Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Tulle

Tulle

The monks of Saint-Martin de Tulle, whose monastery went back to the 7th century and was destroyed by the Normans in 846, undertook in 1103, under Abbot Guillaume de Carbonnières, to rebuild their church and conventual buildings. The work dragged on, and the style passed from Romanesque to Gothic: the piers and groin-vaulted aisles are Romanesque, the rib vault of the nave is Gothic, as is the 13th-century cloister. In 1317, a diocese was carved out of the Bas-Limousin, until then subject to the bishopric of Limoges, and the abbey church became a cathedral. Its bell tower, begun in the 12th century, received at the beginning of the 14th an octagonal spire flanked by pinnacles; struck by lightning in 1645, it was rebuilt in its original style. A persistent tradition is attached to the church: in 1348, the Black Death struck Tulle, and a procession was organised, it is said, behind a statue of Saint John; the plague having ceased soon afterwards, the inhabitants vowed to renew it every year. This is the Lunade, which the cathedral parish still leads on the evening of 23 June; a 16th-century statue of Saint John the Baptist, in painted chestnut wood, formerly carried at the head of the procession, is kept in the church. The Revolution was crueller: on 27 November 1793, the goddess Reason was celebrated here, then the building, looted, served as a fodder store and an arms factory. All its ironwork was torn out, down to the irons that held the dome, and in 1796 the dome collapsed, carrying away transept and chevet. The cathedral is now no more than a nave of six bays, closed off to the east.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Tulle ↗

Getting there : Place Monseigneur-Berteaud, in the old centre of Tulle (Corrèze Tourisme). The adjoining cloister, which houses the Musée du Cloître, is given as free of charge by Corrèze Tourisme; opening times of the cathedral and the museum to be checked.

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

Ambient sound