Église prieurale Saint-Révérien

Saint-Révérien

Here, an entire village was born of a martyrdom. Tradition relates that Révérien, a missionary bishop from Italy, was sent by Pope Felix I to evangelise the Autun country with the priest Paul and some ten companions. Around 273, under the Emperor Aurelian, then passing through Gaul, they were all arrested and beheaded. On the supposed site of their execution rose an oratory, then a monastery, handed over around 1055 to the great abbey of Cluny by the Count of Nevers: the priory gave the village its name. The church, rebuilt in the early 12th century, is one of the finest Romanesque monuments of the Nivernais: a choir with ambulatory and radiating chapels — rare on this rural scale — carved capitals in which one can make out, among other things, a vision of Paradise, 16th-century wall paintings, medieval tomb slabs. The most moving treasure is a 14th-century stone statue of Saint Révérien as a cephalophore: standing, carrying his own head in his hands, in the iconography reserved for beheaded saints who, the legends say, walked after their execution. Burnt in 1723, the church lost its nave and bell tower, faithfully rebuilt in neo-Romanesque style between 1833 and 1840. Listed on the very first list of monuments historiques in 1840, a stage on a route to Compostela, it offers today's walker what yesterday's pilgrim sought: a grave and beautiful halt in the country of the hills.

Getting there : In the centre of the village of Saint-Révérien, on the D977bis between Prémery and Corbigny, on a route of the Way of St James (Vézelay route). Church open every day from 9 am to 6 pm, free admission, explanatory panels on site. Coordinates: village (the church is in the centre).

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

Ambient sound