---

---

---

In this northern region of the old province of Rouergue, now the department of Aveyron, nature and history seem to have concluded an agreement and combined their strength in order to give birth to this masterpiece full of an incomparable evocative power : Conques. Few places in France, or even in Europe, can boast such an accumulation of treasures : the Roman abbey-church embellished by Pierre Soulages'stained-glass windows, the tympanum of the Last Judgment, the cloister's vestiges with its great serpentine basin, the European Centre for Art and Medieval Civilization, the gold treasure, and finally the village itself as if it has remained intact through the centuries. The whole fits exactly into the wonderfull site of the "conque" (from the latin "concha" : shell) chosen by a hermit in order to withdraw from society in the VIIth century.