Page 136 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Switzerland

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CATHÉDRALE Did You Know?

NOTRE-DAME A nightwatchman calls
the hour from 10pm to
2am from each of the
cathedral’s towers.
EXPERIENCE Western Switzerland ∑ lausanne-tourisme.ch/en/P10661
⌂ 1 Place de la Cathédrale # Church: 9am–5:30pm daily
(til 7pm Apr–Sep); tower: hours vary, check website
At the centre of Lausanne towers the magnificent
Cathédrale Notre-Dame. Begun in the mid-12th
century and completed in the 13th, it is the finest
Gothic building in Switzerland.
The cathedral is built on the site of a Roman camp and
overlies the foundations of Carolingian and Romanesque
Illustration of
basilicas. With a central nave flanked by aisles, an ambu­
latory and a transept over which rises a tower and an
Gothic Cathédrale
Notre-Dame
apse, the cathedral’s design and decoration show Lausanne’s majestic
the influence of the French Gothic style.
The southern arm of the transept is lit by
a 13th­century rose window with stained
glass depicting the seasons, the elements
and signs of the Zodiac. Consecrated by
Pope Gregory X in 1275, Notre­Dame has
been a Protestant cathedral since the
Reformation. The top of the southwest
tower provides a spec tacular view of the
city and Lake Geneva.
The north tower
contains the
Chapelle St-Maurice.

The west entrance
is known as the
Montfalcon Portal.
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