Notre-Dame Cathedral in Lausanne is a church built in honour of the Virgin Mary. It has been in existence since the 6th century. It originally had a different name, and was even a pagan temple dedicated to St Thyrsus, the rod of the Greek god Dionysus. In the 10th-11th centuries it became a Christian church. Its construction lasted more than a hundred years and was divided into three stages. The architect Jean Coterel took part in it. In 1275, finally, the cathedral was consecrated in the presence of Pope Gregory X and King Rudolf von Habsburg.
The church was originally designed in Romanesque style, but today we see a building built mostly in Gothic style. During the Reformation, the temple was not left "unattended", it was heavily looted and stripped of most of its decorations, particularly statues and paintings. The building was constructed using soft sandstone stone, which is characteristic of buildings of those times.
The current appearance of the cathedral is largely due to the architect Viollet-le-Duc. The cathedral has the largest organ of 7,000 pipes in Switzerland. The stained glass window "rose" of the XIII century is remarkable, it is considered to reflect the medieval picture of the world. It depicts the elements, the rivers of paradise, the seasons, the twelve months and the signs of the zodiac. The alternation of months is a symbol of the flow of time. But this is not the only stained glass window of the cathedral, others were created later and belong to the 19th and 20th centuries.
The decorative Monfalcon portal on the western façade, created in the early 16th century, contrasts sharply with the older portals. Paintings and statues from the 13th century are preserved on the south wall of the nave. Carved wooden choirs dating from the middle of the 13th century have also survived.
In those Middle Ages the cathedral was a place of mass pilgrimage, there are even records of the number of believers who visited it annually (about 70,000 people).
The south tower of the cathedral offers a magnificent view of the city, the lake and the mountains.
