Cathédrale Saint-Dié de Saint-Dié-des-Vosges

Saint-Dié-des-Vosges

The place bears the name of its founder, Deodatus, known here as Saint Dié. The sources do not agree about the man: one tradition makes him an Irish monk, others identify him with Deodatus, Bishop of Nevers from 655 to 664, who is said to have left his see for the solitude of the Vosges. In the 7th century, he founded a monastery in the Val de Galilée, on land given by a lord named Hun and confirmed by King Childeric II; he died there around 679, and tradition has it that he breathed his last in the arms of Saint Hidulf. The abbey then became the collegiate church of a chapter of secular canons. Three fires, in 1065, 1155 and 1554, punctuate the life of the churches; the small church of Notre-Dame-de-Galilée, rebuilt after that of 1155, has kept its 12th-century Romanesque nave. A cloister, whose rebuilding was decided in 1444, links it to the cathedral; a pulpit, surrounded by a balustrade, opens onto the outside. It was in this little world of canons that Canon Vautrin Lud, former secretary to Duke René II, created the Gymnase vosgien and set up a printing workshop in the canon's house of his nephew Nicolas. In 1507 there came from it the Cosmographiae introductio, in which Martin Waldseemüller and his companions proposed naming the New World after Amerigo Vespucci: “America”. In 1711, the Italian Giovan Betto raised the classical façade, completed in 1714; in 1777, Pope Pius VI erected the bishopric of Saint-Dié, and the collegiate church became a cathedral. Pink sandstone, everywhere, gives the ensemble its unity.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Saint-Dié de Saint-Dié-des-Vosges ↗

Getting there : Place du Général-de-Gaulle, in the centre of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges. The cathedral, the cloister and the church of Notre-Dame-de-Galilée form a single ensemble, owned by the State; opening times and visiting conditions to be checked.

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

Ambient sound