Exploring the area 

“A ship built of bricks”, “Faith’s Fortress”, “An Italian town”

Albi has three great attractions: the Cathedral of Sainte Cécile, the Palais de la Berbie (housing the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum) and the Old Bridge, as well as its charming streets.

In the morning light they are a bright pink, in the evening, dark red and, at the hottest part of the day, they are almost empty. There are houses with half-timbering, with corbelled vaulting, narrow passageways, cobblestones, all the picturesque charm of the Middle Ages in the warm colours of the south.

Wander around, glance into every little opening: the Hôtel Reynes with its extraordinary loggia, built by a very wealthy pastel merchant in 1530; the 13th-century cloister of Saint Salvi, with its green triangle and series of twin columns… Beyond the well-known or famous sights, Albi likes to keep a few surprises in store as a reward for visitors who are not in too much of a hurry. From the Old Bridge – the oldest in France – you can watch evening fall, as the shadows creep down the stairway, from the bell-tower keep to the nave, from the nave to the ramparts and from the ramparts to the river.

The Cathedral of Sainte Cécile of Albi, perched on a rocky spur over the Tarn, is one of the great brick buildings of the world. It took two centuries to build, from 1282 to 1480. Today it is one of the most visited cathedrals in France.

A fortified church and, as such, symbol of the temporal power of the Church, it also expresses a Catholic renaissance after the Cathar crisis. The exterior of the monument gives an impression of soberness, power, austerity even, and this contrasts even more with its rich interior.
The Rood Screen (gallery and screen of stone or wood separating the choir from the nave) is one of the last in France and probably one of the best preserved. In the flamboyant Gothic style, it dates from 1485 and boasts a considerable number of designs chiselled into the limestone.
The fresco of the Last Judgment, 18 metres wide, is one of the greatest pictorial compositions in existence. It is divided into three parts, heaven, the earth and hell. As well as the Last Judgement, the cathedral of Albi houses the largest Italian Renaissance fresco in Europe.

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