Nîmes Cathedral: Romanesque facade and surviving northwest bell tower, elevated view

Dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to the local saint Castor of Apt (died ca. 420). The city became a bishopric in the 4th century. The cathedral is believed to stand on the site of the former temple of Augustus. It is partly Romanesque (consecrated 1096 by Pope Urban II) and partly Gothic in style. In the bitter religious struggles of the Reformation all the old churches were destroyed except the cathedral, which was badly damaged (in 1567 and 1621) and the south tower destroyed. Between 1877 and 1882, the architect Henri Antoine Révoil redid the interior in a Romanesque and Byzantine Revival style.