Cathedral Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Lyon, Franche-Comte, France
Constructed between 1180 and 1440, the ‘Primatiale’ is found in the middle of historic Lyon in the Saint-Jean district.
Built upon a Romanesque arch, the Gothic structure is shaped like a basilica with a 32m-high nave, two side aisles (lined with chapels), a choir, an apse and a transept. It measures 79m in length and 60m at its widest. In addition to the cathedral, this very beautiful Gothic unit includes a small and a large sacristy, a winter choir and the ‘Manécanterie’ (parish choir school). After serving as a dining hall for the canons, it became the home of the cantors (from which it gets its name, since ‘mane cantare’ means ‘singing in the early morning’). Inside, there is a nave comprised of a sexpartite rib vault (the ribs end in thin columns).
There are a few beautiful rooms inside that absolutely must be seen:
The northern transept holds the astronomic clock, which was built in 1538 by Hugues Level, a clockmaker from Lyon, and his one-time master, N. Lippius, from Basel. It is made up of three faces: an oval one for the minutes, a perpetual calendar spanning from 1954 to 2019, and an astrolabe indicating the position of the stars on the Lyon horizon.
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