Lisieux Cathedral, Lisieux, France

Lisieux Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Lisieux) is a former Roman Catholic cathedral, and a national monument of France. Built between 1170 and the middle of the 13th century through the initiative of Bishop Arnulf, the cathedral was the seat of the Bishop of Lisieux until the diocese of Lisieux was abolished under the Concordat of 1801 and merged into the Diocese of Bayeux.

The west front of the building consists of three portals surmounted by two towers. The south tower was built in the 16th century and at the top bears a 17th-century flèche. Buttresses were added to the south face in the 15th century. The cathedral survived World War II wholly intact.

An earlier cathedral is presumed to have existed since the 6th century, as there was a Bishop of Lisieux from that time, but nothing is known of the earlier edifice.

References:

Wikipedia

User Reviews

Rafael Braga (2 years ago)
Beautiful!

Ermanno Paleari (3 years ago)
Gothic cathedral #XII sec. and restauration not scientific in the XIXth century# light, subtility of architecture give spiritual ascesis and perception of the infinity with gregorian music in far acoustic wawes. Simply a rare sensation.

Ras Patidar (3 years ago)
Historical place to see.

Bodog Sergiu (3 years ago)
Really nice

Rev. Drew Gregory Olson (4 years ago)
Most underrated pilgrimage site in Lisieux. Parish frequented by the Martin family. Chapel where Saint Therese attended daily mass and where she received her little revelation and desire to gather the blood dripping from the base of the crucifix as sign of love to give to others. The high altar was donated entirely by her father, Saint Louis Martin, who was quoted as stating that he had given his daughters to the Church and now, lacking a son, he at least was able to give an altar. He was also quoted as responding to a priest who said, "now we have the altar, a priest, all we lack is the victim (speaking about the Eucharist)" and Saint Louis Martin said, I am that victim. This was just three months before his health began to severely decline.

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The first historical record of Lednice locality dates from 1222. At that time there stood a Gothic fort with courtyard, which was lent by Czech King Václav I to Austrian nobleman Sigfried Sirotek in 1249.

At the end of the 13th century the Liechtensteins, originally from Styria, became holders of all of Lednice and of nearby Mikulov. They gradually acquired land on both sides of the Moravian-Austrian border. Members of the family most often found fame in military service, during the Renaissance they expanded their estates through economic activity. From the middle of the 15th century members of the family occupied the highest offices in the land. However, the family’s position in Moravia really changed under the brothers Karel, Maximilian, and Gundakar of Liechtenstein. Through marriage Karel and Maximilian acquired the great wealth of the old Moravian dynasty of the Černohorskýs of Boskovice. At that time the brothers, like their father and grandfather, were Lutheran, but they soon converted to Catholicism, thus preparing the ground for their rise in politics. Particularly Karel, who served at the court of Emperor Rudolf II, became hetman of Moravia in 1608, and was later raised to princely status by King Matyas II and awarded the Duchy of Opava.

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In the 16th century it was probably Hartmann II of Liechtenstein who had the old medieval water castle torn down and replaced with a Renaissance chateau. At the end of the 17th century the chateau was torn down and a Baroque palace was built, with an extensive formal garden, and a massive riding hall designed by Johann Bernard Fischer von Erlach that still stands in almost unaltered form.

In the mid-18th century the chateau was again renovated, and in 1815 its front tracts that had been part of the Baroque chateau were removed.

The chateau as it looks today dates from 1846-1858, when Prince Alois II decided that Vienna was not suitable for entertaining in the summer, and had Lednice rebuilt into a summer palace in the spirit of English Gothic. The hall on the ground floor would serve to entertain the European aristocracy at sumptuous banquets, and was furnished with carved wood ceilings, wooden panelling, and select furniture, surpassing anything of its kind in Europe.

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