Former Sainte-Eulalie-et-Sainte-Julie cathedral and its cloister, Romanesque cathedral and marble cloister in Elne, France.
The former Sainte-Eulalie-et-Sainte-Julie cathedral is a Romanesque church set on a hill in Elne, in southern France, and one of the oldest religious buildings in the region. It is attached to a cloister built in gray marble veined with blue, whose galleries are lined with carved stone capitals.
Elne was established as a bishop's seat by the Visigoths in 571, and this cathedral served as the center of church authority in the region for over a thousand years. In 1602 the bishop moved to Perpignan, and the building lost its role as an active place of worship.
The carved capitals in the cloister shift gradually from Romanesque to Gothic forms, mixing plant, animal, and religious scenes in a way that tells the story of changing artistic tastes across centuries. Walking slowly through the galleries makes it easy to spot the differences from one arcade to the next.
The site is open every day except Mondays, with hours that change depending on the season, so it is worth checking before you go. The ground around the cloister can be uneven in places, and sturdy shoes make the visit more comfortable.
Excavations around the current building have uncovered the remains of the original 6th-century cathedral buried beneath the ground. This means the hill was already a place of worship long before the walls visitors see today were ever built.
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