Cathédrale Saint-Maurice de Mirepoix

Mirepoix

On 16 June 1289 the Hers in flood swept away the castrum of Mirepoix, built on its right bank. The lord of the place, Gui III de Lévis, authorised the inhabitants to rebuild on flat ground, some distance from the river, and the new town took shape on a regular plan. It was there that Jean de Lévis laid, on 6 May 1298, the foundation stone of a church dedicated to Saint Maurice. Twenty years later its destiny changed: on 26 September 1317, by the bull Salvator noster, Pope John XXII, who was dismembering the immense diocese of Toulouse, made Mirepoix the seat of a bishopric. The choir and its five chapels took shape at the end of the 14th century, in the southern Gothic that prefers a single very wide vessel to multiple aisles. The great builder arrived in 1497: Bishop Philippe de Lévis had the houses built up against the church demolished, threw four transverse arches across the nave, paved the floor, rebuilt the west wall and raised the stone bell tower, completed in 1506, whose octagonal spire carries the finial cross at sixty metres. It was not until the 19th century, however, that the nave, aligned with the width of the choir, received a stone vault in place of its timber roof: 21.40 metres in a single span, the widest single nave of Languedoc Gothic, the second Gothic vault in Europe after that of Girona cathedral. The Revolution suppressed the bishopric; the former cathedral has since been the parish church of the bastide.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Saint-Maurice de Mirepoix ↗

Getting there : In the heart of the medieval town, near place Maréchal-Leclerc, the former place des Couverts. Free entry, with donations helping the restoration; times vary, to be checked with the Pyrénées Cathares tourist office before coming (Guide du routard).

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

Ambient sound