First built in the aftermath of the Albigensian Crusade, the grim exterior resembles a fortress, but the interior is lavishly decorated with art and sculpture, a very ornate choir screen, and walls in bright blues and golds, in the Toulousian or Southern French Gothic style.

[5] In 1208, Pope Innocent III launched the Albigensian Crusade, named for Albi, to destroy the Cathars in southern France.

He raised funds for the new building by setting aside one-twentieth of the revenue of the chapter, and offering spiritual incentives to parishioners who donated a tenth of their income.

[10] Construction and decoration continued through the rest of the 15th century, with the completion of the tower, 78 meters high, in 1492, and the addition of tribunes which divided the elevation of the chapels between the buttresses.

[9] In the 16th century, a major campaign of construction and redecoration commenced under Bishop Charles Le Goux de la Berchère, who wished to remake the interior in the more classical style, more open to the faithful.

He concealed the flamboyant decoration of the new portal under a lath of plaster, and brought in Italian sculptors Bernard Virgile and Jacques Antoine Mazetti, pupils of the Renaissance sculptor Maderni, to redecorate the axis chapel at the east end, and to create a new Renaissance bishop's seat made of marble and stucco, which was placed on the southern side of the nave.

Fortunately, an engineer of the Ministry of Bridges and Highways, François Mariès, learned of the plan and wrote to the Minister of the Interior and Religious Cults; "...If we take upon ourselves the right to destroy that which we owe to the genius, the generosity and the piety of our ancestors, what right do we have to expect the preservation of those which the memorable events of our own time will inspire?"

In the early 19th century the statues destroyed were replaced with figures of Christ, The Virgin Mary and Saint John from another church of the same period.

[15] The first major restoration of the cathedral took place in the second half of the 19th century, between 1849 and 1876.Eugène Viollet-le-Duc reported that "the exterior of Saint-Cecile was never finished- the buttresses were never crowned, and nor were the walls themselves completed."

He removed the balustrade, reduced the new small towers to the height of the roof, and returned the cathedral to approximately its earlier appearance.

As suitable building stone was scarce locally, it was built almost entirely of brick, which also was easier to work and gave the builders greater flexibility.

The principal entry is on the south side through an elaborate porch entered by a fortified stairway, rather than through the west front, as is traditional in French Gothic architecture.

It is composed of stacked square sections of which the exterior surfaces feature rounded arches and bands of decoration connecting cylindrical corners.

The pioneer architectural preservationist Prosper Mérimée described the intent of the decoration as "admirable", but remarked that the finished baldaquin was "entirely absurd", since it was open to the sky, and offered no protection at all from the wind, rain or sun.

The portal has a lacelike open tympanum containing statuary and is crowned by quadrilobe bearing the coat of arms of the bishop who commissioned it.

Its function was originally to allow the clergy to pray and meditate in a quiet atmosphere, undisturbed by people circulating in the nave or other parts of the church.

[21] The rood screen is made of filigree stone work topped with a group of polychrome wooden statues representing Christ on the cross, the Virgin Mary and Saint John.

[22] One of the distinctive features of Albi Cathedral is the polychrome geometric painting of the tribunes and upper walls, particularly in the choir and the chapels.

The upper levels offer painted animals or birds inhabiting the geometric designs, in an elaborate combination of humor and fantasy.

He made substantial restorations, particularly in the elaborate floor-to-ceiling murals in the Chapelle de la Sainte-Croix (The Chapel of the Holy Cross).

The nine scenes of the mural depict the story of how fragments of the true cross were discovered at Rome and given to the Emperor Constantine, allowing him to defeat the barbarian chieftain Maxence, and how later the nails used in the Crucifixion were recovered and given to Saint Helen.

[25] The Chapelle Saint-Clair, is a square chapel tucked into the architecture of the west facade at the base of the tower at the end of the 17th century.

Its decoration was created between 1777 and 1779 by the Italian artist Jacques Antoine Mazetti, who established a studio at Avignon with his brother Bernard Virgile and the painter Maderni.

Some of the central figures, such as Christ rendering judgement and Archangel Michael weighing the sins of those being judged, were removed to make a doorway into a chapel.

The top portion of the painting depicts a row of angels; below them is a rank of apostles, dressed in white to symbolise their purity.

Only a small amount of medieval stained glass remains in the widows of the cathedral; most of the windows date to the 19th and first part of the 20th century.

Some pieces of earlier glass, including the coat of arms of Bishop Beraud de Fargues, dated between 1320 and 1330, are incorporated into more modern windows.

It is a vaulted chamber attached to the disambulatory of the nave on the north side of the cathedral, above the vestiere and adjoining the sacristy, which was constructed in the late 13th century, and was used to keep the church archives and precious objects.

The Bishop's Palace, next to and below the cathedral, is formally known as the Palais épiscopal de la Berbie, and is included in the UNESCO historical site.

[28] The palace was never attacked, and later bishops softened its appearance by adding residential buildings and a chapel and a French-style garden as well decorating the interiors with mosaics and art.