Rodez is in Aveyron in France. In summer, the city offers many entertainments and festive events. Three museums and many art galleries (Gallery Sainte-Catherine among others) attract many tourists.
Understand
[edit]Get in
[edit]By car
[edit]Rodez is about 150 km northeast of Toulouse.
The Route Nationale 88 provides access from Albi, Castres, Montpellier, Toulouse to the south and Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon, Orléans, Paris and also Millau, Sète, Béziers, Narbonne and Perpignan to the north. Rodez is 50 kilometres (31 mi) from the A75.
By train
[edit]- 1 Gare de Rodez, Avenue du Maréchal-Joffre. Night services (Intercités de nuit) Paris–Orléans–Figeac–Rodez–Albi. Local service (TER Occitanie) Toulouse–Albi–Rodez. Local service (TER Occitanie) Brive-la-Gaillarde–Figeac–Rodez.
By plane
[edit]- 2 Rodez-Aveyron Airport (RDZ IATA) (10 km outside the centre of Rodez). Regular flights on Volotea from Paris-Orly. Seasonal flights on Ryanair from Charleroi, Dublin, London–Stansted; and on Volotea from Ajaccio, Bastia, Figari, Lille, Palma de Mallorca, Porto, and Strasbourg.
Get around
[edit]
Map of Rodez
Agglobus, the public transport system, is free since 2025.
See
[edit]Civil heritage
[edit]
Most of the city's important buildings are located in what is called Vieux-Rodez.
- 1 The Maison d'Armagnac, Place de l'Olmet. With its timber-framed corbels and antique medallions, it combines Gothic and Renaissance styles. It houses a shop on the ground floor and residential units on the upper floors, as it has since its construction in the 1530s.
- 2 National Stud Farm (Haras national de Rodez). The Rodez stud farm has been located in the beautiful Chartreuse since 1809.
- The bourgeois houses in the historic centre
- Art Deco buildings in the Amphitheater district (rue Pasteur)
- 19th-century railway bridges
Museums
[edit]- 3 Soulages Museum (Musée Soulages). The various works of Pierre Soulages are exhibited.
- Fenaille Museum. A history and archaeology museum with a unique collection of menhir statues from Rouergue. Its collections also include sculptures from other periods: Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the modern era.
- Denys-Puech Museum of Fine Arts, a contemporary art museum in which the sculptures and paintings of Denys Puech are exhibited.
Religious heritage
[edit]
- 4 Rodez Cathedral (Cathédrale Notre-Dame). It is the main religious building in the department. Burned and damaged over the centuries, Rodez Cathedral is a remarkable distillation of architectural styles from the 13th to the 17th century: Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque interior decoration elements. It has imposing dimensions: the central nave, quite narrow, is 102 m long and has a particularly graceful elevation (30 m). The building has a superb bell tower, a true lacework of pink sandstone, visible from afar, dominating the summit of the city from its 87 m. At night, it is illuminated from the inside.
- 5 Saint-Amans Church (Église Saint-Amans). Built in the 12th century, it was completely rebuilt between 1758 and 1761 using materials salvaged from the old building. The exterior is Baroque in style, but the interior has retained the purity of the Romanesque style. The dome was decorated in the 18th century by Salinier. 6th-century tapestries adorn the choir and depict the miracles of Saint Amans. It houses a 15th-century pietà, a 16th-century statue of the Trinity, and a reliquary casket made of Limoges enamel.
- The Sacré-Coeur. Its construction lasted 30 years (from 1890 to 1920). Its construction was inspired by the Sainte-Foy abbey church in Conques with notable influences from the great Périgord churches.
- 6 Paraire Chapel. The last vestige of the Paraire lunatic asylum where the writer and poet Antonin Artaud was interned. It now houses an “ Antonin Artaud space ”.
- The bishopric (palace). Its towers and its ramparts.
- 7 Former Jesuit college (Chapel of the Old Royal College), rue Louis-Blanc. Founded by the Society of Jesus in Rodez, later became the Royal College . Site classified as a historic monument in the 17th century, in Gothic and Baroque style, built in pink sandstone, with Renaissance painted decoration.