We like to find villages that are part of the Plus Beaux Villages organization. They are always historic, charming and interesting. Sometimes they are filled with tourists. Visiting on a weekend increases that chance. But the weather is perfect so we need to visit them today. (Rain is in the forecast for next week.)
It should take an hour to get to Vëzelay, northwest of Commarin, but in the town of Avallon we ran into a road closed with no detour posted. Just a sign saying "route barrée" - road closed. That threw our GPS into a tizzy as Claire (our name for our female GPS guide) kept trying to get us to circle the roads of Avallon to get back to the closed road. We ignored her promptings and blindly drove the streets of Avallon looking for a way to get around the detour. However, it was a happy problem as we saw why Avallon is a 1-star town. It's pretty cool, with old parts built on the side of a cliff with interesting buildings. Anyway, we eventually stumbled onto a truck route to Vëzelay and arrived only 20 minutes later than we should have.
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| Clark Hunsinger photo |
We pulled into the first parking lot we saw, hollered the license plate number to Dave who was getting our parking ticket, and headed up what looked like the main street of the old town. The tourist bureau was at the bottom of the street and a lovely young lady who spoke excellent English gave us maps of the historic district.
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| Michelin's map of Vezelay |
The road works its way uphill to the basilica of Sainte Marie Madeleine (Mary Magdelene), once an important pilgrimage site. The street is filled with old buildings, some of which need love, a couple for sale, others looking prosperous and well-kept and then others catering to tourists.
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| Rue St Etienne |
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| Dave thinking about getting some cookie samples at the biscuiterie |
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| This house could use some love and renovation |
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| Rue St. Pierre |
Shortly before reaching the top of the street, we passed a former convent where the nuns, with the help of some townspeople, hid Jewish children from the Nazis in World War II. We think it is still the home of a religious order as we saw a monk leave from there heading up the street toward the church.
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| Courtyard of former convent. Sign says "welcome pilgrims" which makes me suspect it is still a religious house of some sort. |
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| entrance to the former convent |
Finally at the top of the street, the road opens into a wide plaza and the basilica can finally be seen in all its massive splendor. The front of the church has awe-inspiring carvings. These are some that captured my imagination.
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| La Basilique Sainte Marie-Madeleine |
A brief history of this basilica sounds a lot like the histories of other churches we've visited. An abbey of Cluniac Benedictine monks was founded on the site of a former Roman villa in the 9th century by Saint Badilo. By chance or by plan, the abbey was at the beginning of one of the 4 routes to Santiago de Compostello that ran through France. These pilgrimage roads traveled from church to church making their way to Santiago de Compostello in northwestern Spain.
By 1050, the basilica was claiming to have relics of Mary Magdelene, making it an even more important pilgrimage stop, especially after a monk from Vezelay claimed that their relics had come from a tomb in southern Provence that had symbols suggesting it was the tomb of Mary Magdelene. The church grew rich from the pilgrims and built this monumental church in the early 12th century which in short order became too small to hold all the pilgrims. A fire in 1120 engulfed 1000 pilgrims and penitents and destroyed the nave. In rebuilding the church, a large narthex was added to the front of the church to accommodate this influx of pilgrims. Vézalay's abbey church was an important player in the Crusades as well.
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| in the narthex |
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| from the tympanum |
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| The narthex is as big as the whole of some large churches. There must have been a lot of pilgrims! |
Unfortunately for the abbey in Vezelay, in1279, Mary Magdelene's body was "discovered" in a tomb in Provence and was declared by the pope to be the true relics of Mary Magdelene. (One can be forgiven for being skeptical of saintly relics as most are "discovered" hundreds of years after a saint's death.) This article gives the history of the 1279 discovery: http://www.magdalenepublishing.org/about/ The basilica in Vezelay quickly lost its designation as the principal shrine to Mary Magdelene in Europe and fell into decline. Further damaged by the wars of religion and the French Revolution, by 1834, the basilica was near collapse. It was restored between 1840 and 1861 by the young architect, Viollet-le-Duc. (the first restoration of his career). The basilica is a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture and is on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.
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| Mary Magdelene's "grave" - her bones are buried under this column. However, in the crypt below the altar, there is a bone in a glass case that is said to be Mary Magdelene's. |
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| baptismal font |
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| the transept looking into the choir |
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| the choir and high altar |
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| buttresses are being cleaned on both sides of the basilica |
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| buttresses yet to be cleaned and on the right, the only remaining abbey building, a part of the cloister |
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| You can see the difference between the cleaned buttresses and those yet to be cleaned. |
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| The Romanesque nave is over 200 feet long |
The basilica is massive in its proportions and awe-inspiring in every view. The intricate carving in the tympanums and the capitals of the pillars are considered masterpieces of Romanesque art.
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| The Last Judgment |
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| tympanum of the Last Judgment |
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| the capitals of the columns tell stories from the Bible |
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| St Martin and the pagan's tree |
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| Daniel in the lions den |
While we were exploring the basilica, beautiful choral music filled the volume of the nave. The choir had been temporarily roped off, and the nuns and monks were chanting the mass. No accompaniment, just the voices chanting in unison. Beautiful.
Today the abbey buildings are mostly gone, replaced by a lovely park with a terrific view out over the surrounding countryside. After locating the public toilets, Clark and I went into the park to find a bench for lunch while Dave and Janis walked back through town to get our lunch. Along the way, they entered the city gate, la Porte Neuve (the new gate).
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| Porte Neuve. The walls of the city are still mostly intact. |
We ate our lunch taking in the beautiful panorama of the country surrounding Vezelay.
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| panorama of the view |
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| another view over the abbey walls |
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| The basilica from the park |
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| the nearest town - St Pierre, I believe |
We made our way back down to the car via a side street that was very picturesque.
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| the roses are out |
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| a side street we didn't take |
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| the path (road) down along the abbey walls - cars were seen at times |
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| more abbey walls and what look like farm buildings behind them |
I've taken so much space to describe Vézalay that I will use a separate post for our second Plus Beau Village, Noyers.
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