Conques

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Conques
Coat of arms of Conques
Conques (France)
Conques
local community Conques-en-Rouergue
region Occitania
Department Aveyron
Arrondissement Rodez
Coordinates 44 ° 36 '  N , 2 ° 24'  E Coordinates: 44 ° 36 '  N , 2 ° 24'  E
Post Code 12320
Former INSEE code 12076
Incorporation January 1, 2016
status Commune déléguée

Conques

Conques ( Occitan Concas ) is a village and a former French commune with 250 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) in the Aveyron department in the Occitanie region . It belonged to the Arrondissement of Rodez and the canton of Lot et Dourdou .

With effect from 1 January 2016, the former municipalities were Conques , Noailhac , Saint-Cyprien-sur-Dourdou and Grand-Vabre to nouvelle commune named Conques-en-Rouergue merged and have in the new community the status of a Déléguée commune held . The administrative headquarters are in Conques.

The association Les plus beaux villages de France declared Conques one of the most beautiful villages in France .

The place is on the long-distance hiking trail GR 65 , which largely follows the historical course of the French Way of St. James " Via Podiensis ".

Geography and traffic

Conques is located in the southwestern area of ​​the Massif Central , on the banks of the Dourdou de Conques river, where the Ouche river flows into the Dourdou. The Dourdou is a left tributary of the Lot and flows into it at Grand-Vabre . The nearest major French cities are Lyon (231 km) in the northeast, Toulouse (134 km) in the southwest, Bordeaux (238 km) in the west and Montpellier (161 km) in the southeast.

The nearest commercial airport is Rodez-Marcillac , which is served by Air France and Ryanair , among others . It is located about 32 kilometers south-east of the road and can be reached via the départementale D 901, which intersects with the D 42 in Conques. The next train station is in Rodez .

history

West facade of the Sainte-Foy monastery church
Place name sign Conques-Concas

The origins of the Abbey of Conques go back to the hermit monk Dadon, who settled in the inaccessible side valley of the Lot on the steep slopes of the Ouche. Other monks gathered around him who led their community from 819 according to the Rule of St. Benedict . The Carolingian Ludwig the Pious placed the monastery under his special protection and gave it the name Conques (shell). Conques has had a collection of goldsmiths since the 8th century. The reliquary of St. Fides is the most famous.

Saint Fides, the daughter of a respected citizen of Agen , was sentenced to death in 303 at the age of 13 for refusing to worship the pagan gods. This made her one of the first French martyrs . The fact that it was a virgin martyr increased public veneration. Reports of the miraculous healing of a blind boy by Holy Fides soon began to spread. The reliquary from Agen to Conques was stolen from a reliquary around 880. It is thanks to the arrival of the miraculous relics in Conques and the discovery of the tomb of the apostle James in north-west Spain and the stream of pilgrims that began that Conques was able to continuously increase its importance. In the 11th to 13th centuries, Conques is an important stage on the way to Santiago de Compostela . In the 13th century, the abbey was at the height of its economic power, which was followed by slow decline in the 14th and 15th centuries until secularization marked the end of the abbey on December 22nd, 1424. The medieval town developed around the monastery and lived mainly with and from the monastery and the services for the pilgrims.

Although the Hundred Years' War and the French Revolution left their mark, the Premonstratensian canons, who have been resident since 1873, in cooperation with the French monument protection authorities, managed to preserve essential parts of the complex.

Way of St. James ( Via Podiensis )

General view of the Sainte-Foy monastery church
Pilgrim bridge

The Codex Calixtinus already recommended the pilgrims to St. James to choose the route via Conques and stop at the Sainte-Foy monastery. Today there are several pilgrim hostels, hotels and a campsite. The next larger town on the Camino de Santiago is Decazeville and just a few kilometers away is Livinhac-le-Haut in the Lot Valley. There the path leads through the Dourdou valley over the undulating plateau to the Lot valley. Between the wooded hills there are meadows and small hamlets. In addition to the possibility of following the GR 65 , there is also the slightly shorter, historical variant via Noailhac . However, it mainly leads along Départment streets. As a road connection there is the D 91, which leads along the Dourdou into the Lot Valley, from where you can follow the D 42 and D 627 to Livinhac-le-Haut. Alternatively there is the D232 and then the D606, which leads over the plateau to Livinhac-le-Haut.

Attractions

  • The Romanesque monastery church of Sainte-Foy and its small museum are among the highlights of the cultural history of southern France.
  • The pilgrim bridge over the Dourdou

The abbey and the bridge of the pilgrims are listed as part of the UNESCO World Heritage “ Camino de Santiago in France”.

Personalities

literature

  • Bettina Forst: French Way of St. James. Rother hiking guide, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7633-4350-8 .
  • Bert Teklenborg: Cycling along the Camino de Santiago. From the Rhine to the western end of Europe. Publishing House Tyrolia, Innsbruck 2007, ISBN 978-3-7022-2626-8 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Decree of the Prefecture No. 2015-323-01 of November 19, 2015, after which the Commune nouvelle Conques-en-Rouergue was formed. (PDF)
  2. ↑ Conques on Les plus Beaux Villages de France (French)
  3. ^ Community information on annuaire-mairie.fr (French); Retrieved January 21, 2010
Muszla Jakuba.svg
Way of St. James " Via Podiensis "

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