"The Saint-Just-et-Saint-Pasteur Cathedral in Narbonne is the most prestigious monument in the city of Narbonne. It has the rank of co-cathedral of the diocese of Carcassonne and Narbonne.
Characteristic of the southern Gothic style, it replaced places of worship built in the center of the city from the 4th century. Its particularity lies in the fact that it is unfinished, only the choir is present.
The construction of the cathedral was one of the most ambitious projects of the kingdom of France in the 13th century. Saint-Just has a choir of imposing dimensions: 40 m wide, 60 m long, for a central nave 15.20 m wide. The vaults rise to 41 m in height; only those of Beauvais (48 m) of Amiens (42 m) present a higher height.
Outside, there is the same originality in the establishment of the vast terraces on the apse, the fortified gallery which connects the top of the abutments, the finesse of the two-storey and double-flight flying buttresses. Finally, the beauty of the apparatus, whose foundations are regulated in height, the perfection of the vaults, the solid balance of these articulated masses, make the cathedral of Narbonne one of the most scholarly works of the beginning of the 14th century.
The cathedral was to have the shape of a Latin cross. It is easy to notice that only the choir (the head of the cross) is finished and that the transept (the arms of the cross) has barely begun, as well as the nave (the feet of the cross).
The reasons for this incompleteness are:
- Lack of resources, but this reason is not the most important.
- The hostility of the Consuls.
- The resumption of the Hundred Years War. In 1355, the Black Prince besieged the city, showing that the ramparts were necessary.
- The disasters accumulated by the city during the 14th century, such as the plague (1348 to 1355), demoralizing the city and accumulating ruins and mourning, or the ride of the Prince of Wales."