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History of the abbey |
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The golden age of the abbey |
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Conques, major stage on the way to Santiago de Compostela |
In the same time in Compostela the tomb of the apostle James was beginning to supplant the other great pilgrimages of Christendom. In those days the fame of the miracles of Saint Foy was enough to make Conques be selected as a stopping place on one of the four great French routes, the one which started at Puy en Velay. After the dreadful crossing of the solitudes of Aubrac, pilgrims, often gathered in caravans, were reaching friendlier landscape of the Lot's banks in Espalion. From Estaing through the villages of Golinhac where a stone cross still bears the picture of a pilgrim armed with his staff, then Espeyrac and Saint Marcel, they were arriving at Conques after a thirty-kilometres walk. At the start, two itineraries were offered to get to Quercy and Moissac abbey. The shortest one crossed the Dourdou by the old bridge towards Aubin. But the busiest went under the Vinzelle gate to head for Grandvabre and Figeac towards the north-west. Both pilgrimages and donations which grew in number provided Saint Foy abbey with power and wealth, two necessary conditions for its artistic influence.
Until then limited to Rouergue and its bordering provinces, the cult of Saint Foy spread in
the whole Christendom carried by the pilgrims devotion and, at the beginning of the XIth
century, increased by a great literary work, The
Book of Miracles of Saint Foy
,
written by Bernard, the head of the Angers' episcopal college. At the same time the monastery
of Conques which already held the regions around within a radius of 20 kilometres and
gathered at its touch an important urban population was continually expanding its
possessions in Rouergue and in the rest of Christendom, from Sainte Foy of Cavagnolo at
Piedmont to Horsham in England, from Selestat or even Bamberg in the Germanic world to
Catalonia and Navarra. During the second half of the XIth century, the abbey's cartulary
allows us to witness the settlement of a real monastic empire, powerful enough to safeguard
its independence against Cluny's ascendancy which exerted on most of the great benedictine
abbeys such as Saint Gerald of Aurillac or Saint Peter of Moissac. Better still, Conques
vied with Cluny in influence at the time of the reconquest of Northern Spain on Muslims by
founding churches or giving bishops to the new dioceses of Aragon and Navarra.
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Construction of the abbey-church |
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The great period for Conques from the middle of the XIth to the first third of the XIIth century corresponds to the abbey-church. building. Through the impetus given by the abbot Bégon III (1087-1107) in particular, the monastery of Saint Foy reached its peak. While continuing the works begun by his predecessors, Odolric (1030-1065) and Etienne II (1065-1087) in the new church, he undertook the reconstruction of the monastic buildings and cloister. There is no doubt that the increase in the number of monks made it essential. Then Conques turned into a vast building site. Always according to the Cartulary, the abbot Bégon had placed various relics into gold and some of the most beautiful pieces in the treasure came from his gold and enamel workshops. At the same time, the existence of a monastic school is testified with its library and typescript workshop. |
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Texts from Jean-Claude FAU
Editions of Beffroi - Regional Council of Aveyron Original drawings from Jean SEGALAT Dadon editions - Council of Conques Translation from Valérie FABRE |
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