Semur-en-Brionnais, le village natal d'Hugues

Semur-en-Brionnais

On 13 May 1024 there was born here, in the castle of the barons of Semur, Hugh, son of Dalmace the Great and of Aremburge de Vergy. Entering the monastery at fifteen, prior and then abbot of Nantua at twenty, he succeeded Odilo in 1049 and governed Cluny for sixty years: it was under him that the order reached England, Poland and Spain, that Moissac and Saint-Martin-des-Champs entered the obedience, and that in 1088 the works on the third abbey church opened. He did not see the church of his village: it was built in the 12th century, the last Romanesque church of the Brionnais, by masons whom the mother abbey sent. Both languages can be read in it at once — the stocky Romanesque of the Brionnais in the chevet with three apses and the octagonal bell tower, the vocabulary of Cluny III in the elevation and the fluted pilasters. The west portal and its gallery date from the 1180s; the tympanum shows a Christ in majesty in his mandorla, carried by two angels whom the tetramorph crowds at the shoulders. The church became collegiate in 1274 when the baron and the bishop of Autun founded a chapter of thirteen canons there; the Huguenots burned it in 1576 and the vault fell in. Three sundials still mark the south wall of the nave.

Wikipédia — Collégiale Saint-Hilaire de Semur-en-Brionnais ↗

Getting there : By the D 8 from Marcigny or the D 989 from Charlieu; car park at the foot of the village, then a climb on foot up to the plateau. The church is open during the day; the neighbouring castle, with its Romanesque keep, can be visited in season.

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

Ambient sound