Prieuré de Sauxillanges, fille aînée de Cluny

Sauxillanges

The founder of Cluny was also the founder of Sauxillanges: it was William the Pious who, in 917, made the first gift, completed by his nephew Duke Acfred, and the monks most probably settled there from 944. The house, placed under the authority of Cluny, counted more than eighty religious at the end of the 10th century and became the head of the Cluniac obedience in the Auvergne, one of the five great houses that tradition calls the eldest daughters, with Souvigny, La Charité-sur-Loire, Saint-Martin-des-Champs and Lewes. In 1062 Hugh of Semur turned it, like many other abbeys, into a mere priory. It was here that a child of the Livradois, Pierre de Montboissier, was given as an oblate at about the age of five or seven at the request of his great-uncle Abbot Hugh, and made profession in 1109: thirteen years later he would be elected abbot of Cluny under the name of Peter the Venerable. The fall came from the commendatory priors, who drew the revenues without residing — a La Rochefoucauld, a Cardinal d'Este, and finally Louis-René de Rohan-Guéméné, prior at eleven years old in 1745, who never came there. The priory church was destroyed after the Revolution; there remain the Gothic chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Bois and its five armorial keystones, among them that of Cluny with its two crossed keys, the dormitory, the refectory and the galleries of the cloister.

Wikipédia — Sauxillanges ↗

Getting there : By the D 999 from Issoire or the D 214 from Brioude; parking on the central square, at the foot of the buildings. The Gothic chapel, the dormitory, the refectory and the galleries of the cloister can be visited; seasonal times, enquire at the town hall or at the tourist office of the Pays d'Issoire.

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

Ambient sound