The city of Toulouse, in Southern France, is known as the La Ville Rose (The Pink City), and is defined by its historic red-brick architecture. The building of the Basilica of Saint Sermin was begun in 1096 and although some stone was used initially the high costs meant that later stages used red brick.
Within the northern arm of the transept a section of the stone facing has beeen removed to reveal the red brickwork. No explanation is to found for this, but it may have been intended to highlight—or even celebrate—the craftsmanship of the masons responsible for much of the basilica’s construction.
I have added this photograph (together with 2 more from Toulouse) to my collection of walls which you can see if you read this on my web site.
Here is a my gallery of related images held on Flickr.
Click each image here for an enlarged view.