, native_name_lang = , image = Tours Cathedral Saint-Gatian.jpg , imagesize = , caption = Tours Cathedral , country = , osgridref = , osgraw = , location =

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...

Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it had a population of 610,079.Gatianus of Tours Gatianus (''Catianus, Gatianus, Gratianus''; french: Cassien, Gatien, Gratien) in the third century AD was the founding bishop of the see of Tours. He was one of the "seven apostles of Gaul" commissioned by Pope Fabian to evangelize in the region ...

, dedicated date = , consecrated date = , cult = , relics = , events = , past bishop = , people = , status =

Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...

, functional status = Active , heritage designation = , designated date = , denomination =

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

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church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

, style =

French Gothic French Gothic architecture is an architectural style which emerged in France in 1140, and was dominant until the mid-16th century. The most notable examples are the great Gothic cathedrals of France, including Notre-Dame Cathedral, Reims Cathedra ...

, years built = , groundbreaking = , completed date = , construction cost = , closed date = , demolished date = , capacity = , length = , width = , width nave = , height = , diameter = , other dimensions = , floor count = , floor area = , dome quantity = , dome height outer = , dome height inner = , dome dia outer = , dome dia inner = , tower quantity = 2 , tower height = (north)
(south) , spire quantity = , spire height = , materials = , bells = , bells hung = , bell weight = , parish = St. Maurice , deanery = , archdeaconry = , episcopalarea = , archdiocese =

, metropolis = , diocese = , province = , presbytery = , synod = , circuit = , district = , division = , subdivision = , archbishop = Bernard-Nicolas Aubertin ( fr) Tours Cathedral (french: Cathédrale Saint-Gatien de Tours) is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

located in

Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it had a population of 610,079.France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and dedicated to Saint Gatianus. It is the seat of the Archbishops of Tours, the metropolitan

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...

of the Tours

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian Churches with traditional hierarchical structure, including Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. In general, an ecclesiastical province consists of sev ...

. It was built between 1170 and 1547. At the time construction began, the church was located at the south end of the bridge over the river

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhôn ...

, on the road from

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

to the south-west of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It has been a classified ''

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a col ...

'' since 1862. Since 1905 it has been owned by the French State, with the Catholic Church having the exclusive rights of use.

History

Three earlier cathedrals existed on the same site. The first, dedicated to

Saint Maurice Saint Maurice (also Moritz, Morris, or Mauritius; ) was an Egyptian military leader who headed the legendary Theban Legion of Rome in the 3rd century, and is one of the favorite and most widely venerated saints of that martyred group. He is the ...

, was built by Bishop Lidorius from 337 to 371. It burned in 558, and was rebuilt by the Bishop

Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (30 November 538 – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of the area that had been previously referred to as Gaul by the Romans. He was born Georgius Floren ...

and rededicated it in 590. Its location, at the south-west angle of the ''castrum'', or old Roman walls, resulted in the cathedral entrance being part of the old Roman city wall. Beginning in about 1160 another structure was begun, in the Angevin style. It was badly damaged by a fire, and never finished. The work recommenced with the choir in about 1220, and received financial assistance in from

Louis IX Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), commonly known as Saint Louis or Louis the Saint, was King of France from 1226 to 1270, and the most illustrious of the House of Capet, Direct Capetians. He was Coronation of the French monarch, c ...

, or Saint Louis. The choir and transept were rebuilt between 1240 and the beginning of the 14th century, using portions of the lower walls of the Romanesque structure. The lower portions were largely in the early Gothic style, the upper walls in the later Rayonnant style. At the end of the 14th century, the transept was completed. In 1356, the cathedral was re-dedicated to Saint Gatianus. Further work and the construction of the towers was interrupted by the

Hundred Years War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Plantagene ...

(1337-1453). The nave was only finished during the 15th century by architects

Jean de Dammartin Jean de Dammartin or Jehan de Dammartin sometimes spelled Dampmartin (14th-century in Jargeau (former province of the Orléanais – 1454 in Tours) was a 15th-century French architect. He was the son of Drouet de Dammartin and probably Guy de Damm ...

, Jean Papin and Jean Durand. with financial assistance from Charles VII and the

Duke of Brittany This is a list of rulers of the Duchy of Brittany. In different epochs the sovereigns of Brittany were kings, princes, and dukes. The Breton ruler was sometimes elected, sometimes attained the position by conquest or intrigue, or by hereditary r ...

Jean V Jean V may refer to * Jean V de Bretagne (1389–1442) * Jean V of Armagnac (1420–1473) * Jean V de Bueil Jean V de Bueil (after 17 August 1405 and before 18 August 1406 - 1478), called ''le Fléau des Anglais'' "plague of the English", count ...

