Abbaye et abbatiale Saint-Robert de La Chaise-Dieu

La Chaise-Dieu

In 1043, Robert de Turlande, a canon of Brioude, withdrew into a cold, deserted forest of the Livradois to found the Casa Dei, the "house of God": by his death in 1068, the abbey already numbered some 300 monks. One of his former pupils, Pierre Roger de Beaufort, who became pope as Clement VI in 1342, decided to rebuild the church of his youth on a grander scale and to place his tomb there, completed in the mid-14th century. The abbey church houses this papal effigy, 144 oak stalls and, above all, one of the most famous Danses Macabres in Europe: over 26 metres, a 15th-century fresco alternates the dead and the living — the powerful, townsfolk and common people, all equal before death. This painting was born in a region ravaged by plague and the Hundred Years' War, and it reads more like a painted sermon than an ornament. A few steps from the church, the Salle de l'Écho is the place that feeds the most stories: a person whispering into one corner is heard very distinctly by another standing in the opposite corner, while the rest of the room hears nothing. Tradition holds that lepers were confessed there, priest and penitent keeping their distance from one another; historians today regard this explanation as a late legend, and the room's original purpose remains unknown. Nor does anyone know whether the acoustics result from architectural calculation or from pure chance of vaulting, which keeps the mystery alive. La Chaise-Dieu thus offers, in a single place, death in paint, a pope's tomb and a room where the voice travels without anyone knowing why.

Abbatiale Saint-Robert de La Chaise-Dieu — Wikipédia ↗

Getting there : The village lies in the Livradois-Forez, between Le Puy-en-Velay and Ambert. The abbey church is visited from the place de l'Écho; only the paid tour of the abbey (about €12) gives access to the Salle de l'Écho, open from April to early November. The La Chaise-Dieu music festival occupies the abbey church at the end of August. Coordinates given for the abbey enclosure, accurate to within about fifty metres.

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

Ambient sound