Orleans, France Cathedral Sainte-Croix

The Sainte Croix Cathedral in Orleans, France, is unlike the other. The original medieval building was nearly totally destroyed during the 16th-century War of Religion. It has then been rebuilt in the modern era in its original Gothic style.

The Chevet’s chapels are the only significant remains of the original medieval Gothic cathedral.

The rest of the building is not a 19th-century Gothic Revival, as can be seen in so many places around the world, but a unique Gothic of the Baroque period.

The Saint Croix Cathedral in a Nutshell

Dimensions: An Impressive Size

• Length: 140 meters
• Height of the towers: 88 meters
• Height of the spire: 114 meters
• Transept exterior width: 65 meters
• Facade width: 53 meters

This means that Orleans Sainte-Croix is 12 meters longer than Paris Notre-Dame; meanwhile, its towers exceed Paris by 19 meters.

An incredible history!

Duration of the construction: from 1278 to 1829. 551 years in total.

The Orleans Cathedral is an exceptional structure like none other :
After the Middle Ages gothic edifice was nearly totally destroyed by the Huguenots (Protestants) during the religious war, the king of France Henri IV decided to rebuild the cathedral in its original style and laid the first stone of the edifice with Marie de Médicis the 18 April  1601.

Henri IV was the first of the Bourbon kings after the death of Henri III, the last of the French Valois kings. All his descendants – the French bourbon kings after him – have continued to sustain the project tirelessly.

During the French Revolution, Louis XVI was still asking for some news about the Orleans cathedral, and it was finally Charles X, the last of the Bourbon kings, who, 228 years after the beginning of the reconstruction, finally inaugurated the edifice. Charles X lost power one year later; he was the last of the bourbon king!

It is, in France, a unique case of the construction of a gothic cathedral in the modern era. This is why, first of all, this cathedral worth a visit.

1. An Edifice With a Very Ancien Origine

Despite the present edifice being built in the modern era, the Orleans Cathedral has a history that dates back to the Gallo-Roman period and to the prestigious Roman Cathedral which has held a few French kings’ coronations.

Some remains of the first edifices still exist in the basement of the present cathedral; unluckily, a visit there is not possible.

2. A Strong Relation Between Joan of Arc and the Orleans Cathedral

First, because Joan of Arc went to the Orleans Cathedral for a mass.
Second, the Orleans Cathedral is rich in Joan of Arc iconography, such as the famous 10 stained-glass windows depicting the heroine’s epic.

The Sainte-Croix Cathedral is the most famous monument in Orleans.

Its high profile stands out against the skyline on the Loire river bank, enabling one to recognize the city of Orleans easily.

If you visit the city, The cathedral is conveniently located in the city center.

The Orleans Cathedral has been an important pilgrimage church since its beginning. The legend (Hagiography) says that the first original building (in the 4th century during the reign of Constantine) was consecrated by the hand of God.

Whatever the Orleans Romanesque cathedral was so famous, it was very late at the end of the 13th century – as the Romanes building was in danger of falling down – that it was decided to replace it with a new Gothic one.

The construction of the Paris Notre Dame Gothic cathedral started in 1163, and the Orleans one in 1278 only.

Orleans is one of the only 20 French cities named in the Codex Calixtinus, the 12th-century peregrine guide in Santiago de Compostela (Spain). Indeed, Orléans is an essential stop on the Saint James Way.
Joan of Arc attended a vesperal mass in the Sainte Croix Cathedral on May 2, 1429, during the siege of Orleans.
In 1855, the Orleans Cathedral was made into a basilica by Pope Pius IX.
Since the Bourbon king supported its reconstruction, it is often called the Bourbon Cathedral or the Royal Basilica Cathedral of Orleans.