Autun Cathedral was built as a great pilgrimage church (it was not originally a cathedral) to hold the relics of Lazarus, which were discovered in Autun in the early 12th century; Lazarus was the brother of Mary Magdalena and the man whom Jesus raised from the dead (John 11:38-44); His traditional tomb (when he died the first time and was raised) can still be visited in Bethany, near Jerusalem; How did this Palestinian saint end up in France? Legend has it that Lazarus and his sister Mary Magdalena sailed to Provence, where Lazarus became the first bishop of Marseille; He was martyred there and Autun eventually obtained his relics somehow; Marseille still claims to have his head; Another traditional second tomb of Lazarus is in Larnaca, Cyprus; The Church of St Lazarus was built between 1120 and 1146 on a grand scale in the hopes the Autun would become a major pilgrimage destination (and money maker) like nearby Vézelay, where Lazarus' sister Mary was claimed to be; The church was consecrated by Pope Innocent II in 1130; The church was decorated with sculptures and carvings by Gislebertus, who is widely regarded as one of the great Romanesque sculptors; We know his name because, unusually, he signed his work - an inscription in the tympanum says Gislebertus hoc fecit, "Gislebertus made this"; A variety of Gothic additions were made to the church, including the great spire (raised by Cardinal Rolin), after a fire in the 15th century; But the main core of the church and its magnificent sculptures remain firmly Romanesque; The magnificent sculptures survived the French Revolution thanks to local clergy who, ironically, did not like them at all; In 1766, the canons decided the portal sculptures were mediocre and out of date and accordingly covered them with a thick layer of plaster; This saved them from certain destruction a few decades later, when the tomb of Lazarus and the north tympanum (which had not been plastered over) were smashed to bits by revolutionaries; In 1837, another Autun clergyman began chipping away the plaster over the main portal and was surprised to find the almost perfectly preserved original tympanum underneath; France Burgundy Autun Cathedral St Lazare.