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Cathedral Notre-Dame de Laon is a remarkable piece of French religious and architectural heritage. Locate it on the map, book a room nearby in a click, or add it to your travel list to build your itinerary.
About Cathedral Notre-Dame de Laon
Crowning a high ridge above the plains of Picardy, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon is one of the masterpieces of early Gothic architecture, built from the mid-12th century and visible for miles across the surrounding countryside. Its most famous feature is its towers — originally planned as seven, of which several survive — adorned with great carved oxen gazing out from the belfries, said to honour the beasts that hauled the stone up the steep hill. The luminous four-storey nave, flooded with light from a beautiful rose window, is a model of early Gothic elegance later imitated across Europe. Set within the ramparts of a wonderfully preserved medieval hill-town, the cathedral is both an architectural landmark and a superb viewpoint. Majestic, luminous and historically pivotal, Notre-Dame de Laon is one of the great cathedrals of France.