Agen Cathedral

Agen Cathedral (French: Cathédrale Saint-Caprais d'Agen) is a Roman Catholic cathedral built in the 12th century as a church, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Agen, Lot-et-Garonne, Aquitaine, France.

The cathedral gained historic monument status in 1863. Situated on one of four pilgrims' ways towards Santiago de Compostela, Spain, its World Heritage Site status falls under the category of Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France.

Agen Cathedral's visible structure dates back to the 12th century, when it was built as a collegiate church of canons dedicated to Saint Caprasius (French: Saint Caprais), on the foundations of a basilica sacked by the Normans in 853 but thereafter restored.

Sacked again in December 1561 during the Wars of Religion, by two years after the countrywide coup d'état that took place in 1789, the cathedral had come to store fodder before being reopened in 1796 and being elevated to the status of the city's cathedral in 1801. This new cathedral replaced the old cathedral (to Saint Étienne) in the town, which was destroyed during the French Revolution, thereby becoming the bishop's seat in the diocese

The cathedral appears in one of the earliest color photographs ever taken by Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron in 1877 (see right).

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Wikipedia