gate, Tournus, Burgundy, France

on the way down to Italy i stopped in the riverside town of Tournus, a delightful town on the river Saône , tucked away in the south-east corner of Burgundy, the town has a wealth of old buildings, alleyways, antique shops, cafes and restaurants but it is famous for the abbey of Saint Philibert, a fortress-like Romanesque church with many interesting features

in Roman times, Tournus was a small fortified town built alongside the river, in the 2nd century st. Valerian from Lyon arrived in the town to convert the locals, he was moderately successful before being executed by the Romans around 179 CE - his tomb became a secret place of pilgrimage for early Christians

in the 4th century an oratory was built over the tomb and a small monastery dedicated to saint Valerian was founded on the site in the 6th century - this and other early buildings were badly damaged in Arab raids in 731 and partially rebuilt afterwards

in 875, King Charles the Bald offered the abbey to homeless monks from Noirmoutier, whose monastery had been captured by the Normans, their  monastery had been founded by saint  Philibert (616-85), whose relics the monks carried with them; this led to an unusual situation in which the abbey was shared by two monastic communities, each dedicated to their own saint

the church that stands there today dates mainly from the 11th century with a 10th-century crypt, it boasts an impressively tall nave with an unusual vault, dating from 1068, carved capitals, an important Romanesque statue of the Virgin and Child, and newly-discovered 12th-century floor mosaics depicting the zodiac

the chapter house was rebuilt after a fire in 1245 and the Late Middle Ages saw the addition of several chapels by wealthy sponsors

at the dawn of the Renaissance, the abbey began a sharp decline in fortunes, in 1498, the abbey became in commendam, in August 1562, Huguenots badly damaged and pillaged the abbey, in 1627, the abbey was suppressed and a college of canons replaced the monks and a secular abbot replaced the former monastic one, during the French Revolution, the abbot was expelled and the church was made a secular building dedicated to the "Constitutional Cult"

the abbey church was reconsecrated in 1802, becoming the mother church of the parish of Tournus, in 1841, it was declared a historic monument and restorations began - these renovations were, as usual for this period, a bit over-creative so more accurate restorations of the original Romanesque appearance took place in the 20th century