Dome

Detail, Porte de Miegeville (south porch, 1098); The Basilica of St. Sernin is a former abbey church of the Abbey of St. Sernin or St. Saturnin. It is located on the site of a previous basilica of the 4th century which contained the body of Saint Saturnin or Sernin, the first bishop of Toulouse in ca. 250. Although the monastic buildings were destroyed after the Revolution, the basilica, which was restored from 1860 by Viollet-le-Duc, has survived intact. The arms of the cruciform building, including projecting transepts and a five-aisled nave of 11 bays flanked by towers, radiate from a square crossing surmounted by an octagonal tower, and they open through twin portals. The ambulatory surrounding the hemicycle enclosing the Early Christian shrine opens into five radiating chapels; the aisles are surmounted by tribunes that continue around the entire perimeter of the church as far as the west façade. These features were combined here for the first time and were imitated only once, at Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The superstructure is built of a unique combination of stone and brick executed by masons from west-central France. It is the largest Romanesque church in France. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/ (accessed 5/17/2011)