Lavaudieu
| Lavaudieu | ||
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| region | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | |
| Department | Haute Loire | |
| Arrondissement | Brioude | |
| Canton | Brioude | |
| Community association | Brioude Sud Auvergne | |
| Coordinates | 45 ° 16 ' N , 3 ° 27' E | |
| height | 438-727 m | |
| surface | 17.54 km 2 | |
| Residents | 243 (January 1, 2017) | |
| Population density | 14 inhabitants / km 2 | |
| Post Code | 43100 | |
| INSEE code | 43117 | |
 The Senouire at Lavaudieu |
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The French community Lavaudieu is located in the department of Haute-Loire in the region Auvergne Rhône-Alpes about eight kilometers southeast of Brioude . The village has 243 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2017) and was awarded the title L'un des plus beaux villages en France because of its medieval character .
Place name
The village existed from 909 to 1487 under the name Comps . Then it was renamed Lavaudieu , which is derived from “Valley of God” and is probably due to the monastery located here.
geography
Lavaudieu lies on the edge of the Senouire valley , a tributary of the Allier . The south-eastern edge of the settlement, which is mainly occupied by the abbey buildings, lies directly on the edge of the steeply sloping valley slope.
The responsible prefecture Le Puy-en-Velay is just under 60 kilometers to the southwest. The municipality is associated with the Livradois-Forez Regional Nature Park .
Attractions
Saint-André nuns' abbey
Founded in the 11th century for nuns, the former Saint -André priory of Comps (later by Lavaudieu ) was named an abbey in 1718 . As the only Romanesque abbey in the Auvergne, it was largely spared from the devastation of the French Revolution (1789 and after). The east wing of the abbey is, however, only partially preserved. The rustic-looking cloister with its wooden beamed ceilings and the wooden galleries on the second floor is known for its simple archaic capital sculpture . The wall paintings of the 14th century Italian school in the church, which were uncovered between 1965 and 1980, are significant. The fresco on the east wall of the so-called refectory , the largest contiguous in the Auvergne, has the highest art-historical status. Due to special peculiarities in the stylization of painting, which are known from the 13th century, the origin is assigned to this.
Choir head abbey church, behind defensive walls
Central nave abbey church
Cloister of the abbey
Refectory with fresco
For more details, see the separate article Abbey of Saint-André Lavaudieu .
Remains of the former fortifications
In the Middle Ages, the village was a castrum , a fortified village that was enclosed by a mighty defensive wall, of which considerable remains have been preserved, especially on the southeastern side of the village facing the Senouire . The “main street” of the settlement led through fortified portals that were safely equipped with portcullis . Le Portail Bas (The Lower Portal) was removed in 1953 and reconstructed in 2000.
On the southeast side of the castrum , the highest parts of the defensive walls reach down to the valley floor, where - even today - they protect the steep valley slope and the buildings of the abbey from falling and prevent them from being undermined in the event of flooding of the river.
This defensive wall, which still appears huge and high today, is in the section opposite the eastern gable of the refectory, a considerable bit higher and almost reaches the height of the eaves of the cloister east gallery. The lower half of this higher part of the wall is reinforced with three strong buttresses, while rectangular window openings have been left in the heavily overgrown upper half. This tall structure is very reminiscent of the outer wall of a former donjon . In the area between the defensive wall and the former east wing of the abbey, one encounters foundation walls and cellars of various angled rooms, some of which still tower high. These considerable remains are reminiscent of a small chateau in contact with the nearby abbey. In the Middle Ages there was certainly a need for the abbey residents and their servants to be able to retreat to the protection of a donjon in the event of warlike sieges and to be close to their place of worship.
Defensive walls, fortifications
Le Portail Bas
Abbey garden behind the defensive wall
Defense walls in the valley floor
Defensive walls in the valley floor, perhaps the remains of a donjon
Defensive walls in front of the refectory
Defensive wall south of the abbey
Door in the defensive wall
Behind the defensive wall on the right, a staircase leads to the village square
Locality
The development has two different types of construction. The older one consists of the closed, mostly two-storey building that developed within the former defensive walls around the abbey buildings, the oldest of which date back to the Middle Ages. Since almost every family worked in agriculture, there was no space for gardens or fields. The cultivated fields were outside the defensive wall. The facades facing the streets and alleys were made of local quarry stone.
In the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, a free-standing, slightly loosened, mostly two-storey building was added to the south and west. On the street side was the residential building, to which the utility buildings were connected at an angle. There were also agricultural gardens and fields here.
Both construction methods are still preserved today and are subject to monument protection requirements. However, the old buildings and alleys were still in neglect at the end of the 1980s. At every property there was still the "dung heap" (dung site), which was obligatory in the first half of the century, on the street, and small cattle such as chickens, geese and goats roamed freely in the village streets. The cows were driven to the meadows of the valley. At that time in Lavaudieu you could even watch carts of oxen at work. All these incidents, reminiscent of an open-air museum at the time, have now disappeared from the scene.
In the southeast of the abbey there is a spacious village square, from which the “main streets” of the village branch off. On it still stands the former public village well, the frame for shoeing horses, oxen and cows, a mission cross from 1779, and the bakery, all of which have been preserved today. The size of the village square suggests that weekly markets are held.
Village scenes
Village square, building adjacent to the abbey
Dorfstrasse in the center
Dorfgasse with defense tower
old wooden door
well-kept garden, residential tower
Bell at a shop
Old walls, beams and balcony
Typical balcony
Rural museum
In the former building of the village bakery, the Musée paysan has been housed since 1968 , which explains the everyday life of the rural population in the region towards the end of the 20th century with an extensive collection of everyday objects. On the ground floor everything is grouped around the large oven. There is a barn on the same level, which indicates that the baker kept some livestock as well. Here you can see a collection of agricultural equipment and tools. There are three rooms, including a parent's bedroom and a children's room, where various collections of clothes and lace are shown.
Renovated house
Renovated house
Art lives in old walls
Residential houses southwest of the abbey
literature
- Marcel Durliat : Romanesque Art (= Great Epochs of World Art. Series 3, 2). Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) 1983, ISBN 3-451-19402-3 , Fig. 354.
- Ulrich Rosenbaum: Auvergne and Massif Central. Voyages of discovery from Clermont-Ferrand over the volcanoes and gorges of the Massif Central to the Cevennes National Park. 7th edition. DuMont, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-7701-1111-7 , pp. 166–167, figs. 76–78, color plate 21.
- Bernhard Craplet: Romanesque Auvergne. Zodiaque-Echter, Würzburg 1992, ISBN 3-429-01463-8 , pp. 335–331, pages 124–130.
- Brochure: “laissez-vous conter le village de Chanteuges”; Conception LM communiquer: Laurence Madrelle, Emanuelle Robin. 6 pages
Individual evidence
- ↑ local brochure from the tourist office. 1 page
- ↑ Bernhard Craplet: Romanesque Auvergne. 1992, pp. 280-284, picture pages 109-115.
