Vézelay, Church and Hill
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How it came to be
A Benedictine abbey was founded on the hill of Vézelay in Burgundy in the 9th century. In the mid-11th century it came to be believed that the church held relics of Mary Magdalene, and pilgrims flocked to it. The 12th-century town had 8,000 to 10,000 inhabitants.
The nave was built between 1120 and 1140, and the church is counted a masterpiece of Burgundian Romanesque art. Its tympanum shows the Mission of the Apostles, a subject unique in Romanesque art. In 1146 Bernard of Clairvaux preached the Second Crusade here before King Louis VII and Queen Eleanor.
Most of the abbey was lost in the Revolution, and only the church survived. It was placed on France's first list of historic monuments in 1840, and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc led its restoration, rebuilding part of the vaults. Vézelay was inscribed in 1979.
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