St Bertrand-De-Comminges
ST BERTRAND-DE-COMMINGES, a village of south-western France at the foot of the Pyrenees in the department of HauteGaronne, about 70 m. S.W. of Toulouse by rail and road. St Bertrand stands about i m. from the left bank of the Garonne on the slopes of an isolated hill crowned by its celebrated cathedral of Notre Dame. The facade of the church with its square tower and the first bay with its aisles are Romanesque, and belong to a church begun about the end of the 11th century by Bishop Bertrand (1075-1123), afterwards canonized. The nave with its side chapels and the choir, in the Gothic style, date from the first half of the 14th century and were chiefly the work of Bertrand de Goth, bishop from 1295 to 1299 and afterwards Pope Clement V. The choir screen, rood-loft and altar, which form an enclosure within the church, are masterpieces of Renaissance wood-carving, as are also the choir stalls. The church contains several tombs, the most interesting of which are the fine white marble tomb of Bishop Hugh of Chatillon (d. 1352), and the mausoleum of St Bertrand (both of the isth century), whose relics are preserved in the treasury. On the south side of the church there is a ruined cloister of Romanesque architecture.
St Bertrand-de-Comminges (Lugdunum Convenarum) was founded in 72 B.C., and before the end of the 5th century became the seat of a bishopric suppressed at the Revolution. The town was destroyed towards the end of the 6th century by Guntrum,king of Burgundy, after it had served as a refuge toGondowald, pretender to the crown of Aquitaine.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