. In 1484 the lower portals were completed. The two new towers were erected just outside of the old city walls. The late-Roman surrounding wall is visible in cross section at the rear of the towers from the north. The first tower was finished in 1534 and the second in 1547, with

French Renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define th ...

features in their crowns. The very slow construction of the cathedral led to a local saying: "... not until the cathedral is finished", to mean something particularly long and difficult to achieve. It also meant that the building presents a complex pattern of French religious types of architecture from the 13th century to the 16th. Tours-Rougeot

In 1787, responding to Vatican doctrines calling for making interiors of churches more open and welcoming, the jubé, or choir screen, which separated the choir from the nave, was removed. In 1793, during the French Revolution, the Jacobins smashed the statues on the church portal. The church was nationalised and transformed into a Temple of Reason, until the reign of Napoleon I. In 1848, portions of the cathedral, including the portal sculpture, were restored. A major restoration of the cathedral began in 1993. The organ restoration was completed in 1996, and began of the upper windows, Between 2010 and 2013 the restoration of the north transept and is rose window was completed, restored, and two hundred square meters of new windows, dedicated to Saint Martin, were added to cathedral. A new main altar was dedicated in 2018.

Architecture

The Exterior - West Front

File:Tours Cathédrale Saint-Gatien Fassade Portale 1.jpg, Portals of the west front File:Tours Cathédrale Saint-Gatien Fassade Giebel.jpg, Fronton of the west front File:Tours Cathédrale Saint-Gatien Fassade Portal Tympanon 3.jpg, Tympanum of the central portal The west front of the cathedral displays three very different styles of architecture harmoniously combined. The lower walls of the towers and the central block of the facade up to the triangular fronton date were built in sober Romanesque style, then, along with the buttresses, were covered with much more ornate and dense

Flamboyant Flamboyant (from ) is a form of late Gothic architecture that developed in Europe in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, from around 1375 to the mid-16th century. It is characterized by double curves forming flame-like shapes in the bar-tr ...

decoration.

Transepts and chevet

File:Tours Cathédrale Saint-Gatien Chor 1.jpg, The chevet of the cathedral File:Tours Cathédrale Saint-Gatien Nordrosette.jpg, north transept and rose window, with brace bar File:Tours Cathédrale Saint-Gatien Nord-Querschiff 1.jpg, Additional buttresses on the north transept The sides of the cathedral are reinforced with massive flying buttresses, capped with spires to give them additional weight. The chevet of the cathedral, at the east end, is very unusual along Gothic cathedrals in not having any other structures attached to it. The north transept of the cathedral is unusual in that it has two additional buttresses to support the north front, with its rose window. The rose window also has an unusual bar attached to its face to give it additional strength.

Towers

File:Tours Cathédrale Saint-Gatien Nordturm.jpg, Renaissance lantern on the North Tower (1507) File:Tours - Cathédrale Saint-Gatien (7-2014) 2014-08-20 13.40.45.jpg, Detail of the north tower lantern File:Tours, Cathédrale Saint-Gatien-PM 35237.jpg, Sculpture on the tower exterior File:Tours Cathédrale Saint-Gatien Südturm 2.jpg, Detail of the south tower The two towers have heights of 69 and 70 meters. Portions of the bases of the towers date to the 12th century, The faces of the towers are covered with very elaborate tracery and decoration in the later Flamboyant style. The top sections of the two towers, which completed the structures, with heights of 69 and 70 meters, are early examples of

French Renaissance architecture French Renaissance architecture is a style which was prominent between the late 15th and early 17th centuries in the Kingdom of France. It succeeded French Gothic architecture. The style was originally imported from Italy after the Hundred Years ...

Interior

File:ToursCathedraGroundPlan.gif, Plan with dates of construction File:Tours Cathedral-1.JPG, Vaults of the nave File:Interior of Cathédrale Saint-Gatien de Tours (1).jpg, The Choir File:17 Tours (42) (13196762154).jpg, Upper windows The nave has the traditional three levels; a gallery on the ground floor with large pillars supporting the ribs of the vaulted ceiling; a mid-level gallery, or

triforium A triforium is an interior gallery, opening onto the tall central space of a building at an upper level. In a church, it opens onto the nave from above the side aisles; it may occur at the level of the clerestory windows, or it may be locat ...

