Saintes Cathedral (''Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Saintes'') is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

and former

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

located in Saintes,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The cathedral is a national monument. It was formerly the seat of the

Bishop of Saintes The former French diocese of Saintes existed from the 6th century to the French Revolution. Its bishops had their Episcopal seat, see in the Saintes Cathedral, cathedral of Saintes, Charente-Maritime, Saintes in western France, in the modern depa ...

, a diocese abolished under the

Concordat of 1801 The Concordat of 1801 was an agreement between the First French Republic and the Holy See, signed by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII on 15 July 1801 in Paris. It remained in effect until 1905, except in Alsace–Lorraine, ...

, when its territory was reallocated, mostly to the

Diocese of La Rochelle The Diocese of La Rochelle and Saintes (; ) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in France. The diocese comprises the département of Charente-Maritime and the French overseas collectivity of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. The bishop is ...

. The previous cathedral was built here in the 12th century. Little remains of this building apart from a Romanesque arm and the crossing of the

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

. The

cloisters A cloister (from Latin , "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 a warm southe ...

date from the 13th century. Otherwise the church was entirely rebuilt starting from 1450, in the

Flamboyant Flamboyant () is a lavishly-decorated style of Gothic architecture that appeared in France and Spain in the 15th century, and lasted until the mid-sixteenth century and the beginning of the Renaissance.Encyclopedia Britannica, "Flamboyant style ...

style, and work was still not completed in 1568, when during the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...

, from which this region suffered particularly severely, the building was sacked by

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

s, causing such serious damage that the nave had afterwards to be entirely rebuilt. Lack of resources meant that a complete rebuilding has never been possible. The heavy appearance of the tower, for example, results from the lack of the spire intended to finish it, the present dome constituting a more economical substitute. The interior is made striking by its lack of decoration and by the wooden ceiling, completed in 1927.

Pictures

Roch soigné par l'ange XVIII 04098.jpg, st-Roch, 18th. Saint Pierre 04211.JPG, st-Peter, 19th. Moine en prière XVIII 04252.JPG, Monk, 18th. Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Saintes organ.JPG, Pipe organs. St. Pierre Cathedral altar.JPG, Main altar and ciborium. Patriarches 04114.JPG, Stained glass window .

Sources

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Architecture religieuse en Occident: Saint Pierre de Saintes

Former cathedrals in France Basilica churches in France Churches in Charente-Maritime Saintes, Charente-Maritime {{France-RC-cathedral-stub