**SAINT PAUL-TROIS-CHÂTEAUX** – Ancient diocese and chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Drôme (France). It was the ancient capital of the Tricastini and was called *Augusta Tricastinorum*. It was devastated by the Vandals in the 5th century, by the Saracens in 736, and during the Wars of Religion.
The first bishop of the diocese, St. Restitutus, was identified with a Paul who took part in 374 in the Council of Valence and whom a 15th-century legend claimed to be the man born blind of the Gospel.
St. Paul, according to the legend (*Anal. Boll.*, 11 [1892], p. 375, from the Grenoble manuscript 49), would have been a Roman, “in cola civitatis Romensis,” and would have become bishop of the region in the 6th century; the see took its name from him, and Ado records him on 19 February. His successors were Florentinus, Herallus, Victor, Eusebius, Agricola, and Berto, whose names appear among the bishops present at the Gallic councils between 527 and 690. In the time of Louis the Pious (827–839), the sees of Orange and Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux were united by Pope Gregory IV, as is evident from a bull of Urban II (*Jaffé-Wattenbach*, 5561); the first common bishop was Boniface, followed by Lando and Germanicus.
The diocese was suppressed during the French Revolution; today it forms Valence (v.), whose bishop still bears the title.
The ancient cathedral dates from the 12th century and offers one of the most characteristic examples of the Provençal Romanesque school. It has three harmoniously proportioned naves; the central hall is provided with windows and reaches 24 m in height; at the crossing stands an octagonal dome; the central apse is adorned with an arcade and flanked by two smaller apses. Roughly carved on a pillar is the Descent of Christ into Limbo (13th century); in the apse are remains of 13th-century frescoes in which Jerusalem can still be discerned. The central portal is richly decorated; the porch has ribbed vaulting with numerous sculpted panels. The present sacristy occupies the former Gothic chapel built by Bishop Stephen Genčevs (d. 1470).
At 3 km from St-Paul-Trois-Châteaux lies the village of St-Restitut, with a church of the late 12th century featuring a square tower, where the bishop St. Restitutus is said to have been buried; legend identifies him as the first bishop of the diocese. The church has a single nave with an arched apse and Corinthian capitals; a characteristic carved frieze of the 12th century depicts Christ, the Angel of the Lord, the Magi, the signs of the zodiac, knights, hunting scenes, workers, and fantastic animals.
Also in the village of La-Baume-du-Transit is a notable Romanesque church originally composed of four arched apses arranged around a quadrilateral with a dome in the style of the baptistery of Venasque; the entrance porch and bell tower are from the 14th century; in the 16th century the central apse was transformed into a nave.