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| Aleth Cathedral Cathédrale Saint-Pierre d'Aleth | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Ruins of Aleth Cathedral in Saint-Servan | |
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Roman Catholic Church |
| Province | Diocese of Saint-Malo |
| Region | Ille-et-Vilaine |
| Rite | Roman |
| Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Cathedral |
| Status | Active |
| Location | |
| Location | Saint-Servan, France |
| Geographic coordinates | 48°38′9″N 2°1′37″W / 48.63583°N 2.02694°W / 48.63583; -2.02694 |
| Architecture | |
| Type | church |
| Style | Gothic, Romanesque |
| Groundbreaking | 9th century |
| Completed | 12th century |
Aleth Cathedral (French: Cathédrale Saint-Pierre d'Aleth) was a Roman Catholic church located in Saint-Servan in Saint-Malo, Brittany, France. It was the cathedral of the diocese of Aleth.
Aleth was a Gallo-Roman settlement on a peninsula on one side of the Rance estuary. The diocese was established in the 9th century. The cathedral was destroyed by Norman invaders in the 10th century but later rebuilt.
The site of Aleth however was not a secure one and the town of Saint-Malo had begun to grow up on a far more defensible site on a rocky islet in the estuary. In 1146 the seat of the bishopric of Aleth was moved to Saint-Malo by the then bishop, Jean de Châtillon, and established in the monastery, founded in 1108. The diocese thus became the Diocese of Saint-Malo and the abbey church Saint-Malo Cathedral, replacing the cathedral in Aleth.
Competition with the new town came to a head in 1255, when resentment in Aleth at the tax demands of Saint-Malo resulted in armed conflict. Aleth lost, and the walls, fortress and church were dismantled as punishment. The former cathedral ruins are still to be seen in the commune of Saint-Servan which occupies the area of the former Aleth.
References
- Marc Déceneux, La Bretagne romane, Editions Ouest-France, 1998, p. 19
- Notice no PA00090800, Base Mérimée, Ministry of Culture
- Notice no IA00130952, Base Mérimée, Ministry of Culture
Further reading
- Catholic Hierarchy: Diocese of Saint-Malo
- Mickael Gendry, L'immunité du "monastère de Saint-Méen et de l'île de Malo", à l'origine de la création de l'évêché d'Alet, Dossiers du Centre de Recherche et d'Archéologie d'Alet, volume 38–2010, p. 63–86.
- Anne Lunven, Du diocèse à la paroisse. Évêchés de Rennes, Dol, et Alet/Saint-Malo (Ve – XIIIe siècle), Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2014 (ISBN 2753559554)