Travels with Forty Roses: Bricks and Woad in Albi

For over 200 years’ bricklayers worked on the incredible structure that is Albi Cathedral.

Bell Tower of St. Cecilia

Just envision; the people who designed this Cathedral never saw it completed. For two hundred years’ workers laid bricks; grandfathers and fathers and sons and sons of sons. When one gazes upwards at the bell tower, which stretches 78 meters high, you can picture those workers at the top. How was the scaffolding set up, how did they raise building materials, how many fell to their deaths? To view the Cathedral at Albi is to ponder the centuries and the incredible talent, fortitude and endurance of those that built it. The first building on the sight was created in the fourth century and subsequently destroyed by fire in 666. The second building was constructed or at least recorded in 920 under the name Saint Cecilia.

The brick Gothic structure that dominates the city today was constructed between 1287 and 1480 and was known as Cathedral Basilica St. Cecilia. After the Cathar Crusades of 1209-1229, the Roman Catholic Church wanted a significant presence in the South West of France to show the power and authority of the Church. Saint Cecilia is the result and is deeply impressive.

Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albi provides the history of the city and the many structures of consequence. Of additional interest is the fact that Woad was a significant factor in the wealth and trade of the city. When I get home I’m going to try and plant some of these seeds and harvest and process for the dye. Check out this site to see what Woad is all about http://www.woad.org.uk/index.html

Yes. It's all brick and the largest brick church in the world.

Primarily Italian Renaisance Interior that is impossible to describe.
Blue, Trompe L'oeil, plus Flemish paintings from 13th Century, every centimetre decorated