Liège Cathedral, otherwise St. Paul's Cathedral (), is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Liège, Belgium. Founded in the 10th century, it was rebuilt from the 13th to the 15th century and restored in the mid-19th century. It became a Catholic cathedral in the 19th century due to the destruction of Saint Lambert's Cathedral in 1795. It is the seat of the Diocese of Liège.
St. Paul's Cathedral
During the French Revolution the ancient cathedral of Liège, St. Lambert's, was destroyed. After the revolution the former collegiate church of St. Paul's was elevated in rank, becoming the current Liège Cathedral.
History
The present cathedral was formerly one among the Seven collegiate churches of Liège – St. Peter's, Holy Cross, St. Paul's, St. John's, St. Denis's, St. Martin's and St. Bartholomew's – which until the Liège Revolution of 1789 together comprised the "secondary clergy" of the First Estate in the Prince-bishopric of Liège (the "primary clergy" being the canons of St. Lambert's cathedral).
Origin and buildings
Saint-Germain Chapel
In 967, Bishop Eraclus built this church. The basilica was raised only up to the windows when Eraclus died. He instituted a college of twenty canons to whom Notger, who completed the building begun by his predecessor, added ten more.
Saint-Calixte Chapel
The hamlet formed on the island had rapidly expanded, so much so that a second chapel had to be built a short distance from the first one. It was dedicated to Callixtus I, Pope and martyr. The chroniclers attribute its foundation to Pirard, 36th bishop of Liège and added that he established twelve Benedictine monasteries, the only order then existing in the county of Liège.
Saint Paul Collegiate
It was upon his return from Cologne, where he had attended the funeral of Bruno the Great, archbishop of that city and vicar of the empire, that Eraclus conceived the project of building a church in honor of Paul the Apostle.
First allocations
Very little information remains concerning the goods which Eraclus endowed the college with twenty canons which he had created. It seems, however, that the bishop gave the tithes of the church of (canton of Glons): what is certain is that the collation of this church, which was erected as a parish around 1200, belonged to the chapter of St. Paul until it was suppressed by the French on 27 November 1797.
Notger solemnly consecrated this church on 7 May 972: two altars were dedicated to Germanus of Auxerre and St. Calixte, in memory of the worship previously rendered to these two saints in the chapels which had been dedicated to them. On 21 April 980, the fortress of Chèvremont was destroyed from top to bottom and the churches that were there demolished. One of them, dedicated to St. Caprasius, had a college of ten priests; the bishop gathered them together with the twenty canons of St. Paul and thus brought their number to thirty. All the property, pensions and tithes of St. Capraise were transferred to the new collegiate church, to which Notger gave the bell called "Dardar", also from Chèvremont.
Building
The apse, constructed in the 14th century in the Rayonnant style, is pentagonal. The choir, the transept, the main nave and the side naves date from the 13th century and have all the characteristics of Gothic architecture of that period. Later Gothic architecture occurs in the windows of the transept and of the nave, the side chapels and the tower. The upper gallery overloaded with pinnacle hooks is modern, as is the storey with the ogival windows and the spire of the belltower with four bells on each side. The lintel of the portal bears an inscription, formerly on the city seal: Sancta Legia Ecclesiae Romanae Filia ("Holy Liège, daughter of the Roman church").
First known provost and deans
Godescalc
The first authentic mention of a dean and provost of St. Paul can be found in a piece from the year 1083, taken from the cartulary of this Collegiate Church. It talks about damages caused in the alleu of Nandrin, property of the chapter, by Giselbert, Count of Clermont, and his accomplice Frédelon. Bishop Henri de Verdun embraced the defence of the Church's rights and in order to safeguard them in the future, the advocatus of Nandrin's alleu was entrusted to a lord named Conon. This ceremony took place in the temple itself, on St. Paul's Day.
A document from the following year attests to the existence of a cloister at that time and that the brothers of St. Paul were called canons.