Nevers Cathedral, Minor basilica and Catholic cathedral in Nevers, France

Nevers Cathedral is a Gothic church with a Romanesque western apse. Its light grey stone tower, flat-topped and covered in carved tracery, stands beside a long dark roof and a slender spire. Inside, a nave with pointed arches and ribbed vaults leads to an apse with stained glass; the Romanesque choir at the opposite end has a semi-circular apse and a crypt.

A Gallo-Roman temple to Janus stood on the site; the diocese was established in 517 with a first church dedicated to Saints Gervais and Protais, its choir facing west. Rebuilt from 1068 with funding from Charlemagne and consecrated in 1097, it was ruined by fires in 1211, 1228 and 1308, then rebuilt in Rayonnant Gothic and consecrated by Peter Paludanus in 1330. The south tower was finished in 1528 under Jean III of Navarre; Allied bombs damaged the Gothic choir on the night of 15–16 July 1944, and rebuilding ran from 1946 to 1966.

The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Cyricus, a child martyred around 304, and his mother Julitta. Their relics, brought to Nevers in the 9th and 10th centuries, were kept in a neo-Byzantine reliquary inaugurated on 16 June 1861, the feast of Saint Cyr; it was lost in the bombing of 16 July 1944. A 13th-century polychrome oak triumphal cross with a walnut Christ and medallions of the four evangelists survives inside.

The cathedral stands on the hill of old Nevers, its west end facing the Romanesque chevet and the Rue Abbé-Boutillier running along the south side. Enter from the south portal beside the Bohier tower. The floor is stone and the nave is long, so allow time to walk the full axis; the crypt below the Romanesque choir is lit by windows opened in the 20th century.

The building has a rare architectural feature: two separate choirs at completely opposite ends of the structure. This arrangement is unusual in medieval sacred architecture and reflects the complex construction history of the site.