Cathédrale Sainte-Croix d'Orléans is most famous for its association with Joan of Arc who attended evening Mass here on May 2, 1429, while in the city to lift the siege.



The first church was built around 330 in the northeast corner of the walled city then called Aurelianum. It owes its term in Saint Euverte, its founder. Indeed, it was at this time that the Cross of Christ was discovered in Jerusalem by St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine. Saint Aignan, bishop of Saint Euverte successor, completes the building and is the architect Mélius which elevates the apse and the choir to 450.

The Normans pillaged the church in 865, but could not burn it. The Carolingian kings and Carlomagno Arnulph rebuilt it in 883. In 999, a great fire destroyed part of the city, including Holy Cross.

In the eleventh century, the church Holy Cross is elevated to Cathedral. The buildings of the chapter are grouped in the south and east of the current Cathedral. This Romanesque building completed in the twelfth century, was one of the largest cathedrals in France: it had collateral doubles, overcoming a choir crypt, ambulatory complete with alveoli, and a beautiful facade supported by two towers. But probably built too quickly, she threatened ruin after 200 years and collapsed partly in 1227.

In 1278, Bishop Robert of Courtenay, bishop and grand-son of the King of France Louis le Gros, decided instead to restore the building in ruins, to build another church in the new style that flourished then in France.

A small group of fanatics Huguenots disappointed Condé ready to deal with Catholics, are introduced in the Cathedral on the night of 23 to 24 February 1568 and blew up the four pillars of the transept. The pillars collapsed, causing the bell tower, the copper sphere overcoming, the vaults of the choir and the nave. Only remain intact radiating chapels around the choir, and the first two bays of the nave. On 2 July 1598, King Henry IV, returning to visit Britain, where he has signed the Edict of Nantes ending the wars of religion, passes Orleans and promises to launch the expense of the State, reconstruction the Cathedral.