Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile d'Albi

The Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile in Albi is a monument of overwhelming ambition and historical weight — the world's largest brick cathedral and one of the most imposing Gothic buildings in France, its sheer defensive walls rising 40 metres from the red earth of the Tarn River bank in the UNESCO Episcopal City of Albi in Occitanie. Construction began in 1282, less than 70 years after the suppression of the Cathar heresy by the Albigensian Crusade, and the cathedral was designed deliberately to project the absolute authority of the Catholic Church in a region that had been the heartland of medieval heresy: it has almost no windows on its lower exterior, its walls are unadorned, and it resembles a fortress rather than a house of God. The contrast between this forbidding exterior and the interior is one of the great architectural surprises in France. Step inside and the entire vault — 18 metres wide and 30 metres high — is covered in an extraordinary cycle of Italian Renaissance frescoes painted between 1509 and 1512 by artists from Bologna, depicting the Last Judgement, the lives of the saints, and the celestial hierarchy in brilliant blue, red, and gold. The carved stone rood screen (jubé) — one of only three surviving in France — is an intricate masterpiece of late Gothic stonework separating the nave from the choir, its surface covered in over 200 individual carved figures. The painted choir itself contains another complete cycle of painted figures on the stone enclosure walls. Entry to the nave is free; a small charge of €2 covers the rood screen and painted choir. Climbing to the terrasse panoramique of the cathedral tower gives dramatic views over the UNESCO Episcopal City and the Tarn River.