Church bells and morning fog, with view of Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy in Conques, France
From Wikipedia:
Conques a village in the Aveyron department in the Occitania region of Southern France. Its name originates from Occitan conca ‘basin’, which is derived from Latin concha ‘shell’. It is built on a valley hillside and has classic narrow medieval streets. The town was largely passed by in the 19th century. As a result, the historic core of the town has very little construction from 1800-1950, leaving the medieval structures remarkably intact. It is one of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (most beautiful villages of France).
The Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy in Conques, France, was a popular stop for pilgrims traveling the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostela, in what is now Spain. The main draw for medieval pilgrims at Conques were the remains of Sainte-Foy (Saint Faith in English & Santa Fe in Spanish), a young woman martyred during the fourth century. The relics of Sainte-Foy arrived in Conques through theft in 866. After unsuccessful attempts to acquire relics of other saints, abbey authorities set their sights on the relics of Sainte-Foy at the ancient St. Faith’s Church, Sélestat. A monk from Conques posed as a loyal monk in Agen for nearly a decade in order to get close enough to the relics to steal them.
The Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy, with Romanesque architecture, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1998, as part of the World Heritage Sites of the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France.
The original monastery building at Conques was an eighth-century oratory built by monks fleeing the Saracens in Spain. The original chapel was destroyed in the eleventh century in order to facilitate the creation of a much larger church as the arrival of the relics of Sainte-Foy caused the pilgrimage route to shift from Agen to Conques. Further construction, early in the twelfth-century, was inspired by the churches of Toulouse and Santiago de Compostela.
There is little exterior ornamentation on Conques except necessary buttresses and cornices. The exception to this is the Last Judgment tympanum located above the western entrance. Images of doom were used to remind pilgrims of the purpose of their pilgrimage. The tympanum depicts Christ in Majesty presiding over the judgment of the souls of the deceased. The cross behind Christ indicates he is both Judge and Savior. Archangel Michael and a demon weigh the souls of the deceased on a scale. The righteous go to Christ’s right while the damned go to Christ’s left where they are eaten by a Leviathan and excreted into Hell. The tortures of Hell are vividly depicted including poachers being roasted by the very rabbit they poached from the monastery. The tympanum also provides an example of cloister wit. A bishop who governed the area of Conques but was not well liked by the monks of Conques is depicted as being caught in one of the nets of Hell. The Virgin Mary, St. Peter and the pilgrim St. James stand on Christ’s left. A pudgy abbot leads a king, possibly Charlemagne, into heaven. Sainte-Foy is shown on the lower left kneeling in prayer and being touched by the outstretched hand of God. Particularly interesting are carvings of the “curieux” (the curious ones), forerunners of the World War II-era cartoon image known as Kilroy, who peek over the edges of the tympanum. The tympanum was inspired by illuminated manuscripts and would have been fully colored; small traces of the color survive today.
Conques is the home of many spectacular treasures. One of which is the famous ‘A’ of Charlemagne. The legend is that Charlemagne had twenty-four golden letters created to give to the monasteries in his kingdom. Conques received his ‘A’, indicating that it was his favorite. This is only legend; while the ‘A’ exists, it dates to c. 1100, and no other pieces of Charlemagne’s alphabet have ever been found. Conques is also home to an arm of St. George the Dragon Slayer. It is claimed that the arm at Conques is the arm with which he actually slew the dragon.
The golden statue reliquary of Sainte-Foy dominated the treasury of Conques. The reliquary statue itself was of a twelve-year-old girl who was beheaded for staying loyal to her faith and beliefs. During the Roman persecution of Christians in the fourth century, Foy refused to surrender her devotion to Christianity, even under torture and threats. Her strong will ultimately was burned as she was tortured to death with a hot brazier, a pan made for coal.
Catching a glimpse of the reliquary was the main goal of the pilgrims who came to Conques. The head of the reliquary contains a piece of skull which has been authenticated. The reliquary is a fifth-century Roman head, possibly the head of an emperor, mounted on a wooden core covered with gold plating. The relics themselves were stolen from the nearby town of Agen by the monks of Conques in what was commonly called a furtum sacrum, or holy robbery.