France Guide
The Loire
The cathedral
Opening time: Daily: April– June & Sept 8.30am–7.15pm; July & Aug 8.30am–7.45pm; Oct– March 9am–5.45pm
The exterior of the twelfth-century Cathédrale St-Étienne is characterized by the delicate, almost skeletal appearance of flying buttresses supporting an entire nave that has no transepts to break up its bulk. A much-vaunted example of Gothic architecture, it's modelled on Notre-Dame in Paris but incorporates improvements on the latter's design, such as the astonishing height of the inner aisles.
The tympanum above the main door of the west portal could engross you for hours with its tableau of the Last Judgement, featuring carved, naked figures with bodies full of movement and faces alive with expression. Thirteenth-century imagination has been given full rein in the depiction of the devils, complete with snakes' tails and winged bottoms and faces appearing from below the waist, symbolic of the soul in the service of sinful appetites.
The interior's best feature is the twelfth- to thirteenth-century stained glass. There are geometric designs in the main body of the cathedral, but the most glorious windows, with astonishing deep colours, are around the choir, all created between 1215 and 1225. The painted decoration of the astronomical clock in the nave celebrates the wedding of Charles VII, who married Marie d'Anjou here on April 22, 1422.
On the northwest side of the nave aisle is the door to the Tour de Beurre (daily except Sun morning: April & Sept 9.45–11.45am & 2–5.30pm; May & June 9.30–11.30am & 2–6pm; July & Aug 9.30am–6.15pm; Oct– March 9.30–11.30am & 2–4.45pm; €5, or €9 with the crypt and Palais de Jacques-Coeur), which you can climb unsupervised for fantastic views over the old city, the marshes and the countryside beyond. You can also join a guided tour of the crypt. The same ticket allows you to climb unsupervised to the top of the north tower, rebuilt in flamboyant style after the original collapsed in 1506.