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Rodez Cathedral is a Roman Catholic Church located in the town of Rodez (Aveyron) - Occitanie - France. The nave and choir of the church are 100 meters long, 37 meters wide at the transept and 30 meters high in the nave. It took three centuries to complete. Construction began on Rodez Cathedral in 1277 and didn't end until the 16th century. Unlike regular cathedrals, Rodez Cathedral's western side is sealed with no entry and two altars have always faced each other inside: the parish altar and the altar of the cathedral chapter. The cathedral's interior houses rich furniture including the pipe organ (17th century) with surprisingly refined features or the richly sculpted and decorated stalls (15th century).
France is affectionately referred to as "the Hexagon" for its overall shape.French history goes back to the Gauls, a Celtic tribe which inhabited the area circa 300BC until being conquered by Julius Caesar.The Franks were the first tribe to adopt Catholic Christianity after the Roman Empire collapsed. France became an independent location in the Treaty of Verdun in (843 AD), which divided up Charlemagne's Carolingian Empire into several portions.The French monarchy reached its zenith during the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King, who stood for seventy-two years as the Monarch of all Monarchs. His palace of Versailles and its Hall of Mirrors are a splendid treasure-trove of Baroque art.The French Revolution ended the rule of the monarchy with the motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!" On July 14th, 1789 angry mobs stormed La Bastille prison and began the Revolution in which Louis XVI, his wife Marie-Antoinette and thousands of others met the guillotine.One decade after the revolution, Napolean Bonaparte seized control of the Republic and named himself Emperor. His armies conquered most of Europe and his Napoleonic Code became a lasting legal foundation for concepts of personal status and property.During the period of colonization France controlled the largest empire in the world, second only to Britain.France is one of the founding members of the European Union and the United Nations, as well as one of the nuclear armed nations of the world.Text by Steve Smith.
