Albi cathedral
Excerpts from 'The Cathedrals of Southern France' by T Francis Bumpus, 1895
The cathedral at Albi, famous for its vast dimensions, its screened and parclosed choir rich in sculptured imagery, the profuse polychromatic decoration of its walls and roof, and its two delicately-traceried southern portals, is a stupendous example of brickwork; but as regards its decorative features – for they are executed in stone – not a particularly valuable specimen of construction in that material...
Designed like the nave of Toulouse Cathedral, that of Albi is aisleless, but with this difference, that two tiers of arched recessed, some 14 or 15 feet deep, are ranged completely around the church between gigantic internal buttresses. The span of the roof, which is vaulted in brick with stone ribs, is enormous – 60 feet. There is no marked division between the nave and the choir beyond that indicated by the rood screen, which divides the length into two almost equal parts. The general design of Albi Cathedral, which is at once a church and a fortress, is, however, somewhat awkward and ungainly; indeed, were it not for its enclosed choir, which forms, so to speak, an island in the vast expanse of floor, such a building would be well-nigh immeasurable to the eye.
It was not until the accession of Cardinal Bernard de Castinete, the fifty-fourth bishop of Albi, that a building worthy of an episcopal see was commenced. Suppressing the former church of Sainte Croix, the Cardinal selected a more commanding site for his fortress – for Albi Cathedral is a remarkable example of that military type of church so frequently met with in this part of France – and laid the foundation of the new cathedral in 1282 under the joint dedication of Sainte Croix and Sainte Cécile.
This spot is one of wonderful boldness, surrounded by precipices, and so near the Tarn that Albi Cathedral does not possess a west door. On this platform the bishop began to rear a stupendous Middle Pointed church of red brick. The work seems to have progressed by slowly; for we read that it was only completed in 1397, during the episcopate of Guillaume de la Voute, the sixty-fifth bishop; and then it must have been burdened with a heavy debt, for it was not consecrated till the 23rd of April 1480, when bishop Louis d'Amboise performed the ceremony. To bishop Louis d'Amboise II, nephew and successor of the consecrator, are due the choir stalls, parcloses and rood loft, and the paintings on the roof, thus completing the work of 230 years.
The ground-plan of Albi Cathedral shows this to be no ordinary church. Solid and huge, it possesses neither transepts nor aisles, but side chapels merely, of considerable size indeed, but excavated out of the immense thickness of the walls, while the choir and sanctuary, surrounded by stone screenwork of a richness almost unparalleled in Europe, stand in the eastern half of the vast church, detached from the side walls. ..
Although designed on principles entirely at variance with ecclesiastical usage, Albi Cathedral is certainly one of the most imposing religious edifices in the south of France. Imagine a huge apsidal church built almost entirely of red brick, 290 feet long, without aisles, but with a roof-span of 60 feet, standing on the brink of a precipice, with side walls rising to the unbroken height of nearly 100 feet, dominated at the west end by a vast square tower 300 feet high, terminating in an octagon, not dissimilar in mass to, though far more solid than, those of Ely and Boston; and then some notion of this church of Sainte Cécile at Albi may be formed.
The huge internal buttresses divide the length of the church into twelve square chapels. Externally these buttresses have but a slight projection, and unlike the generality of these masses of masonry, are not divided into 'set offs', nor do they taper to a pinnacle at the top, but retain their size throughout.
They are all bound together, first by the vaulting of the chapels, which are formed between them on the ground floor, and again by the vaulting of the loftier chambers above these chapels. Against these buttresses, externally, are built flanking towers, solid and semicircular on plan, with a radius of eight feet to each buttress or tower. These towers form a considerable part of the walls of the church. The solidity of this system of buttresses, towers, walls and vaults running all round the church is fully equal to the support of even the mountain of brickwork contained in the roof of the nave.
The entrance to the church is in the south side, and is approached by a flight of steps with a fortified gateway at the bottom. In strange contrast to the military severity of the upper and flanking portions of this barbican is the portal, which, as a specimen of the flamboyant Gothic of Languedoc, is, I should conceive, unsurpassed. The jambs are fashioned into canopied niches, three on either hand, and raised upon tall angular pedestals. From these richly-tabernacles jambs rises a somewhat acutely-pointed arch of several orders of moulding fringed with a richly sculptured hood-moulding, crocketed, and flanked by pinnacles placed against buttresses which rise up to the string-course under the battlements. The tympanum of the arch is pierced with Curvilinear tracery contained within a circle supported by the points of a pair of triangles with curved sides. The tracery enriching the latter is partly covered on either hand by figures of angels in adoration of a somewhat elongated statue of the Virgin and Child. Passing through this fortified gate and ascending a flight of steps we reach a platform upon which is erected that pride of Albi, the southern porch or baldachin, so called from its resemblance to that item of church furniture. 
This porch is a glorious piece of design, and stands in strong contrast to the prevailing sternness of the cathedral. Three round-headed arches between massive piers open into it. The wall space above these arches terminates in each case in a gable of the ogee form, and is completely covered with Curvilinear tracery, so splendid and so picturesequepicturesque that we are almost driven to the wild luxuriance of nature to find anything to which we can compare it.
It will be obvious that but little light can enter through such narrow windows as those with which Albi Cathedral is provided, and this little is further obscured by the great depth of the lateral chapels and the corresponding upper chambers. But the deficiency of the light has been somewhat relieved by colour, deprived of which the interior would be cold, dark and clumsy, and could not bear comparison with the great clerestoried churches of the north. When it is said that the ribs of the vaulting are two and a half feet thick, some idea may be formed of the prodigious massiveness of the roof of this great cathedral. The enormous weight of this vault, the keystones of which are 95 feet above the pavement, is only supported at that great height by the buttresses, each of which is 5 feet thick and 20 feet deep. The transverse and diagonal ribs of this vault divide it into forty-seven compartments, with five more made by that of the apse, and the whole is perhaps the most astonishing work of mediaeval colour decoration excepting that of Saint Jacques at Liege, with which it is almost contemporary, in Western Europe. The cells of this Cyclopean mass of vaulting are painted a cerulean blue, covered all over, except where the figures and groups occur, with designs in white toned with grey. The work was created by Italian artists in 1512.
The large painting on the great bulging piers of the tower is one of the oldest and best in the church. It is 50 feet high, and was executed in the first decade of the fifteenth century. The Albi 'Doom' was apparently painted on the brickwork with so little preparation to receive it that all the lines of the brick jointing show upon its surface.
Next to its painted roof the great glory of Albi Cathedral is its choir, surrounded by stone screenwork of most elaborate richness, furnished with 120 stalls, and separated from the nave by one of the few medieval jubés that have escaped the fury of the Protestants and Revolutionists, the execrable taste of the age of Louis XIV, and the ill-judged alterations of the last century. It was built by that Cardinal Louis d'Amboise who consecrated the church in 1480, and he it was who provided the structure with everything necessary for the most splendid celebration of the Divine Offices. In front of the so9lid portion of the jubé stands a most magnificent porch with three arches opening into it. These three arches, their columns, and the superimposed wall space, constitute a very miracle of fretwork, niches and carving, of a very late flamboyant character, strangely contrasting with the rude simplicity of the military setting.
On the loft itself stands the rood with its attendant figures of the Blessed Virgin and St John, but the original rood is gone. It was of gilt bronze and was suspended from the vault above by a great iron chain of beautiful design. The porch of this jubé was once rich in sculptured imagery, now represented by statues of Adam and Eve, the only two spared at the Revolution.
Photos by Mamjodh (top) and Adam Baker on Flickr
