Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Limoges, Limoges, Limousin, France
The discovery of a vast baptistery of the 5th century north of the cathedral seems to suggest that, from the early Christian times, the mother church of the diocese had to be a building of a certain size.
From the 11th century, a Romanesque cathedral was raised in the heart of the city but in 1273 it was decided to rebuild it. If, from the first building, only the crypt and the lower floors of the bell tower remain today, the construction of the present cathedral is done in three stages, each one gradually replacing the Roman sobriety by the Gothic exuberance.
The construction of the current building began in 1273 and was completed in 1888 by the attachment of the Romanesque bell tower to the nave. The construction began with the characteristic choir of the radiating Gothic of the 13th century which was attached to the Romanesque nave. The work was interrupted for the first time in 1327 for lack of money. In 1378, the chapel Saint-Martial and part of the north transept were raised, the Romanesque bell tower was reinforced by an imposing masonry; a few years later, it is the turn of the southern transept.
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