The St. Mary's Cathedral Oloron is located Oloron-Sainte-Marie in the Pyrenees-Atlantiques.
It was built from 1102 on the initiative of Viscount of Bearn. Previously, the first church was destroyed in 848 by the Vikings and another church dedicated to the Holy Cross, began to be built in 1080 on the other bank of the river Gave.
Unrest in 1212 related to quarrels with the Albigensian party then riots cause fires and the nave was rebuilt in the thirteenth century.
Chapels are then added but the cathedral is again affected this time during the Wars of Religion. Not until the seventeenth century that the nave was restored and enlarged with the addition of chapels in the eighteenth.
The Diocese of Oloron is abolished in 1802 when the building is "demoted" to the rank of co-cathedral.
Restored in 1850, listed in 1939, the cathedral is inscribed in 1998 on the list of humanity UNESCO World Heritage under the Ways of Saint Jacques.
Architecturally, the massive bell tower and the defensive Romanesque portal are testimonies of the original building (twelfth). The carved decoration of the said portal is particularly remarkable: the theme evokes Christ's cross downhill. Always at the architectural level, the Gothic sanctuary with ambulatory is another masterpiece of the site.
Inside, in terms of furniture and decorations, a pulpit of the seventeenth century, the organ and its buffet seventeenth and eighteenth, nineteenth stained glass are observed. As for the treasure, it is housed in two chapels. Are presented including silverware, representations of St. Grat, the protector of St. Mary, a crib eighteenth, a collection of vestments and reliquary busts.
Open all year for free tours. Tour Treasury daily except Tuesdays in July and August. Free admission. Information +33 5 59 39 98 00 or +33 5 59 39 99 99.
