After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the clergy asked for a church suitable to welcome all the ‘newly converted’. King Louis XIV granted that wish and asked François d’Orbay, one of his best architects, to design the monument meant to signal the victory of the Church over heresy. The foundation stone was laid in 1692. François d’Orbay died in 1695 and Jules Hardouin Mansart, another well-known architect, took over…Then a third architect Robert de Cotte was appointed. He died in 1735 . the church was not consecrated until 1739 due to faulty building work.
The facade of white stones, quite unusual in Montauban, testifies to great luxury as the stones had to be collected from a site some thirty kilometers away.
The crowning of the towers was modified in 1813: the bulbous roofs were replaced by terraces surrounded by balustrades.
The Cathedral
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption, Rue des Soubirous Bas, Montauban, France
