Gap Cathedral ( French: ''Cathédrale Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Arnoux de Gap'') is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

located in the town of

Gap, Hautes-Alpes Gap (, ) is the prefecture of the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2019, the commune had a population of 40,631, making it the most populated city in Hautes-Alpes. At a height of 750 m ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It is a national monument, and is the seat of the Bishop of Gap and Embrun. The current cathedral was built between 1866 and 1905 in

Neo-Gothic style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

by architect Charles Laisné on the site of a former mediaeval cathedral.

History

The original cathedral on the site was built around the 5th century on the ruins of a Roman temple to the God

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

. Over the years several buildings stood at the same spot. Forty-one different types of stone were chosen for the construction, showing

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

influence.

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

and

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

styles were also chosen, as was common during this era for a sombre and harmonious feeling at the same time. The clock tower stands at 64 meters high and contains four clocks. Consecrated on September 2nd, 1895, the day of Saint-Arnoux, who was Bishop of Gap during the 11th century and is the patron saint of the Gap. The cathedral was classified as an Historical Monument on August 9th, 1906.

References and Notes

External links

Location

Churches in Hautes-Alpes Roman Catholic cathedrals in France Roman Catholic churches completed in 1905 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in France {{France-RC-cathedral-stub