Why go
The construction history turns changes in masonry, scale and style into clues. The cathedral grew as medieval Aix gained importance, but plague and war interrupted the work. Its late façade belongs to a much longer process, so the transition from Romanesque to Gothic architecture is part of the building’s story rather than an inconsistency.
The full story
Around the year 500, an episcopal complex with a chapel and baptistery occupied the former Roman forum. New construction began in the early 12th century with a Romanesque church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. A second nave, dedicated to Saint Maximinus, followed later in that century for the canons. As Aix grew in importance as the capital of Provence, the cathedral expanded too. Gothic transept wings were begun around the end of the 13th century, and the older church was gradually transformed, bay by bay. A bay is one repeated structural division of the interior, so this was a progressive alteration of the building rather than a complete replacement at once. The Black Death and the Hundred Years’ War interrupted construction. Work resumed in 1472, and the façade continued into the early 16th century. The long sequence explains the different architectural languages joined within Saint-Sauveur.