Bourges Cathedral
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How it came to be
Bourges was the Roman city of Avaricum and one of the first Christian communities in Gaul. The cathedral site has been used for worship since the 3rd century, and in 1137 Louis VII was crowned in the earlier cathedral there. In 1195 Archbishop Henri de Sully began a complete rebuilding in the Gothic style.
The old nave was kept for worship while work moved from east to west, and the new choir was largely finished by about 1214. By 1225 the building could host a large council condemning the Cathar heresy, and the timber roof framework of 1240 to 1255 took the wood of 900 oak trees. A fire caused serious damage in 1259, but by then the cathedral was nearly complete, only 63 years after it was begun.
The name of its designer is not known. The plan is simple, with no transept and double aisles of different heights running without a break around the choir, and the nave vault is 37.15 m high. The north tower, completed on faulty foundations, collapsed on 31 December 1506, and the upper centre of the west front was rebuilt in the Flamboyant style. The cathedral was listed as a historic monument in 1862 and inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1992.
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