Conques
The Vía Podiensis
Conques is the emotional high point of the Via Podiensis. This tiny medieval village clings to a steep hillside above the Ouche river, its grey schist houses topped with heavy lauze stone roofs that catch the light and change color through the day. At its heart stands one of the great Romanesque churches of Europe.
The Abbatiale Sainte-Foy dominates everything. The tympanum above the west door depicts the Last Judgment in extraordinary detail: Christ sits in judgment, the blessed process calmly to their reward on the left, while the damned are dragged into a chaotic hell on the right. Spend time with it. The carving is vivid, violent, and blackly humorous in places. It was meant to terrify medieval pilgrims into good behavior, and it still has power.
Inside, the church is vast for such a small village, a three-aisled basilica with a barrel vault, ambulatory, and radiating chapels designed to handle crowds of pilgrims. The modern stained glass windows by Pierre Soulages, installed between 1987 and 1994, are a controversial addition: translucent panels that filter the light without color, creating an austere glow that divides opinion. Some find them revelatory, others mourn the loss of traditional glass. Form your own view.
The Treasury houses the Reliquary of Sainte Foy, a 9th-century gold and jewel-encrusted statue that is one of the oldest surviving reliquary statues in Europe. The saint herself was a young girl martyred in the 3rd century whose relics were famously stolen from Agen by monks from Conques in 866. The theft made the village's fortune.
The village streets are narrow and steep, cobbled in local schist. As the local saying goes, "In Conques, you enter through the attic and leave through the cellar." There are gites, hotels, restaurants, and a couple of shops. Book ahead in summer. The village is small and popular, and accommodation fills quickly.
Give yourself at least a full evening here, preferably a morning as well. Walk the streets after the day-trippers leave. The village is different at dusk and dawn, when the stone turns gold and the only sound is the river below.
The village is car-free in the center. Accommodation is limited, so book ahead in the May-September walking season. The descent into Conques from the north is steep and can be slippery when wet. Take care on the schist cobbles in the village itself.
The Fete de Sainte Foy is celebrated on October 6. A lumiere show illuminates the tympanum on summer evenings, bringing the carved figures to life with projected color. The Conques festival of European music takes place in summer with concerts in the abbey.
Conques became a major pilgrimage center after the audacious theft of the relics of Sainte Foy from Agen in 866. A monk named Ariviscus spent ten years embedded in the Agen monastery before making off with the bones. The relics attracted pilgrims by the thousands, and the abbey grew wealthy from their donations.
The current church was built between 1041 and 1107 to accommodate the pilgrim traffic and is one of the finest surviving examples of the Romanesque "pilgrimage church" plan. Its layout, with ambulatory and radiating chapels allowing pilgrims to circulate around the relics without disrupting services, is directly related to Santiago de Compostela and the other great pilgrimage churches of the era.
The village declined after the medieval period and was nearly abandoned. It was rediscovered by the writer Prosper Merimee in the 19th century, who campaigned for its preservation. The restoration work has been ongoing ever since, and Conques was among the first villages classified as Plus Beaux Villages de France.
From Conques the path crosses the Dourdou river and climbs steeply out of the valley on the other side. The ascent is significant, gaining about 350 m in the first 3 km. You're heading south toward the industrial town of Decazeville and then Figeac. The character of the landscape changes: you're leaving the deep valleys of the Rouergue and entering the rolling causse country of the Lot.
Accommodation in Conques.
| Accueil Abbaye de Sainte-Foy 12€ 45 |
| Chambre d'hôtes L'Alcôve |
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