Toul Cathedral, Gothic cathedral in Toul, France
Toul Cathedral is a Gothic building whose nave is 100 m long and 30 m high, with a transept 56 m wide and towers 65 m tall. Its interior has clustered columns, pointed arches and ribbed vaults painted pale yellow and cream with gold ribs. At the far end, a tall three-lancet window stands above an ornate stone screen.
Construction of the present Gothic cathedral began in 1221, on a site that had held a Roman temple and then Romanesque churches merged into a single basilica consecrated in 981. Work halted for nearly half a century during a war between the Dukes of Burgundy and Lorraine, resumed around 1460, and the building was essentially complete by 1496. Revolutionaries removed the façade sculptures in the 1790s; a 210mm German shell pierced the nave in World War II, destroying the roof and organ, and restoration began in 1981.
The cathedral has been a stop on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela since the Middle Ages. Its great organ was first installed in the north transept in 1356 under Bishop Bertrand de la Tour d'Auvergne, rebuilt in the 15th and 18th centuries, destroyed by fire in 1944 and rebuilt in 2016.
The cathedral stands inside Toul's old town, a short walk from the Moselle and the railway station. The nave was closed from 1978 when the roof was judged unsafe, and restoration of the high roof began in 1981, continuing outside until 1995. The Chapel of Bishops, with its flat coffered vault, has been closed for about fifty years awaiting restoration.
The Chapel of the Bishops, added in the 16th century, has a flat coffered ceiling carried on shallow arches with no visible supporting structure. It has been closed for about fifty years awaiting restoration, so visitors see only its exterior from the nave aisles.
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