A little history of Sainte-Marie cathedral in Bayonne
And also
The tops
The spires |
Daniel Villafruela / CC-BY-SA
We are now in the heart of Bayonne, where the Gothic cathedral stands. The former church was founded in 1140 under the bishopric of Raymond de Martres, with a Latin cross plan.
The choir and the apse date back to the 12th century. After the former church's destruction in a fire, they raised the current one in 1213 on a hill where in the past was a Roman oppidum ("castle").
The cloister, put up between 1213 and 1240, used to be a cemetery. It's the hugest one in France!
The Dominican monk Guillaume Bodin restored it in 1312. In 1335, the high nave was built. The bell-tower was raised between 1500 and 1605.