Date

Circa 1910

The enormous wooden pulpit dates from 1855 and was designed by a priest named Choyer. Its carvings illustrate the theme of the Word of God, with Moses on the left side and St. John receiving his revelation on the right. The cathedral of St. Maurice is a fine representative of the regional style known as Angevin Gothic. Its characteristic single-nave construction gives it a smoothly unified exterior broken only by the two west towers. This powerful spatial unity is also evident in the clarity of the cruciform plan, with a nave of three square bays, a single bay on each arm of the transept, and a square choir bay leading to a semicircular apse. The design, however, falls into two principal phases. The nave, which is more than 20 m wide, is attributed to Bishop Normand de Doué (reigned 1149-1153), and it formed the model for the transept and eastern parts, which were built seven decades later.