Cathédrale Sainte-Marie de Bayonne

Bayonne

Tradition has it that Saint Leo, who came around the year 900 to re-Christianise a land ravaged by the Normans, had a temple of Mars razed in Bayonne in order to raise the first cathedral there. What can be seen today was born of an attested disaster: in 1258, a fire destroyed half the town and part of the Romanesque choir. The people of Bayonne then called in an architect well versed in the new techniques, known as the “Champenois master”: he raised a Gothic chevet of Champagne influence, with seven radiating chapels, then construction moved westwards, and the last bay of the nave was completed in 1404. Throughout this time, Bayonne came under the King of England, Duke of Aquitaine, under the distant overlordship of the King of France; the keystones of the nave bear traces of this, where fleurs-de-lis sit alongside the three English leopards. In the south transept, another keystone shows the “Bayonne ship”, a vessel with a sternpost rudder manned by eight sailors and surrounded by the symbols of the evangelists. The French retook the town in 1451; the cathedral was then almost complete. Victor Hugo, passing through in 1843, found it “tinder-coloured and all eaten away by the sea wind”; he admired window tracery “richer and more capricious” than anywhere else, and the vast cloister then being restored, one of the largest in France. The two spires of the façade rose only with the restoration led from 1851 by Émile Boeswillwald, a pupil of Viollet-le-Duc.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Sainte-Marie de Bayonne ↗

Getting there : Place Monseigneur-Vansteenberghe, in the historic centre (address given by the tourist office); the cloister opens onto Place Pasteur. According to the tourist office, the cathedral is open every day, with a break in the middle of the day, and entry is free; the cloister is also freely accessible. Seasonal opening times to be checked.

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

Ambient sound