Cathédrale Notre-Dame-du-Puy de Grasse

Grasse

When the episcopal see left Antibes for Grasse in 1244, the town already had its church, Notre-Dame du Puy, Santa Maria de Podio, mentioned as early as 1154. It was probably following this transfer that the cathedral was built, in the 13th century, in a manner that came from Liguria and Lombardy: Lombard bands on the west front, early rib vaults, and a nave 55 metres by 7, carried on twelve cylindrical piers and 19 metres high. The following centuries left their mark: impacts of cannonballs from the siege of 1589, a rectangular choir substituted for the apse in 1687, stucco galleries in 1692, a crypt dug in 1714, the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in 1738, and a fire during the Revolution, in 1795. But it is for its paintings that people go in. In 1602, in Rome, Rubens received from Archduke Albert, governor of the Netherlands, the commission for three panels for the Chapel of Saint Helena in the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme: the Crowning with Thorns, Saint Helena and the Raising of the Cross. They turned up in Grasse, bequeathed in 1827 to the town hospital, then displayed in the cathedral; some guides attribute them to Rubens and his workshop. A son of the town answers them: the Washing of the Feet by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, commissioned in 1754 by the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, one of the few religious works by the Grasse-born painter. An altarpiece from the school of Louis Bréa and an organ of 1855 complete the ensemble.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Notre-Dame-du-Puy de Grasse ↗

Getting there : Place du Puy, 06130 Grasse. Free entry. According to the regional tourist board, open Monday to Saturday from 9 am to 12 noon and in the afternoon depending on the season, closed on Sunday; the Pays de Grasse tourist office lists Masses on Sunday at 10 am and 6.30 pm: times to be checked.

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

Ambient sound