Vannes Cathedral

Vannes Cathedral or St. Peter's Cathedral, Vannes (French: Cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Vannes), which also carries the title Basilica, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Vannes, Brittany, France. It is the seat of the Bishops of Vannes.

The present Gothic building was erected on the site of the former Romanesque cathedral. Its construction extends from the 15th to the 19th centuries, or if the length of the existence of the 13th century Romanesque bell tower is included, a total of seven centuries of construction.

The first building was erected around 1020 in Romanesque style. Built out of granite and continuously modified by adding new structures, the cathedral is an extremely composite building. The rebuilding in Gothic style dates mainly from the 15th and 16th centuries. In this period the nave and the ornate gateway at the northern end of the north transept – whose twelve niches, according to Breton custom, were supposed to accommodate the Apostles – were built high. The northern tower is the main remnant of the former Romanesque building, while the vaults and the choir were built between 1771 and 1774.

The horizontal dimensions of the building can be derived from the ground plan. (Data on the heights are not available for the moment). The building is one of the largest on the French Atlantic coast.

The façade was carved in 1857 in a neo-Gothic style. Outside, in front of the central pillar of the large gate, stands a statue of the Dominican monk St. Vincent Ferrer, from Valencia. His activities in the 15th century greatly influenced Christianity in Vannes. The northern façade opens onto the garden of the cloister (ruins from the 16th century) and the Rue des chanoines ("Street of the Canons") through the beautiful portal at the top of the north transept, built in a Flamboyant late Gothic style (1514), and decorated with twelve niches designed to house statues of the twelve apostles. The cross, visible close to the northern façade, dates back to the 15th century and was brought from the cemetery.

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