Saint-Pol-de-Léon Cathedral

About

Saint-Paul-Aurelien Cathedral of Saint-Pol-de-Léon is a cathedral church that was the seat of the diocese of Leon, created in the 6th century and abolished in 1801. The church is currently part of the diocese of Quimper and Leon of which it is one of the two seats. It is classified as historical monuments by the list of 1840.

It is one of the seven cathedral stages of the Tro Breiz. A first cathedral was destroyed by the Danes in 875. A second, built in the Romanesque period, was damaged by King Henry II Plantagenet in 1170.

Construction of the current building began in 1230. A first series of construction campaigns allowed the reconstruction of the facade and nave between the second third of the 13th century and the first decades of the 14th century. After a delay, a second series of works led to the resumption of the transept and the reconstruction of the bedside, completed in 1539.

The building has similarities with the large Norman cathedrals, whose architectural influence it has undergone: the facade is inspired by the cathedrals of Lisieux and Coutances; the nave and bedside have a wall passage at the foot of the windows...