15: Visit to Puy-en-Velay

Let’s take a quick tour of the old town. You understand immediately that you must have faith to climb the steps of the beautiful Rue des Tables heading to the Cathedral.

Here, they respected the religiosity of the place, and they did not sell the street to the merchants, as in large tourist places. The shops, and they are few, are quartered at the bottom of the street, on a square. You can even buy here the equipment to start the Way to Santiago.

The building is of a huge complexity. In addition to the church are other buildings, including the cloister, the Chapel of Penitents and the Baptistery St John. Here, the visit of the church is free. It is a real obstacle course, a route marked for the visit. You cannot enter the nave of the church by the grand staircase, but above by additional corridors and stairs to reach the big nave.

The church has a Latin cross shape and includes a 6-bay nave with additional bays, numerous apses. You have to come here with an expert, because the structure is complex, especially since, as there was no more space on the rock, the architects built part of the church in the void, to support the new spans. The vaults support beautiful domes. It is in the background, near the altar, that the Black Madonna stands.

You’ll leave the church by a back door towards the Porch of the For. The porch, overlooking the square of the same name, above the roofs of the old town, dates from the late XIIth century. It is of Romanesque style, but with later additions. The first floor contains a XVth century chapel. Two doors open on this porch. The smallest is the papal door, is reserved for the pontiff, but used by fellow builders of cathedrals to enter the monument. The other, the big one, the one that stands out, is Romanesque.
The Congregation of the Apostolic Sisters of Saint John was founded in 1984 by a Dominican father. These nuns are, among other tasks, responsible for the spiritual animation of the cathedral, the reception of pilgrims. For the pleasure of the visitors, one of them makes tightrope on the place.
The bell tower, 56 m high, is an independent construction of the church. It comprises seven floors of the same design, but slightly offset. There are even tombs of bishops at the bottom of the bell tower.

The marked route avoids the body of the building, passes under the tower from where you can see the stacking of floors. Everything here is bathed in dark volcanic stones.

The route passes near the Baptistery of St John. This magnificent building was built at the end of the V-VI centuries, on ancient Roman sanctuary. There was much discussion and work among the experts to change the structures a little, the baptisteries often having similar structures in Europe. We know that during the XIth century, there were sculptures and paintings. Then, the monument was embellished and restored in the XXth century. This monument is quite exceptional, full of religiosity and fervor.

The cloister is next door. This magnificent cloister, one of the most beautiful cloisters in the world, dates from the XIIth century, in Romanesque style. It was restored by Viollet-le-Duc in the late XIXth century. Having not been able to visit it, we can only have recourse to the Internet to show you its beauty. Here volcanic stones burst in the middle of the white sandstone. Some would say that it’s like the mosque in Cordoba, Spain. But, this type of “Byzantine” architecture precedes that put in place by the Muslims. Paleochristian lovers of the time of Charlemagne will be able to visit the Palatine Chapel of Aix-la-Chapelle to be convinced.

Next door, at the Chapel of the Penitents, we found a closed door.

This is where the queue of tourists who climbs on Mount Anis begins to say hello to Notre-Dame-de France. In fact, Mount Anis, Rocher de Corneille, it’s a bit the same story. A Gallo-Roman temple was present here at the city of Anis, the former name of Puy-en-Velay, on the site of the cathedral. Up on the rock, in fact the rock Corneille, the Romans had built a veritable acropolis. The temple was dedicated to Diana and was to house the dolmen that later became the Pierre des Fièvres.

It was a Jesuit who had the idea to erect a statue of the Blessed Virgin at the top of the rock Corneille. Later, in 1853, a European competition was launched to choose the model of the statue and a subscription. More than 50 models were proposed and exhibited in the city. The jury decided on Jean-Marie Bonnassieux’s project.

The narrow and paved route climbs sharply along the rock. Quickly, beautiful perspectives open on the cathedral, which you see better now the complexity of the building, with its church, its dome, its cloister, its steeple and the annex buildings.

Along the steep climb of stairs, the small crosses of a stylized Via Crucis are riveted to the basalt of the rock.

