Langres - Cathédrale Saint-Mammès

Langres is built on a promontory originally occupied by the Gauls and later by the Romans, who fortified the town and named it Andemantunum.

Langres was the center of a diocese already in the 4th century. Saint Didier de Langres was the 3rd bishop here. He got martyred, when the Vandals took the town in 407.

In medieval times the bishops were very powerful and so around 1140 it was decided to replace the old and small cathedral with a new one. At that time the cathedrals in Sens (200kms east) and Saint Denis (300kms northwest) were already under construction.

The erection of the cathedral began with the choir, that was probably influenced by Cluny III. It was completed in 1196. The nave, following the example of the cathedral in Sens, was done in an early Gothic style.

The "Christ au Tombeau" originally belonged to a a sculpted group of eight figures. It is ascribed to Dutch Claus de Werve (1380 - 1439), nephew and apprentance of master-sculptor Claus Sluter, the most important northern European sculptor of his time.

The frescoe behind depicts the Crucification of Saint Andrew. It is dated to the 14th century. It was found in 1943 after an explosion had destroyed the wooden panels and the plaster that had hidden the frescoe.