Vezelay

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Vezelay
Vézelay coat of arms
Vézelay (France)
Vezelay
region Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
Department Yonne
Arrondissement Avallon
Canton Joux-la-Ville
Community association Avallon, Vezelay, Morvan
Coordinates 47 ° 28 ′  N , 3 ° 45 ′  E Coordinates: 47 ° 28 ′  N , 3 ° 45 ′  E
height 170–339 m
surface 21.83 km 2
Residents 428 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 20 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 89450
INSEE code 89446
Website Vezelay

View of Vézelay

Template: Infobox municipality in France / maintenance / different coat of arms in Wikidata

Vezelay is a place and a French municipality (commune) with 428 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in the Yonne department in the region of Bourgogne Franche-Comté . Vézelay is a place of pilgrimage known far beyond France and one of the starting points of the Way of St. James ( Via Lemovicensis ) ; the place is classified as one of the most beautiful villages in France (Plus beaux villages de France) .

Location and climate

The well-known place of pilgrimage is located on a hill in the north-western tip of the Morvan on the river Cure at an altitude of about 180 to 250  m . Auxerre, the capital of the department , is just 51 km to the north-west; the small town of Avallon is approx. 16 km (driving distance) to the east. The climate is temperate to warm; Rain (approx. 735 mm / year) falls over the year.

Population development

year 1800 1851 1901 1954 1999 2014
Residents 1.406 1,308 798 562 492 435

The population decline since the middle of the 19th century is mainly due to the loss of jobs as a result of the mechanization of agriculture and the abandonment of small farms.

economy

For centuries, the residents of the village lived self-sufficient on the produce of their fields and gardens. There were no markets or grocery stores; some women did little street trafficking. In the Middle Ages, pilgrimage tourism poured income into the town's coffers.

history

The over a thousand-year history of the place began in 858/859 with the foundation of a Benedictine abbey by Gerhard (Girard) II, Count of Vienne , in a valley below today's town (today Saint-Père sous Vézelay ). The monastery, initially a women's monastery, was built in honor of Christ and the Virgin Mary in accordance with the founding charter , and the apostles Peter and Paul were added as patron saints at an early stage . Equipped with royal and papal privileges and given relics of Saints Pontianus and Andeolus by Pope Nicholas I , it was converted into a male monastery in the following years. Under the direction of Abbot Odo (Eudes), who had come from Autun , it was surrounded by a wall and, after being plundered by the Normans (887), relocated to the neighboring hill, today's location, for better defense. The incorporation into the reform association of Cluny (ordo cluniacensis) , which had already been initiated by Count Landry von Nevers , was approved in 1058 by Pope Stephen IX. approved. Vézelay was subordinate to Cluny, but retained its status as an abbey. Only Abbot Wilhelm von Mello (elected in 1161) restored independence from Cluny.

An important place of pilgrimage and starting point of the route of the Pilgrim's Way to Santiago de Compostela Vézelay was its patron Mary Magdalene . Relics of the saints have probably been in Vézelay since the late 9th century. The promotion of their cult from Cluny led to Vézelay under Abbot Gottfried (Geoffroi, 1037–1051) accepting the saint under his patron saint, in this form for the first time through a privilege of Pope Leo IX. occupied ( Epist. 36, PL 143,642). During this time, a first version of the miracle collection was created on the miraculous effect of the relics of the saints, and a little later also and in addition to competing information, official local tradition about the translation of these relics to Vézelay: according to this, Mary Magdalene was together with other saints before the persecution of the Jews fled Judea and after their death, first buried in southern France, in Marseille or, according to the more widespread version, in Aix-en-Provence , but their bones were at the time of Abbot Odo transferred to Vézelay.

In the 12th century Vézelay was the undisputed center of the Magdalen cult. It owed this development not only to an economic upswing that has not been achieved since, but also to its temporary presence in European political life. Here Bernhard von Clairvaux called for the second crusade in 1146 , here in 1190 at the beginning of the third crusade the French King Philip II and Richard the Lionheart met to set out for the Holy Land, in 1166 Thomas Becket , who was exiled as Archbishop of Canterbury , spoke here Banishing curse on his King Heinrich II .