, with windows; and an upper level, or

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

, with tall windows filling the upper walls with glass. The nave has a height of 29 meters, but a width less than many cathedrals, probably due to the re-use of an earlier Romanesque foundation. The vaults are covered with the original roof structure, built of wooden beams from the 13th century in the choir, and from the 15th century in the nave. The choir still has its original fifteen 13th-century windows, which feature both scenes of the lives of Christ, Apostles and Saints, as well as windows which depict the professions of the guilds which contributed to the financing of the windows. The rose window in the north transept, built in the early 14th century, has an unusual design. It was placed into the center of a square already filled with stained glass. This later caused difficulties of stability; a buttress had to be built in the interior, across the middle of the window, which divides it into two. The window is also supported by flying buttresses on the outside. The south transept also has a rose window, and contains the original case of the 16th century organ, It was donated by Martin de Beaune, and built by Barnabé Delanoue. It now contains an 18th-century organ built by Cliquot.

Art and Decoration

File:Loire Indre Tours6 tango7174.jpg, The tomb of the two children of

Charles VIII of France Charles VIII, called the Affable (french: l'Affable; 30 June 1470 – 7 April 1498), was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. He succeeded his father Louis XI at the age of 13.Paul Murray Kendall, ''Louis XI: The Universal Spider'' (Ne ...

and Anne de Bretagne (1506) File:Tombeau des Enfants de France a la cathedrale St Gatien de Tours DSC 0726.jpg, Detail of the tomb The nave contains a monumental tomb, that of the two children of King

and

Anne of Brittany Anne of Brittany (; 25/26 January 1477 – 9 January 1514) was reigning Duchess of Brittany from 1488 until her death, and Queen of France from 1491 to 1498 and from 1499 to her death. She is the only woman to have been queen consort of France ...

, who died as infants. It was made in 1506 by Guillaume Regnault or Girolamo da Fiesole, and originally was located in the church of St. Martin, and was moved to the cathedral after the French Revolution. The tomb is made of

Carrara marble Carrara marble, Luna marble to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara in the province of Massa ...

, in the Italian style. The recumbent statues are reminiscent of the 15th-century French medieval tradition (school of

Michel Colombe Michel Colombe (c. 1430 – c. 1513) was a French sculptor whose work bridged the late Gothic and Renaissance styles. Born in Bourges into a family of artisans, he was active in Tours. Colombe's surviving works all date from his old age. He creat ...

Stained glass

File:Verrière de l'enfance de Jésus (13e siècle) cathédrale Saint-Gatien de Tours DSC 0749.jpg, Infancy of Christ (13th c.) File:Tours Cathédrale Saint-Gatien Innen Chorfenster 1.jpg, Stained glass of the choir (click 2X to enlarge) File:Tours cathedraleStGatien vitrail alliance portement Croix detail.JPG, Early glass - Christ carrying the cross (13th c.) File:17 Tours (45) (13196737644).jpg, Stained glass window of Tours, with decorative designs File:Adoration of the Magi in Tours Cathedral Saint-Gatien.jpg, Renaissance stained glass at Tours (15th c.) In the 13th century, the artists working on Tours Cathedral launched a small revolution in the design of stained glass windows. Instead of having the entire window filled a multitude of small scenes made of tiny pieces of deeply-coloured glass, the Tours artists began making windows with a mixture of types of glass; the traditional iconographic scenes with Biblical figures were surrounded by panes of clear or lightly coloured glass decorated with ornamental and vegetal themes. This served the purpose of bringing a much greater quantity of light into the interior, and also highlighted the chosen subjects, which otherwise were lost among hundreds of other images. This style of window, introduced at Tours in about 1265, was soon followed at

Troyes Cathedral Troyes Cathedral (french: Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Troyes) is a Catholic church, dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, located in the town of Troyes in Champagne, France. It is the episcopal seat of the Bishop of Troyes. The ...

, and then spread quickly to other cathedrals in France and then England. This revolution in the format of display was accompanied by an even more important revolution in technique, with the use of silver stain, a method for painting onto glass with enamel paints, which were then heated and fused onto the glass. This allowed the more expressive figures, shading and three-dimensions, closer to paintings than to mosaics. The sizes of the pieces of glass became larger, and the amount of lead bars in the window smaller. The figures in stained glass windows began to resemble those in medieval miniature paintings in realism.

