The Basilica of Saints Nazarius and Celsus stands in the citadel of Carcassonne. The original church is thought to date from the sixth century, built on the site of a Carolingian cathedral, and Pope Urban II visited on June 12, 1096 and blessed building materials. The work was completed in the first half of the twelfth century, and the crypt dates from then.
It was rebuilt in the Gothic style around the end of the thirteenth century. The sandstone building has a Latin cross plan, a Romanesque nave, and a Gothic transept and choir. Inside it is 194 feet (59 meters) long, with a 52-foot nave width and a 118-foot transept span. The central choir window of 1280 is one of the oldest in southern France.
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc renovated it around 1840, the year it was made a historical monument. It lost cathedral status in 1803 and became a minor basilica in 1898.
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