Cathedral Notre-Dame de Nazareth, Vaison

 The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Nazareth is the mother church of the Diocese of Vaison (Papal State Dauphiné). It dominated a city with strong influence, now defunct. The bishop lived in the episcopal palace near the cathedral, canons in annexes to the cloister.

The building was completed in the eleventh century on the foundations of another basilica building the Ist or Second Century.

A little Wikipedia article

The church is built on a basilican plan (as opposed to cruciform), which means that there is no actual transept.

The nave is joined by two vessels, three-span if we count that of the crossing where the tower stands. The plan is completed by two oriented chapels on either side of the apse.

The barrel vault is supported by pillars beams that give impetus to the arches.

 If, on the outside, the apse of the cathedral in a square solid, supported by two buttresses inside the apse is semi-circular, one might say even overridden, covered by a cul-de-four vault .

The cloister dates from the 19th century. The south gallery was rebuilt in the nineteenth century during the great historical heritage restoration campaign initiated by Prosper Mérimée and whose leading figure is the Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.

The function of the cloister was to serve the rooms reserved for canons and provide light and healthy air to buildings.

 

The galleries are illuminated by 4 series of arches grouped into three, under arches unload pushed by the arches on sturdy rafters decorated batteries and flutes. The twin pillars are surmounted, they, water leaf capitals.

You enter the garden through an opening in the north gallery above which is an exhortation engraved on life to follow.

The cathedral was built in the eleventh century as a basilica with three naves separated by simple columns (2 x 5); from half of the XIIth, the building was consolidated: the lower windows are blocked, the walls are supported by buttresses and columns replaced with 2 x 3 cruciform pillars. The transept crossing is designed to give full balance to the elevation of the church.

It was during this work that is built the cloister. It supports the north wall of the cathedral, helped by a steeple.

 Pictures:

The photographies with the mention "unereverence" are not free.

The others are from wikicommons.

Texts:

Inspired from the signs located in the cloister of the cathedral Notre-Dame de Nazareth, at Vaison-la-Romaine.