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Eugène Viollet-le-Duc first discovered Carcassonne as a young man, during a trip to the Pyrenees in 1831. It is thought that he returned in 1839, after a trip to Italy. In 1843, he was commissioned to draft a report on the restoration work in St. Nazarius' Church then, the following year, to take over the management of the work. Thereafter, Viollet-le-Duc's name remained closely linked to Carcassonne until his death in 1879. As the architect "attached to the Historic Monuments Commission", he was also appointed diocesan architect of Aude. He completed the refurbishment of St. Michael's Cathedral and built the small Church of St. Gimer, at the request of Monsignor de la Bouillerie.

Of the four building projects undertaken by Viollet-le-Duc in Carcassonne, St. Gimer's is the least well-known. Viollet-le-Duc is too often seen as an expert in restoration whereas he desperately wanted to produce architecture for his own period. He was not often given an opportunity to do so. In his whole career, he designed only three new churches – St. Denis de l'Estrée in Saint-Denis, the church in Aillant-sur-Tholon and St. Gimer's in Carcassonne.

St. Gimer's was built between 1854 and 1859. Modesty was one of the stated objectives since the real work was to consist of Viollet-le-Duc's architectural design, created with a limited budget. There were a few arguments during the building work for, if Viollet-le-Duc was absent, the mayor or the priest came to the site and issued orders. This was unacceptable to the architect. There were also worries about costs. The initial estimate amounted to 100,000 francs and the Bishop wanted to limit expenditure to 90,000 francs. In the end, the building cost a total of 93,441.28 francs.

St. Gimer's Church has a nave and two side aisles, a polygonal chevet flanked by two sacristies and, on the West Front, a porch. In his design for this church, which was built for an ordinary parish, Viollet-le-Duc placed the emphasis on simplicity, while using a range of shapes that could be described as "Gothic". In doing so, he drew on both northern and southern styles but, if necessary, he also created totally new forms. From Northern France came the division of the interior into three aisles of unequal height and width, the engaged colonnettes supporting the vaulting and their crocketed capitals. From the south, came the austere, compact exterior, the limited number of windows, and the idea of letting light into the nave through a series of oculi (a feature which is also seen, albeit slightly differently, in St. Michael's).

The pillars separating the nave from the side aisles with their strange square shafts and angled corners were invented by the architect who showed here his determination to create new architectural forms, economising even on the 13th-century style that he was so prone to using extensively. Throughout the building, Viollet-le-Duc used an austere, graphic and highly minimalist style. It is evident that the Gothic elements are not designed to give any sense of lyricism or even historicism to the construction; they are simply a code used to shape a modern space that is, first and foremost, designed to meet requirements. Indeed, he wrote that "for me, there is no question here of creating a building that is architecturally perfect. I am concerned to build a church that is appropriate and simple."

When discussing the three churches built by Viollet-le-Duc, Anatole de Baudot concluded that "these buildings are not Gothic in the usual sense of the term but are, on the contrary, perfect illustrations of the constructions of our time. They have a very special charm because they are reasoned designs." St. Gimer's is, then, because of its very modesty, an example of the premisses of modern architecture that Viollet-le-Duc so passionately wanted to achieve throughout his career and his life.

Like the walled town of Carcassonne, St. Gimer's Church has been included in the list of protected World Heritage sites by UNESCO.

St. Gimer's Church

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