Jean Linard spent 27 years building a handmade cathedral in a French quarry, covering its walls and towers with mosaics, sculpture and bright colors

Certain cathedrals required a large number of masons and centuries to complete. In the hollow of an abandoned flint quarry in the Berry region of central France, Jean Linard constructed his, almost by himself. He started his outdoor cathedral in Neuvy-Deux-Clochers in the early 1980s and continued to add to it until he died in 2010. Depending on whether you count from 1983 or 1984, the project lasted about 27 years. He was a printmaker and potter. The complex is now preserved as a historic monument, with multicoloured mosaic covering its brick arches, towers, and statues.It was included in the 2012 safeguards of the French Ministry of Culture, with an order of inscription dated 16 July 2012. The protected parts are the house, its courtyard, outbuildings and gardens, the open-air cathedral and everything fastened in it. Linard said the sky was its roof and described it as the highest cathedral in the world.From potter to constructorBorn in 1931 in the Nièvre, Linard was trained in engraving at the École Estienne in Paris and then moved to central France, where he was attracted to the potters of La Borne, in the Cher. With his Danish wife, Anne, he bought an old flint quarry at Neuvy-Deux-Clochers and erected a residence there on the pattern of Danish farms, using beams, tiles and joinery which they recovered from other buildings. The Ministry’s description states the complex grew from 1961 till his death.Then the cathedral was to come. The French camper van tour guide says he launched it after a communal art project collapsed due to administrative problems, and it became the job of his life. He had no formal plan, and referred to himself as a self-taught constructor.Arches, mosaics and mirrorsSPACES, which documents art environments, says Linard began the cathedral after 1983. It consists of grand brick arches and triangles dressed in ceramic mosaic and set around his home, which he built himself from recycled materials in the hollow of the quarry. Local reporting puts the main structure at around ten metres high.The ornamentation is heavy. More than 80 names of deities, prophets and artists are engraved across the arches, according to the same camper van guide, and surrounding the site metal statues keep vigil. The Ministry defines the cathedral as ecumenical, paying honour to the major monotheistic religions and to the individuals Linard liked, from Buddha to Mandela, including Gaudí and Facteur Cheval.Sculptures in ceramic pieces, coloured discs and mirrors disperse light around it, and iron and cement sculptures coated in coloured mosaic portray the faithful. The facility also has a place for his pottery, a forest amphitheatre, and SPACES adds that it offers cultural events in the summer. Building it was one problem; keeping it alive after Linard’s death was another.Life after Linard The site passed through a troubled succession after his death and fell into disuse It was cared for by an association until 2019, and in 2022 a young couple, Charlotte and William, took it over, according to French travel reports. The cathedral’s official website states that it is open from Easter to All Saints’ Day and has a cafeteria and tea room on site. It has been selected for the Fondation du patrimoine’s Mission Bern initiative, which allows it to launch a tax-deductible fundraising drive for its upkeep.It has started to draw crowds, too. Local figures quoted by regional media said it had 7,161 visits in 2018, making it the fourth most-visited monument in the Cher at the time. Linard’s own account was basic. He sought a space for all faiths and built it with whatever was on hand.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.