Cathédrale Saint-Étienne d'Auxerre

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The Cathédrale Saint-Étienne d'Auxerre located in Auxerre, Burgundy, France is known for its massive stained glass windows.

Most of the Burgundian Gothic cathedral was built 1215 – 1233, over an 11th-century crypt, but building continued until the 1540s (the cupola in Renaissance style that takes the place of one pinnacle on the completed tower). The first building campaign erected the chevet at the liturgical east end, followed later in the century by a new façade and the bases of new towers at the west end, still linked to the apse end by the nave of the old cathedral. Construction on the nave and transepts proceeded slowly through the 14th and 15th centuries.

Auxerre was formerly an important diocese in Gaul, with a bishop as early as the 3rd century (the diocese was suppressed in 1821 [1]. A council held at Auxerre in 585 (or 578) under bishop Annacharius formulated forty-five canons, closely related in context to canons of the contemporary Councils of Lyons and Mâcon. "They are important as illustrating life and manners among the newly-converted Teutonic tribes and the Gallo-Romans of the time. Many of the decrees are directed against remnants of heathen barbarism and superstitious customs; others bear witness to the persistence in the early Middle Ages in France of certain ancient Christian customs. The canons of the council of 695 or 697 are concerned chiefly with the Divine Office and ecclesiastical ceremonies." (CE)