Cathédrale de la Nativité-de-Marie de Rieux-Volvestre

Rieux-Volvestre

Around the year 1000 a certain Amelius Simplicius gave the abbey of Lézat a small estate on the banks of the Arize; a century later a priory is attested there, and its church was consecrated in 1222. Pope John XXII then raised it to a cathedral, in 1317 according to some, in 1318 according to the Monuments historiques entry, in order to strengthen the presence of the Church in this part of the diocese of Toulouse where Catharism still had followers. The building constructed in the 14th century, southern in inspiration, keeps the fortified flat chevet of the earlier church and bears the mark of its time: its walls reach three metres thick in places, pierced with arrow slits and flanked by bartizans. In the 15th century the 43-metre octagonal bell tower rose, in the Toulouse manner, its storeys opened up with paired bays under mitre arches. Around 1530 a carved Renaissance door opened the church onto the bishop's palace, and in the 17th century the canons received their choir, furnished with sixty-one carved walnut stalls. But Rieux is known above all for its episcopal treasury, kept in old cupboards: chasubles, copes, 17th-century chalices and reliquary busts, including that of Saint Cizi, covered with five kilos of silver. At the Revolution the diocese disappeared; the bull Qui Christi Domini of 1801 attached its territory to Toulouse, and the cathedral became the parish church of the Nativité-de-Marie.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale de la Nativité-de-Marie de Rieux-Volvestre ↗

Getting there : Place Monseigneur-de-Lastic, Rieux-Volvestre (Haute-Garonne), 5 km from exit 27 (Carbonne) of the A64 by the D627. Opening in line with that of the Volvestre intercommunal tourist office; the treasury can be visited in summer (July and August); unguided or guided visits, times and prices to be checked.

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

Ambient sound