Église Saint-Menoux

Saint-Menoux

Built on the site of a Benedictine priory founded to receive pilgrims come to venerate the tomb of Saint Menou (Menulphus), an Irish bishop, this church combines a 10th-century narthex with a Cluniac Romanesque choir and then a nave rebuilt in Burgundian Gothic. The bell tower, once crowned by a stone spire destroyed during the Revolution, dominates the village, which took the saint's name (it was formerly Mailly). The building owes its fame above all to the "débredinoire", a Merovingian sarcophagus pierced with a hole through which pilgrims would put their heads to be cured of madness. It figures among the very first listed monuments in France, on the list of 1840 drawn up by Prosper Mérimée.

Getting there : Listed as a monument historique (historic monument) on the very first list of 1840 (at the instigation of Prosper Mérimée); parish church, free admission, in the centre of the village of Saint-Menoux.

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

Ambient sound