Stavanger Cathedral is said to have started construction of the cathedral around 1100. It was finished around 1150: the city of Stavanger counts 1125 as its year of foundation. The cathedral was dedicated to Saint Swithun, an early Bishop of Winchester and subsequently patron saint of Winchester Cathedral. The church was initially the seat of the Diocese of Stavanger within the Roman Catholic Church until the Protestant Reformation. Stavanger was ravaged by fire in 1272, and the cathedral suffered heavy damage. It was rebuilt under Bishop Arne (1276–1303) at which time the Romanesque cathedral was enlarged in the Gothic style. In 1682,
Saint Domnius became the city's patron saint, and the city's cathedral (the Cathedral of Saint Domnius) was built in the mausoleum of Diocletian itself, the emperor who martyred him. The Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome claims to own some of Domnio's relics, since Pope John IV, in the 7th century, had requested that relics of a martyr named Domnio be brought to Rome. Saint Domnius Saint Domnius (also known as Saint Dujam or Saint Duje, Saint Domnio, Saint Doimus, or Saint Domninus) was a 3rd-century Bishop of Salona and patron of the city of Split. Salona was a large Roman