Abbatiale de Meymac et sa Vierge noire, « l'Égyptienne »

Meymac

On 3 February 1085 the viscount of Comborn Archambaud III installed a few Benedictines beside a church that legend traces back to a 6th-century hermit, Mamacus, and that the bishop of Limoges is said to have consecrated in 546. The porch tower, with its polylobed doorway in the Limousin fashion and its eleven capitals, is the oldest part; the nave dates from the end of the 12th century. It was for this abbey church that a sculptor of the 12th century carved a Virgin in Majesty sixty-one centimetres high, seated on a backless throne, the Child on her knees holding the Book. She is painted in bright colours and gilded, but the faces and hands are black, and her turban-shaped head-dress earned her, no one knows when, the nickname of the Egyptian — as at Le Puy, people wanted to see in a Romanesque statue an object come from the East. Sophie Cassagnes-Brouquet links her, by her stocky style and her angular folds, to the school of the majesties of Auvergne. She came through the Revolution, which dispersed the monastery, and was classified in 1908. What one sees on the wall of the choir is a faithful copy; the original, restored in 1967 and in 1974, comes back to the church only for its feast days. The monastery, which entered the congregation of Saint-Maur in 1669, has left two wings that frame the place du Bûcher together with the church.

Wikipédia — Abbaye Saint-André de Meymac ↗

Getting there : Meymac is 15 km west of Ussel by the D 979 (Ussel exit of the A 89). Church open during the day; the Black Virgin (a copy) is fixed to the wall of the choir, between the apse and the north apsidal chapel. The Musée Marius-Vazeilles occupies the wing of the abbey that adjoins the church.

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

Ambient sound