Albi The Cathedral of Sainte-Cécile

After the crusade against the Albigensians, Bishop Bernard de Castanet began in 1282 a brick cathedral that looks like a fortress, often called the largest brick cathedral in the world. It was built in a land where the Cathar heresy had been strong.

Inside, the vaults were painted in blue and gold by painters from Bologna in the early sixteenth century, and the west wall has a Last Judgment painted around 1480, one of the largest in France. A carved stone screen of the 1480s encloses the choir.

The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Cecilia, the Roman virgin and martyr venerated as patron of musicians. Relics of the saint are recorded at Albi around 1130, and more were added in 1468, a gift of Pope Paul II to Cardinal Jean Jouffroy, then bishop of Albi. They include the radius of her left arm, a jawbone, a cloth stained with her blood and part of her robe. They rest in a gilded reliquary made in Paris by Placide Poussielgue-Rusand in 1887, now in the chapel of Christ for the veneration of the faithful. Each year it is carried in procession at the solemn Mass of her feast, on the Sunday nearest November 22. The cathedral, a minor basilica since 1947, is the church of the parish of Sainte-Cécile, and Mass is celebrated there every day.

The cathedral was consecrated on April 23, 1480. Bishop Louis I d’Amboise (1474–1503) gave it the Last Judgment, the choir enclosure and the flamboyant canopy over the south entrance, and Louis II d’Amboise (1503–1517) had the vaults and chapels painted. In the late seventeenth century the center of the Last Judgment was cut through to give access to the chapel of Saint-Clair, in the lower room of the bell tower. The great Moucherel organ above it dates from 1734–1736 and has four keyboards and more than 3,000 pipes. The canons’ choir and the treasury, set up in the 1990s in a room above the sacristy, have a separate paid entrance.

• The painted vaultsBlue and gold, by painters from Bologna.
• The Last JudgmentOn the west wall, beneath the organ.
• The choir enclosureCarved stone and statues of the 1480s.
• The reliquary of Saint CeciliaIn the chapel of Christ, carried in procession on the Sunday nearest November 22.
• The great organThe Moucherel organ of 1734–1736, above the Last Judgment.
• The collegiate church of Saint-SalviA short walk away, dedicated to a bishop of Albi, with one gallery of its twelfth-century cloister.

• Via DominiciThe Way of Saint Dominic, seven daysDay III, Albi

About an hour by road from Toulouse.

• ToulouseSaint-Sernin and the Jacobins, about 42 miles as the crow flies
• FigeacThe Abbey Church of Saint-Sauveur, about 47 miles as the crow flies
• ConquesThe Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy, about 48 miles as the crow flies
• CahorsThe Cathedral of Saint-Étienne, about 50 miles as the crow flies