For twelve centuries,
the village of Conques,
in the heart of
the Dourdou valley,
has protected
a fabulous treasure of goldsmithery.
Its principal
masterpiece
is the venerated
reliquary statue
of Saint Foy.
Each year,
Conques
receives
approximately
600,000 visitors.
l
The
Conques site was classified as a historical monument
in 1838 and remains registered with the Worldwide
Patrimony at UNESCO.
The
village, nestled in a wild gorge, with its narrow
lanes and old, timber-frame houses, follows a
hillside along the length of rue Charlemagne.
This was the street travelled by the pilgrims
on their way to the abbey at Conques. Built by
monks from the tenth to the XIIth centuries, the
church and cloisters stand among the most beautiful
triumphs of Roman art.
In the month of April, "Cinémas et
Moyen Age" proposes a selection of 20 films,
considered to be masterpieces of world cinema
in their treatment of mediaeval civilisation.
This event is the occasion for exchanges between
the public, historians and personalities of the
7th art.
Every summer, in the months of July and August,
Conques proposes to its visitors a series of concerts
in the Romanesque abbey. The festival program
consists of "The Light of the Romanesque":
selections of mediaeval music, but also a contemporary
repertory. The concerts benefit from the church
acoustics and are lit by the stained-glass windows
of Pierre Soulages.
The
History of Conques
A hermit called Dadon settled in Conques,
a place perfect for meditation, near the end
of the eighth century.
Twelve centuries later, the French Catholic
writer Daniel Rops, author of a "Life
of Jesus", described Conques as the "wonder
of Rouergue". "Few places are known
which speak more to the heart and spirit,"
he wrote. According to the legend, it was
the hermit Dadon who gave Conques
its name, from the Latin "concha"
("shell"), due to its rocky configuration.
Joined
by other monks, Dadon founded a
community according to
the code of Saint Benoît. The monastery
was ruined in the 16th century by Protestants:
it was partially burned, as
were others in Aveyron. The renaissance
of Conques is owed to Prosper Mérimée,
Inspector of Historic Monuments at the
end of the 19th century, who began its rehabilitation.
