It was built in the 5th century but hidden during later reconstruction, and was rediscovered in 1925 by French architect Jules Formigé.

[3] Fréjus, founded by Julius Caesar, had been an important Roman port and capital of Provence.

[4] Beginning in late Roman times, the town suffered a series of invasions and was pillaged by Goths, Burgundians, Franks, Lombards and Saracens.

A bell-tower and porch was erected on the west side of the cathedral, on the axis of the nave, a distinctive feature of Provençal architecture of that period.

The church received a new chevet at the east end, as well as additions to the bishop's palace and a chapter hall.

The Cathedral of Notre Dame, governed by the bishop, was rebuilt with new vaults between the bell tower and west porch and the chevet.

[7] In the 13th century, as the Gothic style gradually became popular, the cathedral was modified further, bringing the two separate naves closer together.

It is similar in form to the Lateran Baptistery in Rome, built in 440, and the baptistry at Albenga Cathedral in Liguria.

[9] In the centre of the floor is the octagonal baptismal basin, large enough for a person to be entirely immersed, surrounded by a stone ledge.

A smaller basin is located in the floor nearby, either for the baptism of infants or for washing the feet of the priest.

It was rediscovered in the 1920s by Jules Formigé, the Inspector of French Historical Monuments, and the interior was restored during the 1930s to what he believed to be its original appearance.

The principal entrance to the nave was on the north side of the church, reached by passing through the cloister.

A large altar, devoted to Saint Honorat, was placed against the north wall of the vestibule, and the south portal was given a very fine door of carved walnut wood.

It consisted of a long nave under a barrel vault ceiling, divided on the north side into four parts by lateral arcades resting on massive rectangular pillars.

The south wall, which divided the church from the adjoining cathedral of Notre Dame, was reconstructed in the 12th century and replaced with arcades.

The choir of St. Etienne, the portion reserved for the clergy where the altar is located, was rebuilt as a polygon with murals in 1337, and enlarged with a lateral chapel between 1340 and 1343.

The sarcophagus of Bishop de Bouillac dates to the Roman Empire, with a sculpture of a griffon at one end.

This rests upon a square base, which is even older, from the 13th century, located above the narthex on the side of the south disambulatory.

The main altar in the choir of Saint Stephen was made in 1778 of polychrome marble by the Marseille sculptor Dominique Fossaty.

It was originally in the choir of Notre-Dame, where it had replaced an enormous work of sculpted gypsum made in 1551, of which only a few fragments remain.

Originally in the third traverse of the Notre-Dame nave, they were moved to their present position at the end of the apse when the church was remodelled in 1778.

The panels include paintings of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Christ; Saint Peter; several canons (recognizable by their fur hats); several priests praying or preaching; a demon with the tail of a serpent; angels playing instruments; a fallen angel with the wings of a bat; a centaur; a mermaid; a dragon; an elephant; a tiger; an ostrich; domestic animals, such as horses, dogs and pigs; and common wild animals, such as wolves and deer.

All together the panels portray the history of the world and ordinary life as known and imagined in the Middle Ages.

The building served as both a palace and a fortification, and was probably part of the massive wall of the city, three metres thick at its base.

These new incumbents, with more income and more cosmopolitan tastes, transformed the residence from a fortress to a palace, greatly enlarging the space, building large halls and chapels.

These works continued from the 15th to the 17th century, largely destroying the medieval residence, and replacing it with a palace in Renaissance style .

[20] In the 18th century, as the city went into economic decline, the bishops of Fréjus began to neglect their residence, spending more and more time in Draguignan, the new seat of the bishopric.