However, Vézelay lost this position again in the 13th century when Charles II of Anjou , at that time still Count of Provence and in the absence of his father, regent of the Kingdom of Naples, had extensive research on the tradition of the Magdalen relics carried out in 1279/80 in a sarcophagus in a chapel of the Provencal Abbey of Saint-Maximin supposedly the real bones of the saints, whose authenticity is guaranteed by an enclosed but no longer preserved document, were discovered. The discovery led to a heated controversy between the two abbeys, which was decided in 1295 by Boniface VIII in favor of Saint-Maximin.

The abbots of Vezelay had the abbey in the 11th century against the rights and revenues arising therefrom bishops of Autun must defend, and especially against the Count of Nevers, of which the latter, the rights claimed over the abbey and at times by a bailiff whose were able to secure secular jurisdiction. When the citizens of Vézelay rebelled in 1104 because the abbey had imposed on them the obligation of free accommodation for pilgrims, the counts sided with the citizenry and in the following decades repeatedly gave them arms aid, while the abbey on their part demanded the protection of the French king. In the conflict with the abbey, the citizens founded a commune with elected consuls (1152), but this was repealed by the king in 1155, and after 1166 they obtained chartered liberties (Libertas Vizeliacensis), which also became a model for Avallon and other places in the area . The royal power, for its part, took advantage of the situation to expand its supremacy at the expense of the abbey and its opponents, forced Ludwig II of Nevers to formally renounce his property rights and, after 1360, made Vézelay the seat of fiscal administration for all those under royal sovereignty Territories in the territory of the Diocese of Autun.

Facade of the Sainte-Marie-Madeleine basilica
The 14th century Porte Neuve is part of the defensive wall around Vézelay

In 1569, the Magdalen relics were lost in the course of the Protestant iconoclasm . During the French Revolution , all the figurative decorations on the facade of the basilica were also destroyed. It was not until the years 1870/76 that its importance for the Magdalen cult was revived: New relics of the saints were installed, and since then the pilgrims have flocked to Vézelay again. The monastery is now the seat of a mixed order, the Fraternité de Jerusalem .

The restoration of the dilapidated abbey, which was threatened by demolition in the early 19th century, began in 1840 under the direction of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc , and initiated a whole series of further restorations of historic churches, castles and fortifications and thus marked the beginning of today's monument preservation .

Attractions

  • Sainte-Marie-Madeleine : Romanesque basilica of Burgundy built in the 12th century, UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979
  • The Porte Neuve , a well-preserved city gate with a massive tower from the late Middle Ages, served as the backdrop for the successful French film comedy La grande vadrouille (“The Big Sause”) in 1966 .
  • The Chapelle la Cordelle , formerly known as Chapelle Sainte-Croix , was built by Bernhard von Clairvaux shortly after his crusade sermon in 1146 . The chapel is at the foot of the hill on which Vézelay lies, in the direction of Asquins . From 1217 Franciscans ( called Cordeliers in France ) settled in Vézelay. These received the Chapelle Sainte-Croix and expanded them to the monastery La Cordelle . In the course of the transformation of church property into national property during the French Revolution , the Franciscans' claim to La Cordelle ended in 1791 . The property was partially destroyed and then sold by the state. It was privately owned for over a century. Since 1949 the Chapelle la Cordelle has belonged to the Franciscans again.

  • Gate

  • Choir apse

  • Paradise with an entrance situation

  • inside view

  • Capital on the aisle, 2nd half of the 12th century

  • Capital on the narthex around 1140

Personalities

literature

  • Alain Erlande-Brandenburg : Vézelay. Gisserot 2002. ISBN 2-87747-619-7 .
  • Anke Krüger: South French local saint between church, dynasty and city from the 5th to the 16th century. Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2002 (= contributions to hagiography, 2), ISBN 3-515-07789-8 .
  • Jean Richard: Vézelay. In: Lexikon des Mittelalters , Vol. VIII, Sp. 1609–1610.
  • Victor Saxer: Maria Magdalena. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages. Vol. VI, Col. 282-284.

Web links

Commons : Vézelay  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vézelay. In: Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. Retrieved November 30, 2012 (French).
  2. ↑ Vézelay - climate tables