Engraving. Woodwork of the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Moulins.

Engraving. Woodwork of the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Moulins.
France, Moulin, 1830-1850. Size 50 x 33 cm. The sheet is worn and yellowed around the perimeter, has slight tears, the upper left corner is lost; rare temporary spots; moisture trail on the right edge; in the lower right corner there is a relief "P.A.Desrosters fils a Moulins. L ancien Bourbonnais".

[The Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Moulins is the cathedral of the Diocese of Moulins. 

On the site of the late 10th century chapel, originally dedicated to St. Peter, at the end of the Middle Ages a "collegiate church of the Bourbons" was built - the Church of Notre Dame. The oldest part of the building in existence today was built in the style of flaming Gothic and its first stone was laid in 1468 by Agnes of Burgundy, the 61-year-old widow of the Duke of Bourbon Charles I and mother of Duke Jean II. Construction work was completed in 1540.

The collegiate church received the status of a cathedral in 1823, after the formation of the Moulinsky diocese. The first bishop, Antoine de La Grange de Pons, was involved in the expansion of the church, and his successor, Pierre de Dreux-Brese, was able to complete substantial construction work. He doubled the nave area, added two side-chapels and added a harmonious façade with two arrow-shaped towers, each 81 meters high. These architectural additions were made in the neo-Gothic style, imitating the 12th century Ile-de-France Gothic, influenced by the ideologist of this style, Viollet-le-Duc.

The monument, within the walls of which there are many works of art, is illuminated through stained glass windows depicting the Dukes de Bourbon, the life of St. Catherine, the Great Martyr St. Barbara and the crucifixion of Christ.

Nowadays, the cathedral is known mainly for the fact that it houses the famous triptych "Our Lady in Glory", executed around 1500 by an artist who for a long time could not be identified for certain, the Moulinsky master. Today, the dominant version is that it was the Dutch artist Jean Hey. In addition to the triptych, the cathedral also features a statue of a black Madonna of the 11th century, as well as a sculptural group in the style of flaming Gothic, representing the biblical episode of the Lamentation of Christ. The cathedral's treasury contains an ivory reliquary from the 17th century, the Aubrey triptych (fr. Triptyque d'Aubery) and a triptych from Bethlehem attributed to the Flemish Jos van Cleve.

The cathedral was consecrated on October 16, 1923, and in 1949 the church was given the title of a minor basilica. In 1875, the church was classified as a National Historic Landmark.]