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Limoges Cathedral: Interior detail, lower bas-relief section of the Italianate rood screen
Architecture Library, Hesburgh Libraries
Italian Renaissance in style with ornamentation that is secular and based in classical mythology.
The construction of the Gothic cathedral began in 1273 and finished only in 1888 when the nave was connected to the belltower. It is noted for its Renaissance rood loft built in 1534 and for the fine, partly octagonal, bell tower. The tower is 205 ft high, the three lower storeys being Romanesque and the four upper ones Gothic. The main artistic works in the cathedral are the Renaissance rood screen, now moved to the western end of the nave, and the tomb of the bishop Jean de Langeac, with sculpted scenes of the Apocalypse. The walls of Romanesque crypt have frescoes representing Christ in glory.