Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Perpignan

Perpignan

In 1324, Perpignan was the capital of the Kingdom of Majorca, and King Sancho laid there the foundation stone of a great church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. It was to replace Saint-Jean-le-Vieux, the Romanesque church of the original parish, consecrated in 1246, which survives on its north flank. To make room for it, work had begun as early as 1298 on moving the cemetery further south, into a vast cloister lined with arched tomb recesses (enfeus): the Campo Santo, the oldest surviving construction of this type in France. The project was ambitious, three aisles and three apses, but the little kingdom disappeared in 1344, the Black Death struck in 1348, and for more than sixty years the building work hardly progressed. It resumed at the beginning of the 15th century under the direction of the Majorcan Guillem Sagrera, and the bishop then approved a new plan: a single nave, very wide and very high, lined with chapels set between the buttresses, following the formula of the great churches of the South. The sanctuary was vaulted between 1490 and 1493, during the first French occupation of Roussillon; the first mass was said in 1504, and the church was solemnly consecrated on 16 May 1509, one hundred and eighty-five years after its foundation stone was laid. It became a cathedral only at the beginning of the 17th century, when the bishop's see left Elne. On the south flank, in a chapel built in 1534, the Dévot-Christ is venerated, a Rhenish crucifix of the early 14th century, a reliquary statue whose hollowed bust received relics in 1307; it is one of those sorrowful Christs of Gothic art.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Perpignan ↗

Getting there : Place Gambetta, in the historic centre of Perpignan. According to Pyrénées-Orientales Tourisme, open every day (on Sundays in the afternoon only) and free entry; opening times to be checked. The chapel of the Dévot-Christ opens off the south flank, towards the Campo Santo.

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

Ambient sound