Notre-Dame (Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges)
Distant view of the church from the ruins of Lugdunum Convenarum
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The Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges Cathedral ( French : Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges or just Cathédrale Sainte-Marie ) is a Roman Catholic church in the town of the same name.
Geographical location
The church and the village are located at the foot of the Pyrenees in the Haute-Garonne department in southwest France on a steep hill. The (former) cathedral was built at its highest point . The church is counted among the pilgrimage churches on the Way of St. James .
history
At the foot of the hill, which today bears the village of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, was the 60,000-inhabitant city of Lugdunum Convenarum in Roman times . It was a flourishing settlement until the invasion of the Vandals . After multiple destruction by Franconian and Burgundian troops during the migration period (585), the settlement on the plain was abandoned, but a remaining settlement on the hill was initially preserved as a hilltop settlement from the migration period . In the early Middle Ages, however, the hill was also abandoned.
The Diocese of Comminges has existed since the 6th century. Bertrand I († 1123), Bishop of Comminges, had a cathedral built on the hill in the second half of the 11th century and established a canon monastery . He was buried in the cathedral choir and considered holy . His successors encouraged his worship. At the end of the 13th century, the church was enlarged: Bishop Bertrand de Goth, who later became Clement V and the first Pope to reside in Avignon , added the Gothic choir, work that was completed by his successors in 1352. Clement V also arranged for the bones of St. Bertrand to be raised.
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The Diocese of Comminges existed until the French Revolution . Today its former area belongs to the Archdiocese of Toulouse . The name of Comminges was included in the archbishop's title in 1935. He now describes himself as Archbishop of Toulouse-Saint Bertrand de Comminges-Rieux .
Building
The cathedral was built at the end of the 11th century. From the original Romanesque building , the richly carved portal, the single-nave nave and the square west tower have been preserved. The choir with a chapel wreath dates from the beginning of the 14th century. The cloister added on the south side has three Romanesque and one Gothic wings.
Inside, the splendidly carved rood screen and the choir stalls from the 16th century in the Renaissance style are worth seeing .
literature
- Susanne Böttcher (Ed.): Pyrenees: The high mountains, Toulouse and the foothills of the Pyrenees . Travel-House-Media, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8342-8983-4 .
- Thorsten Droste and Henri Gaud: The Way of St. James in France. Romanesque art along the pilgrimage routes . Hirmer, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7774-4365-2 .
- Raymond Oursel: Romanesque France . 2 volumes. 2nd edition, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1999, without ISBN.
- Rolf Toman (Ed.): Romanesque: Architecture, Painting, Sculpture . After work, Berlin 2002, ISBN 978-3-936761-00-9 .
Web links
Coordinates: 43 ° 1 ′ 36.3 " N , 0 ° 34 ′ 17.4" E