Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Montpellier

Montpellier

In 1364, Pope Urban V, a former student of Montpellier, founded in the town a Benedictine monastery-college, Saint-Benoît-Saint-Germain, to support the university. Its master builders, Bertrand Nogayrol and Bernard de Manse, builder of the ramparts of Avignon, gave it a fortified church in Southern Gothic, a single nave lined with chapels, dedicated on 11 September 1373, three years after the Pope's death. In front of the façade, they set up the most original part of the building: a massive porch, made of two enormous cylindrical pillars carrying a vault that rests against the wall. In 1536, Pope Paul III transferred the bishopric of Maguelone to Montpellier, and the monastery church became a cathedral. But the town went over to the Reformation. In 1561, the Catholic authorities entrenched themselves in the cathedral complex, which had become the “Fort Saint-Pierre”; the Protestants besieged it, entered it and sacked it. In 1567, the Saint-Benoît tower collapsed, carrying away the south façade, the porch and the first two bays of the nave. In 1629, Richelieu had the nave restored and the porch vault remade, keeping its massive 14th-century piers. Prosper Mérimée, Inspector General of Historic Monuments, passed through on 5 November 1834 and had little liking for these “two enormous pillars, or rather two massive towers”: “it is impossible to see anything heavier and less graceful”, he wrote, while conceding that the grandeur of the proportions has its effect. Twenty years later, Henri Révoil, a disciple of Viollet-le-Duc, gave the cathedral a neo-Gothic choir with radiating chapels.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Montpellier ↗

Getting there : 1 Rue Saint-Pierre, in the old town, about fifteen minutes' walk from Saint-Roch station (Hérault Tourisme). According to Hérault Tourisme, free entry, open Monday to Saturday with a break in the middle of the day; opening times to be checked. The porch opens onto the south façade.

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

Ambient sound