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I believe that it is my Sunday first papagolfade which I then post on TE a small wink with Philippe

Rodez was christianized starting from IVe and Ve centuries and the first traces of the cathedral go up at the time of the holy bishop Dalmas, towards 516. It seems however that the whole of the building was rebuilt about the year 1000. From this time, it remains only little of vestiges (primarily at the time of excavations) because the collapse of the bell-tower of the Romance cathedral in 1276 involved a total rebuilding of this one which will last more than three centuries. The first stone of the current cathedral was posed in 1277 by the bishop Raymond de Calmont d' Olt. However, the One hundred Year old war, then the epidemics and in particular the Black Death of 1348 as various quarrels within the diocese caused a long interruption of this monumental building site.

The interior of the cathedral At the end of XIVe century, a purely defensive bell-tower was set up, crowned of a wood arrow. In XVe century, work was resumed of more beautiful with the completion of the chorus and of its vault, then the launching of the construction of the transept and the first spans of the nave. For the achievement of this work, the largest artists of the time were solicited of which the Burgundian sculptor Jacques Morel. This explains the origin of this new medieval style described as blazing in Rodez. To XVIe century, François d' Estaing and George of Armagnac gave a new dash to the construction of the cathedral. After the fire of the bell-tower in 1510, its rebuilding such as it exists today, was undertaken by a hundred stone masons, under the direction of Antoine Salvan of 1513 to 1526. The completion of the bell-tower and the cathedral intervened about 1531. Although the building work lasted of 1277 until the end of XVIe century, the cathedral profits from a remarkable unit as well inside as outside. Indeed, the general party of the building was fixed right from the start. It is allotted to the architect Jean Deschamps, who into practice put in the South the principles of the Gothic architecture defined in France of North. The plan and the rise in the building make it possible to establish a filiation between Rodez and Limoges, Clermont-Ferrand or Narbonne. The severe face of the Western frontage testifies to its defensive vocation: it is flanked of two massive towers which were incorporated in the ramparts. Only "anomaly" with the blazing rigour of the unit: a traditional frontispice, placed at the ridge of the frontage in the medium of XVIe century. The bell-tower, surmounted of an openwork lantern carrying a statue of the Virgin, surrounded by four angels flatterers, presents a blazing decorative exubérance which is found in the sculpture of the gates of the transept and in furniture (jubé and stalls of XVe century
• Length: 102 m
• Width: 37 m
• Height of the nave: 30 m
• Height of the bell-tower: 87 m

prospects corrected with CS3

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Additional Photos by gilbert PELLET (gilou530) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5133 W: 187 N: 7851] (35226)
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