Le Groupe Episcopal de Frejus

The Frejus cathedral complex is made up of two churches organized on the double church plan, with the addition of the baptistery, the bishop's palace and the canon cloister. The elevations of this complex monument reveal different periods. Structurally, the baptistery dates back to the 5th century and to the origins of the cathedral, whereas, for the most part, the other elements are related to medieval architecture. However the bishop's palace was very badly damaged at the beginning of the 19th century, at the time of the French Restauration. This book contains the results of archeological diggings and observations made during the program of restoration earned out by the Monuments Historiques. They were conducted by Paul-Albert Fevrier, who died in 1991, and have been supplemented by research on medieval and modem archives, which has made it possible to restore the history of the bishop's palace since the 14th century and to describe the various restoration programs from the 14th century to this day. This book, which covers thirty years of diggings and restoration work sheds new light on the place of the early Christian cathedral within the Roman topography. It traces the physiognomy of the original complex in the 5th century, evokes the making up of the double cathedral and describes the reconstruction program it went through at the dawn of 13th century. It is during these years of alterations and conversions that the area near the cathedral Is being urbanized. The diggings and the written sources also contain a wealth of information on the internal lay out of the cathedral, and on the transformations brought on by the evolution of the liturgy.