Cathédrale Notre-Dame-en-Cité d'Arras, Gothic cathedral in Arras, France

The Cathedral Notre-Dame-en-Cité was a Gothic structure with a Latin cross floor plan that combined architectural elements from different periods. The building featured a choir and transept in early Gothic style, blending influences from multiple eras into its design.

Construction of the cathedral started in 1160 during the height of Arras's textile wealth, though the work faced several delays. Final completion and consecration took place in 1484, making the entire project span more than three centuries.

The chapel of the Dawn, where the Virgin is said to have appeared in 1105 during an outbreak of the "mal des Ardents," was incorporated into the cathedral. According to tradition, the disease was overcome after two reconciled minstrels, Itier and Norman, received a holy candle. A statue of Notre-Dame des Ardents and four stained-glass windows in the current Saint-Nicolas-en-Cité church recall this episode.

Nothing of the cathedral survives above ground: the site lies beside the present hôtel de préfecture du Pas-de-Calais, the former bishop's palace rebuilt in the 18th century. The church of Saint-Nicolas-en-Cité, built between 1839 and 1846, stands exactly on the north arm of the lost transept, and a public garden and roads surround the spot.

Louis de Bourbon, Count of Vermandois, was the legitimised son of Louis XIV and Louise de La Vallière. He died of a malignant fever on 18 November 1683 at Kortrijk, aged 16, on returning from his first military campaign, and was buried in the choir of the cathedral.