It’s an unforgettable sight: the teensy village of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges squeezed on an remoted promontory beneath a mightily-buttressed Gothic church. Earlier than Lourdes, this inland Mont-Saint-Michel was the non secular centre of the Pyrenees. Immediately it’s a super spot for a tranquil keep says Dana Facaros.
Salome woz right here
Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges in Haute-Garonne, southwest France, is formally one of many prettiest villages of France (Plus Beaux Villages). The traditional Celts referred to as it Lugdunum, the ‘Citadel of the Solar’ for its temple devoted to the solar god Lug. By 76 BC, the one tribes left within the space have been the Iberian Convenii, ‘robbers of souls’, hombres so powerful that even an amazing Roman basic like Pompey most well-liked to win them over by kindness; he declared them to be Romans and granted them the territory, henceforth referred to as Lugdunum Convenarum.
The Convenii turned out to be wonderful residents. Lugdunum thrived, and was vital sufficient to host the exiled Herod Antipater, spouse Herodias and her daughter Salome. Some six centuries later, in 1083, Bertrand de l’Isle-Jourdain, cousin of Depend Raymond IV of Toulouse (chief of the First Campaign) was appointed bishop of Convenarum, now referred to as Comminges and was canonized in 1175.
Within the late 1200s, Bertrand de Bought of Bordeaux (later Pope Clement V) rebuilt the cathedral of Sainte-Marie and inspired pilgrims to go to St Bertrand’s tomb. Immediately, the pilgrims are again, it’s a cease on the Piedmont Pyrenees Approach to Compostela and a World Heritage Website.
Plus a crocodile and a unicorn
Few cathedrals take pleasure in such an impressive setting. At night time, when it’s illuminated, it seems to drift like a golden ship over the mountains. Stroll up by way of the medieval gate and be aware the pagan tombstones from Lugdunum embedded within the tower.
The inside is filled with marvels, beginning no much less with the ‘Third Surprise of Gascony’ – a 3,000 pipe organ perched on columns, inaugurated in 1535. It nonetheless blasts out a wall of sound, particularly through the summer time music pageant. Reverse, an embalmed crocodile is bolted to the wall, seemingly slain by St Bertrand when it swam up the Garonne.
An opulent Renaissance rood display screen closes off the choir. You’ll have to fork out a couple of euros to see the remaining, but it surely’s value it.
Begin with the cloister. Constructed by St Bertrand, it sits on the sting of the promontory, with an open gallery overlooking the mountains. Among the many tombs is one belonging to a Canon Very important d’Ardengost (d.1334) of the pungent epitaph: ‘Right here lies a rose of the world, however now not a rose intact. She now not perfumes, however smells of what she ought to odor.’
Sculptors from Toulouse carved Sainte-Marie’s 66 magnificent choir stalls between 1523-51, whose Renaissance humanistic view of the universe consists of sibyls, prophets, Christian virtues, knights, imaginary beasts — and an abbot caning a naughty bare-bottomed monk.
St Bertrand is buried in his personal chapel, embellished with folksy Fifteenth-century work of his life. The final scene reveals Pope Clement V. Due to his significance, the painters made him the dimensions of the Jolly Inexperienced Big.
Upstairs, the Treasury’s beautiful hoard consists of the alicorne, a ‘unicorn’ (truly a narwhal) horn. Water filtered by way of it was thought-about a sure-fire antidote for poisoning. In 1594 a band of Huguenots beneath Corbeyran d’Aure stole it, however even Corbeyran feared the vengeance of St Bertrand, and he returned the horn in trade for amnesty.
Lastly within the nave don’t miss the tomb of Hugues de Châtillon, the rich 14th– century bishop whose superb alabaster effigy lies on a slab sculpted with 70 figures in a funerary procession.
An historic shopping center
Sainte Marie overlooks the excavated sections of the traditional Lugdunum Convenarum. Though the ruins are mainly foundations, it seems life on this city of 10,000 was fairly jammy 2000 years in the past. The discussion board temple (c. 15AD) is reverse the varsity, by the Thermes du Discussion board, constructed about the identical interval; you can also make out the cold and warm rooms (caldaria and frigidaria) and far of the plumbing. Roman bathing was a long-drawn-out social ritual, a spot to speak enterprise and politics.
Throughout the D26 stood the business coronary heart of Lugdunum: a once-covered shopping center or Macellum, from 15 AD with 26 boutiques paved with black and white mosaics. At over 500 sq. metres, it’s among the many largest coated markets ever found within the western Roman Empire. In direction of the automobile park, a raised round sanctuary marked the primary crossroads. The municipal baths, the Thermes du Nord advanced, included an early sauna.
South of the Macellum, Lugdunum’s Palaeochristian Basilica dates from the fifth century, making it one of many oldest in southern Gaul. It had a inexperienced, purple and white mosaic ground; it was used even after the Merovingians trashed the place in 585. Close by, Saint-Julian was rebuilt within the 12th century over the unique cemetery chapel. Little stays of the Roman theatre on the slope—it was simply too handy to quarry.
Into the Valley of Goats
Valcabrère’s title, ‘valley of goats’ comes from a trick pulled by the Vandals in 407 AD. Once they discovered Lugdunum too properly defended for his or her tastes, they gathered all of the goats they might discover and tied torches to their horns, and at night time drove them in direction of the town gate. Everybody rushed to keep off the assault, leaving the opposite gates undefended for the Vandals to waltz in and overturn the wagons, break the home windows and paint their names all around the partitions.
There’s one final must-see. Remoted in a discipline, the 12th-century Basilique de Saint-Simply is a loopy quilt of cannibalized Roman and Merovingian stones. The portal was impressed by the Roman fashions so close to at hand and it options an unusually pudgy Christ in Majesty and Evangelists clutching their emblems. Serenely elegant figures of Saints Stephen, Simply, Pasteur and Helen guard the door, beneath capitals exhibiting cartoonish scenes of their lives. If it’s open, stand close to the altar and sing a couple of notes: the acoustics are well-nigh good.
For more information: visit-occitanie.com/en
Dana Facaros has lived in France for over 30 years. She is the creator of French Meals Decoder app: all the things you wish to find out about French meals, and co-author of the Bradt information to Gascony & the Pyrenees and lots of information books to France.
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