Rose windows

File:Tours - Cathédrale Saint-Gatien - rosace (10-2014) 2014-08-20 13.12.20.jpg, Exterior of west rose window File:Tours Cathédrale Saint-Gatien Innen Westrosette 1.jpg, West rose window File:Tours Cathédrale Saint-Gatien Innen Westrosette 4.jpg, Detail of west rose window (click 2x to enlarge) File:Cathédrale de Tours - rosace et orgue.jpg, South rose window, with pipes of organ File:Tours Cathédrale Saint-Gatien Innen Nordrosette 4.jpg, North rose window, with its reinforcing bar The cathedral has three rose windows in the west front and the two ends of the transept. The most original is that of the north transept, installed in the beginning of the 14th century. The rose was installed in a square section of window already filled with glass. where the rose was installed, problems of stability appeared, and it had to be reinforced by a vertical stone bar behind the window, dividing it in two, and by additional buttresses on the exterior.

Pipe Organ

File:Tours St Gatien (pipe organ).jpg, The pipe organ, in the south transept File:Tours St Gatien Orgel (07).jpg, Detail of the organ pipes and decoration File:Tours-Kathedrale-138-Organist-2008-gje.jpg, The organist at the keyboard The pipe organ is located in the south transept. The case and decoration date to the 16th century. The instrument now in place was made in the 18th century by the family firm founded by

Robert Clicquot Robert Clicquot (1645–1719) was a French organ builder from Paris. His most notable organs are in the Chapel of the Palace of Versailles, the churches of Saint-Quentin and Saint-Louis des Invalides in Paris and Rouen Cathedral. Clicquot's desce ...

Bells

The cathedral has four major bells located in the south tower. The bourdon, the largest and deepest-sounding, is Christus, made in 1749 and weighing 1900 kilos. It originally hung in the nearby Abbey of St. Paul in

Cormery Cormery () is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department, Centre-Val de Loire. Its inhabitants are called Cormeriens, Cormeriennes. Geography Cormery is located 21 kilometres from Tours and 18 kilometres from Joué-lès-Tours. The area of the t ...

. In 1793, during the Revolution, most church bells were seized and melted down to make cannon and other armament. Towns were allowed to have only a single bell to warn of a fire. The inhabitants of Coermery resisted and rolled the bell to another town to preserve i. Finally, in 1807, it was taken to Tours and installed in the tower. The other three bells are: :Maurice (1350 kilos, 1864); :Gatien (980 kilos, 1884), :Martin (310 kilos, 14th century

The Cloister of La Psalette and the Archbishop's Palace

File:Tours CloitrePsalette (33).JPG, The Gothic-Renaissance Cloister of La Psalette, joined to the Cathedral File:Tours escalier du cloître de la Psalette.jpg, The circular stairway of the Cloister of La Psalette (1524) File:Garden at Musee des Beaux Arts in Tours, France.jpg, The former archbishop's palace, now the Museum of Fine Arts of Tours. To the north of the cathedral is a small

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against ...

, built during the Renaissance, known as the ''cloître de la Psalette'', in reference to its function as a school where the chanting of psalms was taught. It was built between 1442 and 1524. It has three galleries, placed against the north wall of the cathedral. It also has a

scriptorium Scriptorium (), literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic scribes. However, lay scribes an ...

, where manuscripts were created, which was built in 1520, and is served by a stairway; and a library with a vaulted ceiling, where several frescoes from the 13th and 14th centuries can be seen. This was an early appearance of the French Renaissance style, which had recently been introduced in the stairway the Chateau of Blois in the nearby Loire Valley. To the south of the cathedral is the former archbishop's palace, built in the early 18th century, which has now become the

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours (English: Museum of Fine Arts of Tours) is located in the bishop's former palace, near the cathedral St. Gatien, where it has been since 1910. It displays rich and varied collections, including that of painting ...

. It also was originally built against the GaLLO-Roman city wall of the 4th century. It contains one hall from the 11th century, and another from the 12th century. On the wall of the second hall is a balcony from which the judgements of the ecclesiastical court were announced.''Le Guide du Patrimoine en France'', (2002) Centre des Monuments National, p. 224

Burials

* Archibald Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas, Duke of Touraine, buried with his son, Sir James Douglas in the Choir, following the

Battle of Verneuil The Battle of Verneuil was a battle of the Hundred Years' War, fought on 17 August 1424 near Verneuil-sur-Avre in Normandy between an English army and a combined Franco-Scottish force, augmented by Milanese heavy cavalry. The battle was a sig ...

1424.

Gallery

File:Loire Indre Tours4 tango7174.jpg, Main altar and choir File:Sons et Lumières - Cathédrale de Tours.jpg, Sons et Lumières - Cathédrale de Tours

Notes and Citations

Bibliography

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External links

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Structurae.de
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plan, detailed photographs in color
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{{Authority control Churches in Indre-et-Loire Buildings and structures in Tours, France Gothic architecture in France Monuments of the Centre des monuments nationaux Roman Catholic cathedrals in France