Alès Cathedral (french: Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste d'Alès) is a Roman Catholicchurch dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and located in the town of Alès in the department of
Gard
Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Occitanie. It had a population of 748,437 as of 2019;France. It has been a ''
monument historique
''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...
'' since 9 May 1914.
Alès was formerly a centre of the Huguenots and was taken only after a long siege by Louis XIII in 1627. The Roman Catholic
Diocese of Alès
:''This is not the diocese of Ales-Terralba in Italy, nor the Ancient Diocese of Alet in south-west France''
The former French Catholic diocese of Alais (now written Alès, and in Latin: ''Alesiensis'') was created in 1694, out of territory pre ...
was established here in 1694, at which time the construction of the cathedral began, but was not restored after the French Revolution: by the Concordat of 1801 its parishes were divided between the dioceses of Avignon and Mende.
Alès and its cathedral lie near the start of
The Regordane Way The Regordane Way is the southernmost section of the historical route that links Paris to Lower Languedoc and the Camargue. It runs from Le Puy-en-Velay, south west of St Etienne to Saint-Gilles-du-Gard to the south west of Nîmes, a distance of 211 ...
, or St. Gilles Trail, an ancient road and medieval pilgrimage route.