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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Cathedral of Saint-Nazaire-et-Saint-Celse de Béziers, classified as a historical monument since 1840, rises on a promontory overlooking the Orb plain, at the location of an ancient Roman temple dedicated to Auguste and Livie. A Romanesque church and cemetery already existed in the 8th century, but the building was completely destroyed during the Beziers bag in 1209, during the Albigois Crusade. Only a few remains of the Romanesque church, the work of Master Gervais, remain today in the Gothic structure.

Reconstruction began in the middle of the 13th century, giving birth to a Gothic cathedral with southern influences. Its square bell tower, 48 meters high, is surmounted by an iron campanile housing a bell of the late eighteenth century, while its west facade, flanked by two crenellated towers, dominates the river. A rose of 10 meters in diameter and a sculpted portal (today disused) adorn this facade, where only two allegorical statues remain: Ecclesia and Synagoga, symbolizing the Church and the Synagogue.

The cloister, which is unfinished and adjacent to the south of the cathedral, is home to medieval lapidary elements and tombstones, as well as to a central fountain now set up in the Place de la Révolution. The galleries, partially built in the 14th century, have carved vaults, while the garden of the bishopric offers a panorama of the historic bridges of the Orb (including the 13th century Old Bridge) and the locks of Fonseranes. Inside, the Greek cross building preserves a crypt from the early 13th century, stalls surmounted by paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries, and a large organ whose buffet Louis XIII (1633) and instrumental part (renovated in the 18th and 18th centuries) were restored in 1993.

The cathedral, dedicated to the saints Nazaire and Celsus, integrates defensive elements such as mâchicoulis and niches, testimony of its role in a city often disputed. The stained glass windows of the choir, protected by 14th-century ironwork grids, and gargoyles (some of which are being renovated) recall its rich artistic heritage. In 1769, the cloister welcomed the burial of Barbe Marguerite d'Igny de Risaucourt, princess of the Holy Empire, illustrating her status as a place of aristocratic memory.

Finally, the bell tower houses six bells, including a 4 tonne bell called Marie (1788), and an hour bell housed in a wrought iron campanile. The cathedral, with its mixture of Gothic architecture, Roman elements and transformations of the 17th to 18th centuries, remains a major symbol of the Occitan heritage, linked to the turbulent history of Béziers and Languedoc.

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