Description

Auvergne reads like a book, unique, pure and sweet. From the 10th to the 12th century these same sentiments went into building churches and sanctuaries, sculpting stone and wood, shaping metal, and sublimated the spirit and the place. Reliquaries of this faith, the treasures of Auvergne Romanesque art have crossed the centuries to our time. Besides the six major churches, Notre-Dame-du-Port in Clermont, St.Austremoine in Issoire, the Orcival basilica, St.Nectaire, St.Julien in Brioude and St.Saturnin, there are others, more humble, more secret, but just as beautiful. Whether in Brivadois with the Blesle and Lavaudieu sites, in Bourbonnais with Souvigny, Ebreuil and Châtel-Montagne, or in Haute Auvergne with Brageac, Bredons or Ydes, each one expresses its personality in a unity of style.

An architectural wonder, Romanesque art goes beyond the details. It is found in the capitals and in the Black Madonnas ; it plays with light on the enamel in the shrines or through the wrought iron work ; and it is expressed both by monumental frescos and meticulous illuminations. The hardest stone, the crudest wood acquire an immaterial and maternal essence. Romanesque Auvergne is an internal treasure.