The church is composed of an eight-bayed nave flanked by side aisles with chapels
between the buttresses, an unusually wide transept, a choir with two square flanking
chapels, and a seven-sided apse. The beauty of the nave, which rises to 100 feet, derives
from the simplicity of its two-story elevation—clerestory windows above wide arcades—
and the soaring vertical lines joining arcades to vaulting. Details of the elevation, the
interior decoration, and the sculpture on the capital of the northeast pillar of the crossing
all show the influence of Reims cathedral.
A graceful cloister flanks the south side of the cathedral. It is formed of three long
galleries of square rib-vaulted bays; the fourth gallery, against the church, is interrupted
by a chapel and the chapter house.
The collegial church of Saint-Gengoult, in Champenois Gothic style, was begun in the
mid-13th century. Like the cathedral, construction began with the chevet and concluded
in the 15th century with the elevation of the west façade. A remarkable Gothic cloister
was added in the 16th century. The influence of the cathedral of Saint-Étienne is manifest
in the gabled façade, exterior towers, two-story elevation, projecting transept, and interior
decoration.
William W.Kibler
Vallery-Radot, Jean. “Toul: cathédrale,” “Toul: église Saint-Gengoult.” Congrès archéologique
(Nancy, Verdun) 96 (1933):229–74.
TOULOUSE
. The principal metropolis of Languedoc, whose counts came to dominate much of the
region between the Rhône and Garonne, Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) owed its greatness to
a strategic position on the routes of trade and to the political and economic energy of its
citizens. Founded, according to legend, before Rome itself, the ancient city of Tolosa was
capital of the Roman province of Narbonensia and later of the Visigothic kingdom. It fell
to the Franks in 507, and in the 8th century the Frankish dukes of Aquitaine ruled as
virtual sovereigns from Toulouse. The great dynasty of the counts of Toulouse began
with Fredelon in 849 and despite the rivalry of the houses of Barcelona and Aquitaine
continued paramount in Languedoc until the death of Count Raymond VII in 1249.
The power of the counts over their wide domains was matched, however, by that of
the burghers over Toulouse itself. More than any other great city of Languedoc, Toulouse
saw its citizens take and hold real authority from its overlords. The burghers’ rise was
facilitated by the counts’ external struggles, which both distracted them and forced from
them concessions favorable to the townsmen, whose loyalty they needed. In 1119, Count
Alphonse-Jourdain owed his survival to the aid of the Toulousans after his defeat by
Guilhem IX of Aquitaine; in 1141 and 1147, Alphonse-Jourdain issued the charters that
founded the liberties of the burghers of Toulouse. By 1175, the consuls (capitouls) of
Toulouse exercised wide authority and by 1189 achieved practical autonomy from the
count. For the next half-century, their power reached out not only over the cité and bourg
of Toulouse but over the towns and countryside of the Toulousain. The counts of
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