Its treasure includes the relics of 128 saints, among them six Apostles, a piece of the True
Cross, and a thorn from the Crown of Thorns. The present building, the largest and one of
the finest Romanesque buildings in France, was begun ca. 1060 in response to the masses
of pilgrims. It measures 380 feet long by 211 feet at the transept, and its vaulting rises to
nearly 70 feet. Saint-Sernin is built in a mixture of stone and brick, with stone
predominating in the 1 1th-century choir (dedicated in 1096 by Pope Urban II) and
deambulatory, and brick in the later nave. The chevet encompasses five radiating chapels,
and each wing of the transept has two. The nave is flanked by double aisles, the first
surmounted by a gallery. Saint-Sernin’s deambulatory and multiple semicircular apses,
huge transept with aisles, and double aisles flanking the nave are all concessions to the
needs of the crowds of pilgrims. A splendid octagonal lantern tower rises for five tiers of
arcades above the crossing. The three lower levels have rounded Romanesque arcades
(early 13th c.); the upper levels were built in Gothic style (late 13th c.). Its steeple is
14th-cen
Toulouse, Saint-Sernin. Photograph by
V.Jansen.
tury. The tower exercised a profound influence on the architecture of the surrounding
region. Saint-Sernin was also a center for the revival of sculpture in the late 11th century.
Its south portal (Porte Miègeville; ca. 1120) has a celebrated tympanum representing the
Ascension. Other important Romanesque sculptures at Saint-Sernin are the main altar
(1096) and the numerous carvings in the deambulatory.
The fortified brick monastery church of the Jacobins was begun in 1230 in response to
the Albigensian Crusade. St. Dominic founded the Dominican order (also known as
Jacobins because of the location of their Parisian house on the Rue Saint-Jacques) in
1215 to combat the Cathars, and by 1216 Dominicans were present in Toulouse, where
they founded the university in 1229 as part of their campaign against the Cathars. The
exterior of the church of the Jacobins is strongly buttressed, with large blind arcades
between them supporting a chemin de ronde. Its graceful octagonal tower was the
original bell tower of the university. The church was completed in the second half of the
14th century, in time to receive the relics of St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274). Its interior
features a double nave, divided by a row of seven slender cylindrical columns rising 72½
feet, and beautiful fan vaulting in the east end. Each nave ends in a rose window, which
still has its 14th-century stained glass. The monastery buildings have for the most part
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