Albi Cathedral — fortified church
ByacC · CC BY-SA 3.0

Albi Cathedral

Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile d'Albi

  • 2 min read
  • 43.928° N 2.143° E

Interesting facts

  • Building the cathedral took an estimated 25 million bricks, and at their base the walls are about 2.5 metres thick.
  • Its painted interior covers roughly 18,500 square metres, the largest and oldest ensemble of Italian Renaissance painting in France.
  • At about 18 metres, its nave is described as the widest Gothic nave in France.
  • In 1693 the centre of the Last Judgement was cut away to open a chapel, so the figures of Christ the Judge and the Archangel Michael are missing.
  • The rood screen and choir enclosure are peopled with 72 carved angels, and the choir holds 120 wooden stalls in two rows.
  • The bell tower was built in two campaigns: the lower part between 1355 and 1366, the three octagonal upper stages only in 1492.
  • The great organ was built by Christophe Moucherel in the 1730s, reusing some pipes from the earlier instrument, and originally had 61 stops on three keyboards.
  • The cathedral was consecrated on 23 April 1480, almost two centuries after its first stone was laid.

Why it is worth it

The cathedral of Sainte-Cécile rises over Albi like a fortress of red brick: sheer, massive walls with a military air and a bell tower some 78 metres high. It is claimed to be the largest brick building in the world, and its severity is intentional. The cathedral was begun in 1282 under Bishop Bernard de Castanet, in the decades after the Albigensian Crusade had crushed the Cathars of the region, and the building was meant to proclaim the power of the Church in stone, or rather in brick, which was the material of the Tarn valley.

Construction went on for some two hundred years, and the cathedral was consecrated in 1480. Its single immense nave, about 113 metres long and 30 metres high under the vault, is typical of the southern French Gothic and sets it apart from the cathedrals of the north such as Chartres or Amiens. The austere exterior makes the entrance all the more surprising. The south porch, begun under Bishop Dominique de Florence at the turn of the fifteenth century, is crowned by a flamboyant Gothic stone canopy, a burst of pale lace against the brick.

Inside, Albi is one of the most completely painted churches in Europe. The vaults, galleries and chapels were decorated between 1509 and 1512 by a team of painters from northern Italy, working in an early Renaissance style against a deep blue ground. Beneath the great organ, the vast Last Judgement mural, painted at the end of the fifteenth century and measuring about fifteen by eighteen metres, shows the torments of the damned in grim detail. Across the building runs a white stone rood screen of 1474–1483, carved as finely as lace, which divides the nave from the canons' choir and makes a church within the church. The organ itself, commissioned in 1734, is crowned with angels with outspread wings. The cathedral is the centrepiece of the Episcopal City of Albi, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010.

Getting there

The cathedral stands in the heart of Albi, about half a kilometre from the town centre. The nearest airport is Castres–Mazamet (DCM), about 43 km away; many visitors instead arrive through Toulouse, from where frequent direct trains reach Albi in under an hour. From Albi-Ville station the cathedral is a walk through the old town.

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Occitanie 29The Most Beautiful Places in France 179The Most Remarkable Fortified Churches 6The Most Beautiful Sacred Places in Occitanie 6The Most Beautiful Sacred Places in France 35The Most Beautiful Sacred Places 623

From the encyclopaedia

The Cathedral of Saint Cecilia of Albi, also known as Albi Cathedral, is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Albi. First built in the aftermath of the Albigensian Crusade, the exterior resembles a fortress, but the interior is lavishly decorated with art and sculpture, a very ornate choir screen, and walls in bright blues and golds, in the Toulousian or Southern French Gothic style. It was begun in 1282 and was under construction for 200 years. It is claimed to be the largest brick building in the world. In 2010 the cathedral, along with its episcopal buildings, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its unique architecture and the remarkable consistency in its design.

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