Lodève is an ancient town of Celtic origin, situated some 50 kilometres (as the crow flies) from the Mediterranean coast.

The cathedral is a typical Gothic building of the south of France, majestic and austere, reflecting the stylistic influence of the mendicant orders.

They give only indirect information on the progress of the construction, and it is therefore necessary to resort to comparative stylistic dating (according to Curtius).

In the third phase, during the later 1270s and the early 1280s, the two eastern bays of the northern side of the nave were built, as well as the adjacent chapel of Saint Fulcran, the portal and its porch.

The north and south sides were not completed and vaulted until about 1345, when the lower half of the western front was also erected.

Several epidemics of the Black Death followed by the Hundred Years' War interrupted further work, and the façade was not finished until sometime between 1413 and 1430, and fortified with a chemin de ronde and bartizans.

In the 19th and 20th centuries a number of restorations were carried out, including the reinforcement of the buttresses, the replacement of the original plaster and the reopening of blocked windows.

The walls of the choir are decorated with eight enormous wall-hangings from the 17th and 18th centuries, by Sébastien Bourdon, J. Coustou and Étienne Loys.

The wooden pulpit is supported by four atlantes (Cain, Holophernes, Herod and Judas) and dates from 1867, when it was displayed at the Exposition Universelle in Paris.

It stands on a vast platform of stone with a beautiful balustrade of wrought iron, and was built in 1754 by Jean-François L'Epine.