It is noted for the Flamboyant facade of the transept, vestiges of Romanesque architecture, particularly in the bell tower, and the Renaissance rood screen with reliefs of the labors of Hercules, built in 1534.

(Portions of the text below are translated from the article in the French Wikipedia (Cathédrale Saint-Étienne de Limoges)) The presence of a bishop and a cathedral in Limoges was recorded in 475 A.D.; Gregory of Tours mentioned a church the city, facing the chateau off the vicomte and the Abbey of Saint-Martial.

In 2005, archeologists found the traces of a hexagonal baptistry dating from the 5th century under the north face of the cathedral.

[2] The early cathedral was constructed in the center of the city in the valley of the Vienne River, not far from the Abbey of Saint-Martial and the former chateau of the Viscoun of Limoges.

In July 817, the Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious presented documents granting legal immunity to the clergy of the cathedral.

Archeologists have found traces of a cloister, a baptistry, a Bishop's palace, and residences of church dignitaries.

The Romanesque cathedral was dedicated by Hilduin or Aduin, the Bishop of Limoges, and was consecrated by Pope Urban II.

In 1074 and again 1105, the church was set on fire by mobs from the rival district of Saint Martial du Vicompte.

Aymeric de la Serre, The Bishop of Limoges from 1246 to 1272, proposed to rebuild the church on a much grander scale, using his own personal fortune.

Bishop Aymeric de la Serre died in 1272 before construction began, but in June 1273, his project for the new cathedral was taken up by doyen of the chapter of the cathedral, Helie de Mamemort, who laid the first stone of the Gothic chevet, Construction of the Gothic church began in 1273, and continued through seven or eight different campaigns, with different terms of workers, but remained largely faithful to the original Rayonnant style.

The work was made more difficult by the steep slopes of the site, requiring the building very large terrace which served as the sub-basement of the chevet.

Work was halted in 1327 for several decades due to a shortage of funds, but resumed with in the second part of the century with the building of the southern wing and the transept and its rose window.

[8] Between 1533 and 1534 the Bishop Jean de Langeac created the jubé, the highly decorated barrier separating the choir from the nave.

In 1533, Jean de Langeac commissioned the ornate jube to close the choir, and began work on the next four traverses of the nave.

On June 30, 1571, the spire of the church was stuck by lightning, which started a fire which spread to the belfry, where the and melted the eleven bells there.

[11] A powerful explosion of a terrorisrt device attached to a gas canister took place in 2005, and damaged more than three thousand pieces of stained glass.

The plan was limited by the steep slope on one side, and the decision to integrate the Romanesque tower into the Gothic cathedral.

The elaborate Renaissance sculpture on the rood screen is largely devoted to the ancient and mythological themes, particularly the exploits of Hercules.

Liturgical works from the cathedral treasury are displayed in the sacristy, in the chapel closest to the south arm of the transept.

It was largely filled with earth the Gothic period to stabilize the upper floors of the tower, and was badly preserved.

highly decorated with sculpture, The largest is the tombsof Raymond de la Porte, Bishop of Limoges (1294–1316), originally polychrome.

The stained glass windows in the bays of the choir and the upper transept, the rose windows in the transept, in the bays of the chapels of the nave and the narthex were created in the 19th century by the glass smiths Louis Charles Auguste Steinheil, Achille Oudinot and L. Saint-Blancat.

It was first built by Ducroquet in 1850, and updated several times, Both organs were classified on the list of protected French historic sites and objects in August 1991.