Église Saint-Aventin de Larboust

Saint-Aventin

Perched in the Larboust valley, facing the peaks of the Luchon country, the church of Saint-Aventin is one of the great Romanesque churches of the upper Comminges, built in the 11th century with two bell towers and a 12th-century carved portal in which ancient altars are reused. It owes its existence to a legend the village still tells. Aventin, born around 778, is said to have been a shepherd at Sainte-Marie-de-Larboust before withdrawing as a hermit to the Astos valley and evangelising a valley then exposed to Muslim raids. A famous episode shows him tending a wounded bear that came to lay in his hands its swollen paw, pierced by a large thorn: the scene is carved on a capital of the portal. Pursued by his enemies near the tower of Castel-Blancat, he is said to have leapt from the top of a precipice and landed some two hundred metres below on a stone that has borne the print of his foot ever since; caught, he was beheaded and, so the story goes, carried his head in his hands to the place where he had fallen. Three centuries later, a bull stubbornly scratching at the ground uncovered his bones; authenticated by the bishop of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, they were carried by oxen to the church, which took his name, as did the village. A bas-relief set on a buttress of the south facade shows precisely the bull discovering the grave, and other reliefs depict the beheaded saint holding his head.

Commune de Saint-Aventin - La légende de l'ermite ↗

Getting there : Village of Saint-Aventin (31110), about 4 km west of Bagnères-de-Luchon on the D618 towards the Col de Peyresourde; the church stands at the heart of the hamlet, parking in the village. Coordinates are given at village level (village accuracy): the church is its central building, impossible to miss. The chapel of Saint-Aventin and the stone known as the "saint's footstep" lie in the neighbouring commune of Trébons-de-Luchon.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound