Conques Travel Guide

 tomorino Says:

 mad4travel Says:  The relics of St. Foy were originally displayed in a shrine in the choir, encircled by a fine wrought-iron screen protecting it from thieves .The screen was made from the melted-down fetters of pilgrims who had been freed from captivity in Muslim-occupied Spain thanks to the... 

 mad4travel Says:  The Sainte-Foy abbey-church in Conques was a popular stop for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela, in what is now Spain. Its construction was begun on the foundations of a smaller earlier basilica, directed by the abbot Odolric (1031-1065) and completed around... 

 mad4travel Says:  This little fella peers out out at you with several of his friends from above the doorway of the church 

 mad4travel Says:  Theres not much else to say about Conques so I'll just put a few more piccies here for your viewing pleasure! 

 mad4travel Says:  The most famous thing about the church in Conques is the carvings above the door. The Pilgrims visiting would have been under no illusion as to the fate that would await them if they did not say their prayers and be good chrisitians.On one side you can see the angels and... 

 hquittner Says:  The little, very old town of Conques (pop. 400) sits in the northern tip of Aveyron barely in the Midi-Pyrenees, far from anywhere, waiting for the occasional tourist, although it has the greatest Romanesque exhibits in France, the equal of any in the world. It is a little... 

 hquittner Says:  Niches were created along the outer South wall of the nave where it was possible to put tombs and monuments. These have been despoiled over the centuries but the one that housed the tomb of Begon III is still identified for us. To the south of the church is the walled... 

 hquittner Says:  Build a better mouse trap and ... The quiet establishment of Conques can only grow. There was not even a place to stay in town back then, when we were there, but there are a few now and the idyllic location in Grand-Fabre (see Off the Beaten Path and Hotel Tips) where we... 

 hquittner Says:  The Treasure is one of the two museums that are part of your Conques visit. The major items are housed with Ste.-Foy and carefull preserved and exhibited. The major pieces date from about 1100 AD although parts of them may be from earlier times (or have apocryphal... 

 hquittner Says:  The famous miracle-working 10C reliquary-statue of the 12 year old saint sits in a special sealed glass chamber in subdued light at the end of a long museum room lined with other relics: the great treasures of Conques. (We are not good photographers and our pictures do not... 

 hquittner Says:  Most central areas of cloisters are green. Usually in an appropriate corner is a fountain or water fed basin for the monks' ablutions. A few cloisters substitute a central well. Some of these structures are quite elaborately done (as in Monreale,Sicily). The excavation of... 

 hquittner Says:  One gallery and a short segment of the cloister have been restored after a fashion merely to indicate the space it occupied and to replace a part of its courtyard and magnificent central pool. It had double arched bays, similar to the bays in the gallery of the church, plus... 

 hquittner Says:  Like all large churches, the church of Ste.-Foy was built in stages. It started at the choir-altar area and finished with the West front over the period 1031-1125. The rebirth of Western sculpture was occurring nearby at Moissac (under guidance from the church authorities... 

 hquittner Says:  The rest of the small village is simple and above on the slope is its old church and cemetery. This is an easy place to look at the type of schist stone roofing employed in the region. 

 hquittner Says:  We spent two nights at an Inn in Grand-Vabre (see Hotel Tip) just 3 km north of Conques on D901. It is used as a base to the Dourdou valley by boaters and fishermen and there are hiking trails and camping around this beautiful area. In the town near a memorial cross is a...