northern gallery, two large round-headed openings replace this arrangement. Many small columns have capitals carved with water-leaf foliage, while others carry figurative sculpture, including several capitals in the eastern gallery dating from the beginning of the thirteenth century. Some shafts and pilasters, especially in the eastern and northern galleries, use fine white marble reused from ancient ruins. The cloister now functions as a lapidarium, a place where architectural fragments, inscriptions, and other stone remains are preserved, and includes remains of monuments to the bishops Guillaume II and Guillaume III of the Cheisolme family.
Southern façade
The high southern façade of the southern aisle faces Avenue Jules Ferry. Built of rubble masonry, it is reinforced by four tall ashlar buttresses bearing numerous masons’ marks. The southern portal has broad jambs marked with such signs, including crosses at mid-height, and a large round arch made of regular wedge-shaped stones around a flat tympanum. A projecting drip moulding of irregular stones protects the arch, while a round-headed window above it is also surrounded by masons’ marks.
A vine-scroll frieze and a cornice with false projecting brackets decorated with vine-scrolls and palmettes crown the southern-aisle façade. Above them, the set-back upper wall of the nave is built from large ashlar blocks. Its windows are framed by slender twisted small columns whose capitals support richly ornamented round arches. The façade ends in a flat frieze with beaded bands and a cornice decorated with egg-and-dart, dentil, and heart-leaf motifs.
Nave and aisles
The interior has a three-bay central nave flanked by two aisles and no transept. A pointed barrel vault covers the nave and rests on transverse arches, while the aisles have lean-to vaults. A fourth-century Roman sarcophagus is associated with the cathedral.
