An Urban Centre
Cité épiscopale d’Albi
The Berbie palace offers an eminent example of a human establishment which progressively structured itself to form an Episcopal city.
It is witness to the symbiosis of an urban centre and Episcopal monument.
This clear example of a specific urban space which strongly contrasts, by its form and its history, with other urban centres of the mediaeval period and particularly of the Gothic era.
The expression ’Episcopal city’ currently refers to two different realities; first, a town conserving the more or less significant remnants of buildings characteristic of an ancient or modern Episcopal seat. This broad definition would then extend the adjective ’Episcopal’ to include the whole town. Alternatively it can mean the area within a town which is home to the Cathedral, the Epsicopal palace and the ensemble of the Epsicopal dependencies, thus qualifying the ’city’ to a limited part of the town.
