THE CATHEDRAL IS CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR WORKS.

Built from 1090 in Romanesque style, the cathedral is characterised by a Gothic elevation and a "neo-Gothic" façade. It is located in an old quarter with half-timbered houses. Don't miss the Romanesque capitals, the 1510 Brussels tapestry and a 16th-century stained-glass window. A tactile model is available for the visually impaired.
The cathedral's interior can be summed up in one phrase: a Gothic graft on a Romanesque base. Although the existence of a cathedral in Chalon-sur-Saône is attested as early as the 5th century, the current building was constructed from the 12th century onwards, when Romanesque art was at its height. During the Romanesque period, three construction sites can be identified: the choir chapels, the choir, the transept, the aisles and the walls of the nave. Then, in the Gothic period, four different projects were undertaken: the apse and the choir roof were rebuilt (construction of a ribbed vault made up of seven parts, which rested on the pillars of the ground floor arches, from the Romanesque period), as well as the transept crossing, the chapter house was built, all around 1230; the nave was completed and covered with ribbing (1310-1429). In the 15th and 16th centuries, as private worship developed, chapels with Gothic clerestories were built on the aisles. This was the period of the wall paintings of the Glorification of the Virgin (1450-1475) in the Lamoureux chapel, the Flemish tapestry of the Eucharist (1510), and the stained glass window in grisaille and silver yellow of the Virgin of the Apocalypse (1520), all of which are listed as Historic Monuments.

Network of Cathedral Cities
A former episcopal city, Chalon-sur-Saône joined the Réseau des Villes-Cathédrales (Network of Cathedral Cities) in 2013. This network brings together around sixty French cities that are home to a religious building that is, or was, the seat of a bishop.
The association was set up on 25 September 2013, at the initiative of the former mayor of Quimper, Bernard Poignant, who said that "a population's sense of belonging to its town derives in part from its heritage and certain monuments that are the pride of its inhabitants. The cathedral is one of the best examples of this".
This network of towns works behind the scenes, notably through working groups and conferences to answer questions from local authorities on tourism, heritage and its management, and on actions that could be common to the whole network.

http://www.villes-cathedrales.fr/

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