Pulpit and Doorway, Former Cathedral of Saint Maurice, Mirefoix, Occitaine, France
The Saint-Maurice cathedral, seat of the former diocese of Mirepoix, in Ariège, was built from 1297 on the left bank of the course of the Hers, a first church located on the right bank having been carried away by terrible floods in 1289.
From 1317, Pope John XXII made Mirepoix the seat of a new bishopric and the church immediately became a cathedral, but for all that, the funds were lacking to enlarge the building because of the Hundred Years War and the plague epidemic of 1361.
Thanks to Bishop Philippe de Lévis, work was finally initiated in the 16th century: it is true that when he took office, the nave was open to the sky and the rest of the site was almost abandoned. The bishop demolished the houses adjoining the cathedral, decided to enlarge and embellish it and endowed it in 1506 with a bell tower with a 60 m high spire. The entrance porch and the Renaissance door also date from this period.
After Philippe de Lévis, his successors no longer live on site and over the centuries, the structure deteriorates, the furniture is abandoned or looted (especially during the Revolution and when the bishopric is then abolished).
In the 19th century, a major restoration was undertaken under the direction of Viollet le Duc. The vault was redone, the walls of the choir and the nave were rebuilt: the latter becoming one of the widest in France (21.40 m), protected by flying buttresses. The whole is in the Languedoc Gothic style with, however, a few "liberties" taken with the history of art, as in most of the renovations carried out by Viollet le Duc.
Subsequently, the building was listed in 1907, the altars were replaced by Gothic imitations in white marble and in the middle of the 20th century, the coverings of the apse and the terraces were restored.
Inside, the private chapel of Bishop Philippe de Lévis, known for its labyrinth traced on cobblestones and its painted tiling, the keystones of the radiating chapels and the imposing organ from 1891 are to be observed, as well as the statues in gilded wood (18th century), paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries, a marble tabernacle and an altar table and its support in sculpted stone (15th century).
Pulpit and Doorway, Former Cathedral of Saint Maurice, Mirefoix, Occitaine, France
The Saint-Maurice cathedral, seat of the former diocese of Mirepoix, in Ariège, was built from 1297 on the left bank of the course of the Hers, a first church located on the right bank having been carried away by terrible floods in 1289.
From 1317, Pope John XXII made Mirepoix the seat of a new bishopric and the church immediately became a cathedral, but for all that, the funds were lacking to enlarge the building because of the Hundred Years War and the plague epidemic of 1361.
Thanks to Bishop Philippe de Lévis, work was finally initiated in the 16th century: it is true that when he took office, the nave was open to the sky and the rest of the site was almost abandoned. The bishop demolished the houses adjoining the cathedral, decided to enlarge and embellish it and endowed it in 1506 with a bell tower with a 60 m high spire. The entrance porch and the Renaissance door also date from this period.
After Philippe de Lévis, his successors no longer live on site and over the centuries, the structure deteriorates, the furniture is abandoned or looted (especially during the Revolution and when the bishopric is then abolished).
In the 19th century, a major restoration was undertaken under the direction of Viollet le Duc. The vault was redone, the walls of the choir and the nave were rebuilt: the latter becoming one of the widest in France (21.40 m), protected by flying buttresses. The whole is in the Languedoc Gothic style with, however, a few "liberties" taken with the history of art, as in most of the renovations carried out by Viollet le Duc.
Subsequently, the building was listed in 1907, the altars were replaced by Gothic imitations in white marble and in the middle of the 20th century, the coverings of the apse and the terraces were restored.
Inside, the private chapel of Bishop Philippe de Lévis, known for its labyrinth traced on cobblestones and its painted tiling, the keystones of the radiating chapels and the imposing organ from 1891 are to be observed, as well as the statues in gilded wood (18th century), paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries, a marble tabernacle and an altar table and its support in sculpted stone (15th century).