Cathédrale Notre-Dame du Réal

Embrun

On its rock above the Durance, Embrun was from the 4th century, under Saint Marcellin, a religious capital of the Alps. The cathedral that crowns it, raised between the 11th and 13th centuries on the site of a sanctuary ravaged by Saracen raids, is the largest religious monument in the Hautes-Alpes: a 53-metre nave in which black schist alternates with white limestone in the Lombard manner, and a famous porch, the Réal, whose columns rest on stone lions and atlantes. Beneath this porch, a fresco of the Adoration of the Magi was held to be miraculous: pilgrims on the road from Arles to Briançon flocked to it in the Middle Ages, making the town's fortune. Tradition links the name "Réal" to royal visits: Louis XI, it is said, held Notre-Dame d'Embrun in particular devotion and is believed to have found healing within these walls — the Marian sanctuary of the southern Alps before Le Laus. Inside, the 15th-century rose window, the stalls, the 18th-century high altar of polychrome marbles and the great organ compose a decor of rare richness for a mountain church. The chapel of Saint-François preserves a treasury of nearly 500 pieces — vestments, goldsmiths' work, illuminated manuscripts — discovered on a guided tour. One comes back out onto the square looking up at the octagonal spire, a landmark for travellers of the upper Durance for seven centuries.

Getting there : 9 rue de l'Archevêché, in the heart of old Embrun (coordinates in the town centre, immediate approach point). Free, unaccompanied visits all year round; the treasury in the chapel of Saint-François (nearly 500 pieces of sacred art from the 15th to the 19th century) can only be seen on a guided tour with the Serre-Ponçon tourist office.

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

Ambient sound