Vence,—the ancient Roman city of Ventium,—with five other dioceses of the ecclesiastical province of Embrun, was suppressed—as the seat of a bishop—in 1790. It had been a suffragan bishopric of Embrun since its foundation by Eusèbe in the fourth century.
The ancient cathedral of Notre Dame is supposed to show traces of workmanship of the sixth, tenth, twelfth, and fifteenth centuries, but, excepting that of the latter era, it will be difficult for the casual observer to place the distinctions of style.
The whole ensemble is of grim appearance; so much so that one need not hesitate to place it well down in the ranks of the church-builder's art, and, either from poverty of purse or purpose, it is quite undistinguished.
In its interior there are a few features of unusual remark: an ancient sarcophagus, called that of St. Véran; a retable of the sixteenth century; some rather good paintings, by artists apparently unknown; and a series of fifty-one fifteenth-century choir-stalls of quite notable excellence, and worth more as an expression of artistic feeling than all the other features combined.
The only distinction as to constructive features is the fact that there are no transepts, and that the aisles which surround the nave are doubled.
XXXI
CATHÉDRALE DE SION
The small city of Sion, the capital of the Valais, looks not unlike the pictures one sees in sixteenth-century historical works.
It is brief, confined, and unobtrusive. It was so in feudal times, when most of its architecture partook of the nature of a stronghold. It is so to-day, because little of modernity has come into its life.
The city, town, or finally village—for it is hardly more, from its great lack of activity—lies at the foot of three lofty, isolated eminences. A great conflagration came to Sion early in the nineteenth century which resulted in a new lay-out of the town and one really fine modern thoroughfare, though be it still remarked its life is yet mediæval.
Upon one of these overshadowing heights is the present episcopal residence, and on another the remains of a fortress—formerly the stronghold of the bishops of Sion. On this height of La Valère stands the very ancient church of Ste. Catherine (with a tenth or eleventh-century choir), occupying, it is said, the site of a Roman temple.