Vaison Cathedral, dedicated to Our Lady of Nazareth (french: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Nazareth de Vaison), 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 ...

and one of the two former

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

s in Vaison-la-Romaine,

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 was formerly the seat of the Bishopric of Vaison, abolished under the Concordat of 1801. The structure of the cathedral in general is Romanesque and dates from the 11th century, but the

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

and the

apsidal chapels An apse chapel, apsidal chapel, or chevet is a chapel in traditional Christian church architecture, which radiates tangentially from one of the bays or divisions of the apse. It is reached generally by a semicircular passageway, or ambulatory, ex ...

are from the

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from the middle of the 5th century until 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the Franks and northern Gauli ...

period. The second former cathedral of Vaison is the Cathedral of the Assumption (french: Cathédrale Sainte-Marie-de-l'Assomption), also known as the because of its location on top of the mount inside the city walls. It was built some centuries later than the other cathedral, for greater security in disturbed times.Vaison-la-Romain: Histoire & Patrimoine - L'Église dite Cathédrale-haute
/ref>

References

Further reading