Cathédrale Sainte-Marie de Lombez

Lombez

Lombez owes its cathedral to the great division of 1317: that year Pope John XXII divided the immense diocese of Toulouse and created, along with Lavaur, Mirepoix, Montauban, Rieux and Saint-Papoul, the bishopric of Lombez, in the former abbey of Notre-Dame which monks of Saint-Thibéry had founded and which had detached itself from its mother house in 1125. Bishop Giacomo Colonna was the friend of a young Italian poet: during the summer of 1330 he brought to Lombez Petrarch, who would keep from his stay the memory of an ‘almost heavenly summer’, and made him a canon of the cathedral; the plaque commemorating his visit, to the right of the west entrance, specifies that he was made an honorary canon in 1335. The church was then rebuilt in pink brick, in southern Gothic, on a plan that seems inspired by the church of the Jacobins in Toulouse, and its octagonal bell tower of the Toulouse type, five set-back storeys with bays capped by mitre arches, is dated to around 1346; it rises to forty-two or forty-three metres according to the sources. Only the west entrance, added later in the Flamboyant style, is of stone. Inside, a 13th-century lead baptismal font is decorated with religious figures set in medallions; 16th-century stained-glass windows, 17th-century choir stalls and an episcopal throne, and 18th-century ironwork and organs complete the decoration. The nearby Save imposed its law: to protect the church from its floods, its floor was raised by one metre fifty; the vaults of the naves rose to eighteen metres. The church was not consecrated until 1770.

Wikipédia — Cathédrale Sainte-Marie de Lombez ↗

Getting there : Place de la Cathédrale, 32220 Lombez. Open every day, all year round, free entry (Lombez town hall and Guide Tourisme France, which gives 9 am to 8 pm and guided tours on Sunday afternoons: to be checked). The plaque recalling Petrarch's visit is to the right of the west entrance.

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

Ambient sound