Rodez Cathedral: Overall view of west facade

It is the seat of the Bishopric of Rodez. The closed west front once formed part of the city wall of Rodez. The present building was begun in 1276; works were halted for many years by the Black Death and the Hundred Years War, and were restarted only in the early 15th century with the completion of the choir and its vault, as well as the transept and of the first sectors of the nave. After the fire of 1510, Bishop Fran\u00E7ois d'Estaing had it rebuilt in 1513-1526 under the direction of Antoine Salvan. In 1544 Philander returned to France, becoming canon of Rodez in 1554 and archdeacon in 1561. He continued to take an interest in architecture and apparently supervised the completion and decoration of Rodez Cathedral. The extraordinary Renaissance crown (ca. 1562) of the building's principal fa\u00E7ade is attributed to him: a complete Roman Renaissance church fa\u00E7ade is set over the rose window of an otherwise plain Gothic west front, in total defiance of scale and context.