Vienne Cathedral
Vienne Cathedral (Cathédrale Saint-Maurice de Vienne) is a Roman Catholic cathedral, dedicated to Saint Maurice, and a national monument of France, in the city of Vienne, Isère.
It was formerly the seat of the Bishops, later Archbishops, of Vienne, abolished under the Concordat of 1801. Its territory was transferred mostly to the Diocese of Grenoble, while the title was added first to that of the Archbishops of Lyon, known between 1822 and 2006 as the Archbishops of Lyon-Vienne, and then from 2006 to that of the Bishops of Grenoble, now known as the Bishops of Grenoble-Vienne.
The Gothic church was built over a long period, between 1052 and 1533. It is a basilica, with three aisles, but no apse or transepts, 315 feet in length, 118 feet wide and 89 feet in height. The most striking portion is the west front, which rises majestically from a terrace overhanging the Rhône. But the sculptural decoration was badly damaged by the Protestants in 1562, during the French Wars of Religion.
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