Albi Cathedral, Gothic cathedral in Albi, France.
Albi Cathedral is a bishop's church made of red brick in the southern French town of Albi, resembling a fortified structure. The outer walls are thick and smooth, with narrow windows between buttresses, while the interior forms a tall single hall.
Construction started in 1282 under Bishop Bernard de Castanet as a response to the Cathar wars in Languedoc. Completion stretched over more than two centuries, with work finishing only in the late 15th century.
The name recalls the city that returned to the Roman Church after the Albigensian conflicts and viewed the building as a sign of loyalty. Worshippers today find a place for prayer and celebration, with the interior shaped by Italian frescoes and choir work.
The visitor entrance is on the south side, through a door made by Bishop Dominique de Florence around 1410 and sheltered by a flamboyant stone canopy added in 1535. The interior is a single vaulted hall flanked by chapels set between the buttresses, so it can be walked in one continuous circuit.
The south entrance is framed by a flamboyant stone baldaquin added around 1535, continued inside by a richly carved bay. The choir screen, made between 1474 and 1483, once enclosed the choir across five bays with sculpture of the life of Saint Cecilia. The 15th-century Last Judgement mural on the west wall, about 15 m high and 18 m wide, lost its central section, including the figure of Christ, when a chapel was built in the 16th century.
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