The Rise and Fall of a Burgundy Hill Town
The Owl
Vol. 2,
Issue 31
August 7, 2008
Baltimore,
Maryland
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Dear Inquiring Traveler,
Today The Owl takes you to Burgundy in France to visit a hillside village close to vines and farmland. Home to several religious communities, an art museum, and acting as a muse to many French writers, it has attracted visitors for over a millenium, and inspired thousands to undertake their own versions of the Grand Tour.
The village has been drawing tourists since the ninth century—though the reasons for their visits have differed through the ages. And Vézelay has not always been as peaceful or uncontroversial as it appears today.
Read on to find out how some bones started all of this.Regards,
Editor,
The Owl
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P.S. By now it should be no surprise to you how much we love the Grand Tour here at The Owl ... the idea of traveling to Europe to complete one's education while having a whole lot of fun doing so! Not missing a beat we romantics at The Owl have carefully crafted an Essential Grand Tour that will take you to the places every serious Grand Tourist would have journeyed to—none other than the great cities of Paris, Rome, Florence, and Venice. Should you share in our fascination for Europe's treasured destinations, we are delighted to offer you an early bird discount if you book by September 30th. So don't lose a minute and check out all the details of this exciting travel adventure! |
The Rise and Fall of a Burgundy Hill Town (part 1)
by Madeleine Zhang
Young gentlemen taking their time to travel to Switzerland from Paris before their final destinations of Italy or Greece could have stopped in the medieval village of Vézelay, 140 miles south east of Paris. After a few days’ rough travel by horse and coach on Roman roads and mud tracks, they would have been rewarded with the stunning views of emerald rolling hills and valleys from the top of the hill and the certainty of some rest and tranquil meditation before they continued on their long journey.
You can enjoy almost the same views today—little has changed in the region over the past millennium, apart from the main landmark atop the hill. This is the Mary-Magdalene Basilica, a site that has had more than its fair share of ups and downs.
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From small beginnings…
Originally built as a Benedictine abbey in the mid-ninth century lower down in the village, it had an inauspicious start when marauding Normans attacked and destroyed it. Abbot Geoffrey decided to relocate, and had it rebuilt in its present more strategic position dominating the region at the top of the hill.
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Relic crazy
The mania for bones, hair and nails swept through Christian Europe, each bishop wishing to create his own pilgrim attraction to gain more importance, prestige—and funds—for his diocese. More than 1,000 miles away from Santiago, the abbot of Vézelay’s own ambitious dreams came true when, in around 882, a monk called Baudillon brought back relics of Mary Magdalene from the south of France. Mary Magdalene was said to have fled the Holy Land in a rudderless boat, landed miraculously in the Camargue near Arles, converted the locals, and believed to have died in what we now call St. Maximin.
By 1058 the Pope of the day had confirmed the relics’ authenticity and thus the abbey’s reputation was assured. By the end of the 11th century growing numbers of pilgrims were crowding the abbey to see the tomb of the saint. "All France," wrote the abbey’s most famous monk, Hugh of Poitiers, "seems to go to the solemnities of the Magdalen."
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Blood in the basilica
Pilgrimages were big business (as Paul Lewis has pointed out in a previous issue), not only for the church, but also for local taverns and hostelries, as not all pilgrims could be fed by the abbeys. To give you an idea of the numbers involved, the collegiate church of Roncesvalles in Navarre was trying to feed up to 100,000 visitors a year at the end of the 12th century. Vézelay’s size and sphere of influence spread along with its newfound prestige and in 1096 Abbot Artaud decided that the abbey needed a new basilica.
The townsfolk and peasants were not as thrilled with this development as you might think, however. Even less so when they were asked to pay for the construction through crippling taxes—they rose up and murdered the abbot. The basilica was also ill-fated and the original nave was entirely destroyed by fire in 1120.
The next abbot, a certain Renaud de Semur was made of tougher stuff and set about re-establishing the abbey, building another basilica, and adding an abbey chateau (he later went on to become Archbishop of Lyon). Although the new Romanesque narthex has not survived and the choir burnt down, we can see today the first major Gothic choir that was designed to replace it.
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From Darkness to Light The basilica in Vézelay is a rare example of Romanesque architecture combined with Gothic. The nave and the narthex are typical of the Romanesque style in that the geometric forms of circles and triangles predominate, there are solid walls and relatively plain columns supporting the simplest type of vaults—that is, barrel vaults, like tunnels, bearing the weight of 40 tons of stone. Natural light is used sparingly, drawing the faithful toward the choir, yet the windows are larger and higher than those in any other church of the period. And the choir is startlingly different to anything seen before its construction—a later addition seemingly made of light and stone, with its elegant ribbed vaults and split arches soaring up. The choir is one of the first examples of Gothic architecture—completed before the basilica in St. Denis or the cathedral of Sens, and a total departure from the solid earthy style of Romanesque constructions. Here the light lifts you as you draw near and you cannot help but feel wonder—if nothing else at the sheer skill of those early builders who managed this feat of engineering hundreds of years ago. The decoration of the columns, the typanum are worth your attention as well as the magnificent structure. If you are in this corner of France you should visit Vézelay for all this, not just the relics in the crypt that inspired its story. |
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The Owl
Turns One! The Owl celebrates its first birthday! We journeyed to a number of fabulous countries together during the last 12 months, from Italy to France, Great Britain, Greece, Turkey, and even China. We traveled in the riveting company of Lord Byron, Claude Monet and Antonio Canaletto, to mention just a few. Join in the celebration! Select a photo of a birthday party or of a festivity of any kind that you participated in in Europe, add a short commentary to let us know where it was taken, and e-mail it in jpeg format to: theowl@agorapublishinggroup.com. Should you win the contest, we’ll publish your photo in The Owl, offer you a free subscription to our travel magazine, International Living, for two years, and send a complimentary copy of our anthology of the masterpieces of ancient literature, The Essential Classics. Photos are accepted until the end of August. The winner will be selected in September. Terms and conditions
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