Cathédrale de la Sainte-Trinité de Laval

Laval

Around 1070, Laval grew up around its castle, and the monks of the Abbey of La Couture, in Le Mans, founded a chapel there dedicated to the Trinity: its first written mention is a note of expenses slipped by one of them into a manuscript of the abbey. Hemmed in by the town wall, the church could not face the rising sun; it was oriented towards the south-east and its choir built on an earth embankment. Having become a parish church, it was raised at the end of the 12th century and received domed vaults inspired by the cathedral of Angers, which still cover its single nave. After the Hundred Years' War, the town grew rich from the linen trade, and it was the parishioners who carried the building work: sacristy, porch, new chevet at the end of the 15th century, then, between 1517 and 1541, chapels that broke with everything else to adopt the vocabulary of the Renaissance, vaulted by the master mason Jamet Nepveu. From 1575, Pierre Guillot raised a last chapel beneath an oval coffered dome; the portal, continued by Jean Guillot, was not completed until 1597, after the interruption of the Wars of Religion. The parishioners had refused Count Guy XVI of Laval the title of founder; Guy XVII and his wife gave two painted stained-glass windows in 1542. In the meantime, on 16 January 1563, the spire caught fire; it was not rebuilt and a small square tower replaced it. On 28 May 1600, Trinity Sunday, the parish priest Antoine Besnier was killed at the altar by an arquebus shot fired from the nave door; the murderer was never identified.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale de la Sainte-Trinité de Laval ↗

Getting there : Place Hardy-de-Lévaré, in the centre of Laval. Open Monday to Saturday from 9.30 am to 1 pm and from 2 pm to 6 pm, except Tuesday mornings, according to the Laval tourist office (to be checked; Sunday opening times not given). Free entry to be checked.

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

Ambient sound