Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy, Conques
Abbatiale Sainte-Foy de Conques
- UNESCO World Heritage
Interesting facts
- The Last Judgement tympanum was carved on 24 blocks of yellow limestone and holds 124 figures arranged in 29 separate scenes.
- The 12th-century wrought-iron grilles around the choir were, according to tradition, forged from chains brought by prisoners freed through Saint Foy's intercession.
- Over the centuries the reliquary statue kept growing: crystal balls were added in the 14th century, silver hands in the 16th and bronze shoes in the 18th.
- During the French Revolution local people hid the relics and treasure nearby, while the church itself was turned into a Temple of Reason.
- The Conques treasury is regarded as the most complete collection of French religious goldwork, with pieces spanning the 9th to the 16th century.
- Building of the Romanesque church began around 1041 under Abbot Odolric, on the site of a hermitage founded in the late eighth century by a hermit named Dadon.
- In the ruined cloister survives a great basin of green serpentine, 2.72 metres across, with small carved figures that seem to hold up its rim.
- On the tympanum a portly abbot leads a crowned king, possibly Charlemagne, towards Heaven, while Saint Foy kneels below, touched by the hand of God.
- Pierre Soulages, a native of the region, made the windows between 1987 and 1994 together with the master glassmaker Jean-Dominique Fleury.
- The monk who spent years in Agen before carrying off Saint Foy's relics in 866 is remembered by the name Ariviscus.
Why it is worth it
Above the west door of the abbey church at Conques, the Last Judgement is carved in stone in a crowded scene. Christ sits in majesty at the centre. The Archangel Michael and a demon weigh souls on a scale. The damned are swallowed by a monstrous Leviathan, and a poacher is roasted by the very rabbit he stole from the monks. A bishop the monks disliked is caught in one of hell's nets, and small figures peer over the edge of the frame as if to see what happens next. The tympanum was once fully painted, and traces of colour remain. It belongs to one of the great Romanesque pilgrimage churches on the road to Santiago de Compostela.
The church owes its existence to a theft. In 866 a monk from Conques, who had spent years posing as a devoted member of the community at Agen, carried off the relics of Saint Foy, a young girl martyred in the fourth century. Pilgrims followed the relics, and the small oratory of the eighth century gave way to a much larger church. It was built in phases through the eleventh century and finished early in the twelfth, on a plan with an ambulatory, radiating chapels and galleries over the aisles, designed so that crowds could move around the shrine. The proportions are compact: the church is about 59 metres long, while the barrel-vaulted nave rises to 20.7 metres. Its 212 carved capitals show palm leaves, monsters, biblical scenes and episodes from the saint's life. The treasury holds one of the rarest survivals of early medieval goldwork: the reliquary statue of Saint Foy, made in the later ninth century on a wooden core sheathed in gold. Its head is a reused Roman head of the fifth century, and the figure is studded with gems and cameos given over the centuries. Nearby is the so-called "A of Charlemagne". Local legend links it to the emperor, but the piece actually dates from around 1100.
The abbey declined from the thirteenth century. Protestant troops burned much of it in 1568, and after the Revolution villagers took stone from its buildings. In the nineteenth century Prosper Mérimée and others campaigned to save it; it was restored, received its present towers, and in 1840 was classified a historic monument. Its windows are modern. Starting in 1986, the painter Pierre Soulages designed 104 windows for the church, with abstract lines in pale, translucent glass that leave the stone in soft, even light. Since 1998 the church has been part of the World Heritage listing of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France. Conques itself is a small village of narrow medieval lanes on a hillside above the confluence of the Dourdou and the Ouche, and it is one of the officially recognised "most beautiful villages of France".
Getting there
The church stands in the centre of Conques, in the Aveyron department of southern France. The nearest city is Rodez, about 31 km away in a straight line, and Rodez–Aveyron Airport (RDZ) is about 22 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy in Conques, France, was a popular stop for pilgrims traveling the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela, in what is now Spain. The main draw for medieval pilgrims at Conques were the remains of Sainte Foy, a young woman martyred during the fourth century. The relics of Sainte-Foy arrived in Conques through theft in 866. After unsuccessful attempts to acquire the relics of Saint Vincent of Saragossa and then the relics of St. Vincent Pompejac in Agen, the abbey authorities set their sights on the relics of Sainte-Foy at the ancient St. Faith's Church, Sélestat. The Conques abbey opened a priory next to the shrine in Sélestat. A monk from Conques posed as a loyal monk in Agen for nearly a decade in order to get close enough to the relics to steal them.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
44.59931, 2.39787per Wikidata