 Charlemagne erected the basilica that was visited by Pope Leo III.The cathedral church, built on foundations that date to its founding in the ninth century, was constructed between 1170 and 1220; its Romanesque portal, columns supported on crouching lions in the north portal and striped stonework courses in cream and gray stone express cultural links with Lombardy.The interior has an elaborate Baroque high altar inlaid in colored marbles, recently rediscovered frescoes, an organ (the oldest working in France) donated by Louis XI of France, who habitually sported in his cap a leaden emblem of the Virgin of Embrun, and whose last words were addressed to "Nôtre Dame d'Embrun, ma bonne maîtress, ayez pitié de moi".