Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption de Montauban

Montauban

Raised in the heart of the pink-brick city between 1692 and 1739, Montauban's cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption is one of the few French religious buildings erected on the direct orders of Louis XIV, to mark the Catholic reconquest of a city that had long been a Protestant stronghold. The bishopric of Montauban was created in 1317, but it was only after the return of Catholicism in 1629 and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 that the plan for a new cathedral took shape: the first stone was laid in 1692. The architect François d'Orbay drew up the plans, taken over on his death in 1697 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Robert de Cotte, first architects to the king. The building, consecrated in 1739, adopts a wholly classical, antique-inspired vocabulary, exceptional for a French cathedral: an Ionic facade crowned by a triangular pediment, a colonnaded portico and statues of the four Evangelists. The Concordat of 1801 abolished the bishopric, which was restored in 1822. The interior houses one of the masterpieces of 19th-century French religious painting: The Vow of Louis XIII, a monumental canvas by Montauban's own Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, installed in the north arm of the transept. This contrast between the white sobriety of the limestone and the surrounding pink-brick facades makes the cathedral a unique architectural landmark in Montauban's townscape.

Getting there : Place Léon-Bourjade, in the historic centre of Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne); free admission during the day, a short walk from the Musée Ingres-Bourdelle and the Pont-Vieux.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound