Tournus The Abbey of Saint-Philibert

In 875 monks from the island of Noirmoutier, who had fled the Vikings with the relics of Saint Philibert, settled at Tournus on the Saône after years on the move. Their abbey church, built between the tenth and twelfth centuries, is one of the oldest large Romanesque churches in France.

Its nave is covered by a row of transverse barrel vaults, an eleventh-century solution that leaves room for windows high in the walls. The narthex at the west end has two stories.

The church stands on the tomb of Saint Valerian, the evangelist of Tournus, martyred at the end of the second century, and the crypt under the choir was built over it. Charles the Bald gave the church to the monks of Saint Philibert, and Pope John VIII approved the foundation in 877. Our Lady is the first patron of the abbey and Saint Philibert the second. Philibert, born in Gascony, founded Jumièges in 654 and later Noirmoutier, where he died on August 20, 685, the day of his feast. His reliquary in the choir and the processional cross were made by the Georgian goldsmith Goudji for the Holy Year 2000. The monastery became a college of secular canons in 1627. Since the Concordat the church has served the parish, today the parish of Saint-Philibert en Tournugeois, and it is closed to sightseeing during services, notably on Sunday mornings.

In a wall niche on the south side of the nave stands Notre-Dame la Brune, a twelfth-century reliquary statue of cedar wood, partly regilded in the nineteenth century, in which the Virgin presents a Child with an adult face. Twelfth-century mosaics in the floor of the ambulatory show the signs of the zodiac and the months of the year. The windows of the nave, ambulatory and apse are abstract designs by Brigitte Simon from the 1960s. The nineteenth-century glass, with scenes from the life of Saint Valerian, was destroyed when the bridge was blown up in September 1944.

• The naveIts transverse barrel vaults on tall round pillars.
• The cryptAmong the oldest parts of the abbey.
• Notre-Dame la BruneTwelfth-century reliquary statue of the Virgin, in a niche on the south side of the nave.
• The chapel of Saint MichaelThe upper room above the narthex.
• The ambulatory mosaicsTwelfth-century floor mosaics of the zodiac and the months of the year.

• Via RomanicaThe Romanesque Way, seven daysDay II, Autun and Tournus

About half an hour by road from Cluny.

• ClunyThe Abbey of Cluny, about 15 miles as the crow flies
• Berzé-la-VilleThe Monks’ Chapel, about 17 miles as the crow flies
• Paray-le-MonialThe Shrine of the Sacred Heart, about 38 miles as the crow flies
• AutunThe Cathedral of Saint-Lazare, about 39 miles as the crow flies