It’s tougher here than on the Santiago Track. There are many tourists who take breaks while climbing. The city hall is 628 meters above sea level, the statue 737 meters. Yet turn cornering, the statue grows.

On its pedestal of red sandstone, as high as the statue, the statue itself measures 16 meters in height, for a weight of 110 tons. The head of the infant Jesus, with a circumference of 5 meters, weighs a ton anyway.

A stone staircase consisting of 33 steps is arranged in the pedestal and provides access to the interior of the hollow statue by a winding staircase. If you are not claustrophobic, go for it. But, it’s like climbing 5 floors, and sometimes it stuck! Fortunately, you have small skylights in the state to breathe and look at the landscape.

But whether you are at the top or bottom of the statue, the view of the city is the same, whether on the cathedral or the rock of Aiguilhe, which looks very tiny seen from here.

Back near the cloister, the signposted circuit starts again along the walls towards the rock of Aiguilhe. It passes in front of the gigantic complex of the Hotel of the Department, where one does not have to be cramped in the administrations.

Then, through narrow little streets, you reach the rock.

The chapel Saint Clair d’Aiguilhe is at the bottom of the volcanic peak on which stands the church of St Mchel d’Aiguilhe. The chapel, also commonly called Temple of Diana, was built in the XIIth century. It was to be part of the Hospital of the poor Saint-Nicolas d’Aiguilhe.

Here again, they are volcanic stones, mixed with arkose, sandstone, as for the cathedral. Slate roofs cover the roof. On the arches, the Byzantine influence is evident. The interior where harmony reigns is even more spiritual and beautiful than beautiful outside. In front of the chapel is the square of the Magic Square, with a fountain.

During repairs to the Saint-Michel chapel in the last century, a plaster square was found under the embrasure of a window, where two readable words, rotas and opera remained. These two words, may be you already knew them. They are part of a magic square, the Sator square. This square has been reproduced in the square near the chapel.

But that the resolution of this enigma does not prevent you from climbing on the rock of St Michel d’Aiguilhe. Here, you have to pay the entrance to suffer in the climb. At first, there is a beautiful 3D slide show and some didactic rooms, where you can see the tiny basalt rock that is today the rock compared to the volcano of departure.

You will not doubt the same vision of smallness by climbing on the flanks of the rock. The rock of Aiguilhe, it is 82 meters of height, by a staircase of 268 steps.

A first chapel was erected here in the Xth century. It is said that the pilgrims did not climb there, but many kings went up there. It is also said that hermits found refuge on the flanks of the rock. Then, a real chapel was built in the XIIth century, in front of the influx of pilgrims. Not being a parish, it was abandoned to the Revolution, its existence then threatened. It was saved from oblivion by Prosper Mérimée and others who entrusted the building to the state, giving it the status of a protected historical monument in 1840. Since then, several restorations were added in the chapel.

The climb is not dangerous, but for people suffering from vertigo, the journey is difficult as uphill as downhill.

Here again, it is more difficult than the Way of Compostela to get to the end of the rock.

At the top, there is a walk that goes around the building.

The facade of the chapel, carved, polychrome, is magnificent. The door is framed by two columns with capitals carved with acanthus leaves, surmounted by a tympanum and trefoil arches and mosaics. Here, too, one tends to believe oneself in a Muslim country, as everywhere in Le Puy, whereas this style, in fact, is earlier than that of the Muslims. In architecture, you never know who copy.

From there, the view is magnificent on the Rocher de Corneille, a little higher than the Rocher d’Aiguilhe. As you descend, you will discover the recent oratory dedicated to the Archangel Gabriel, where the Bishop of Le Puy erected the first oratory of San Gabriel in the XVth century.

The city of Puy-en-Velay has 20’000 inhabitants, the urban area comprising 75’000 inhabitants. The old town, wedged inside a large circular boulevard where the flow of traffic flows, is made of small cobbled streets, with many restaurants, many shops, whose jewel remains the lace. There are also some very busy places.