It also featured a new architectural element, a disambulatory, a passage which permitted pilgrims to circulate and visit the tombs in the crypt without disturbing the religious services attended by the clergy.

[4] He set an example by contributing heavily and consistently from his own resources, and continued to bequeath funds after his transfer to the see of Paris in 1220.

[6] Construction resumed in the 16th century with the north tower, built in the richly ornamented Flamboyant Gothic style, completed in 1543.

In 1567, during the Wars of Religion, Protestant bands pillaged the city, and caused considerable damage to the cathedral.

In 1764 the very ornate Gothic rood screen, or choir grill, put in place under King Francois I of France, was destroyed, in keeping with a new Vatican anti-Reformation doctrine to make the interior more appealing to ordinary churchgoers.

[10] The construction of the north tower began in about 1250, and reached the completion of the portal at its base, but then practically ceased for nearly two centuries.

At the top it has its own Renaissance-style belfry and a lantern, adorned with a cross marking the highest point of the cathedral.

Later in the 16th century The cathedral chapter decided to rebuild the oratory to house a statue of the Virgin Mary rather than building the tower higher.

The choir, built atop the Romanesque crypt, was begun first in about 1215, in a plan similar to another Burgundian church, Dijon Cathedral.

The elevation has three levels; large arcades with pillars at the bottom; a narrow triforium, or passageway, above, with windowless arches and decoration by slender colonettes; and on the top level, double lancet windows below circular rose windows, with a narrow passageway along the wall at their base.

In this disambulatory, the six-part vaults are supported by slender columns twenty-five centimetres in diameter, which give unity of style and animation to the end of the church.

[6] The crypt beneath the choir was constructed between by Bishop Hugues de Chalon, when he rebuilt the earlier Romanesque structure.

It was made by the Paris iron craftsman Dhumier, with gates by the royal sculptor Sébastien Slodtz to a design by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux.

It was entirely rebuilt between 1979 and 1986 by Dominique Oberthür de Saintes, who transformed it into a modern instrument, with forty-six stops, four manual keyboards, and mechanical transmission by carbon fibres.

"They are important as illustrating life and manners among the newly-converted Teutonic tribes and the Gallo-Romans of the time", the Catholic Encyclopedia asserts.