Cathédrale Saint-Louis de Blois

The cathedral of Blois stands on the hill above the Loire, close to the royal château, and it combines a medieval bell tower and crypt with a body rebuilt in the seventeenth century, which makes it a rare example of a late Gothic church in a classical age. The church was dedicated to Saint Solenne, an early bishop of Chartres, and it only became a cathedral in 1697, when Louis XIV created the diocese of Blois, and the name changed to Saint-Louis. A hurricane in 1678 flattened much of the old church, which led to the rebuilding that gave it its present body, put up in the following decades in a Gothic style that follows medieval models rather than the baroque taste of the time.

The bell tower is the oldest visible part and rises from the north side. It was built in the sixteenth century in the Renaissance period and its upper storeys have a Renaissance detail, with pilasters and carved ornament, and it forms a landmark of the skyline of Blois. Below the church lies a crypt of the tenth century, the Saint-Solenne crypt, a Romanesque space with columns and vaults that is among the oldest parts of the town, and guided visits on certain Sundays allow visitors to descend and see the foundations. Its survival through the later rebuilding is part of the interest of the site.

The interior is the main attraction for visitors today. In 2000 the Dutch artist Jan Dibbets was commissioned to renew the windows of the nave, and he designed thirty-three stained-glass windows with a geometric pattern of coloured bands and diagonal lines. The glass is abstract, in soft shades of colour, and when the sun shines through, it floods the nave with a shifting pattern of light, in strong contrast with the pale stone and the traditional nineteenth-century windows in the choir. The combination of a seventeenth-century Gothic structure and a contemporary glass scheme gives a distinctive atmosphere, and it has made the church known among lovers of modern art.

The cathedral is open daily, with free entry, though it stays closed to visitors during services, and a visit takes about thirty minutes. The terrace beside it looks over the roofs of the old town and the river. It is a short walk from the Château de Blois, with its famous staircase and its role in the history of the French monarchy, the Maison de la Magie Robert-Houdin, and the Jardin des Plantes, which has a small botanic garden and views of the river. The Musée des Beaux-Arts, within the château, and the Musée de la Nature are also nearby, and the Mémorial de la France combattante commemorates the Second World War. In autumn the town hosts a large history festival. The cathedral suits visitors interested in glass, architecture and the combination of old and new.