Le Mans - Saint-Julien du Mans

A celtic settlement, was conquered here by the Romans 56bC and named Suindinum.
Saint Julien du Mans, to whom the cathedral is dedicated, was the first bishop here upto 348. He was followed by Saint Liborius du Mans, who died here in 397 and was buried next to his predecessor inside the existing cathedral.

In 835 Saint Liborius´s relics were exhumed and - on order of Emperor Louis the Pious - transferred to Paderborn (900kms northeast), where Louis´ father Emperor Charlemagne had founded a diocese in 799. This young diocese suffered, as it had no saint of its own.

From this "translation" arose a "brotherhood" between Le Mans and Paderborn, considered to be the oldest "twinning contract" still in force. The relics arrived in Paderborn in 836. To commemorate this, a festival ("Liborifest") is held in Paderborn ever since.

The "Cathédrale Saint-Julien du Mans" was erected over a very long period. It has a Romanesque nave - and a Gothic choir, with elegant flying buttresses, seen here.

www.cathedraledumans.fr