Vézelay Abbey
Sign in to saveAlso known as Basilica of Vézelay, Abbey of la Madaleine, Abbey of la Madeleine
Benedictine and Cluniac monastery in Vézelay, France
Key facts
- Location
- Burgundy , France
- Criteria
- Cultural: i, vi
- Inscription
- 1979 (3rd Session )
- Area
- 183 ha
- Buffer zone
- 18,373 ha
- Website
- www .basiliquedevezelay .org
via Wikipedia infobox
~16 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Aerial view Vézelay Abbey (French: Abbaye Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay) is a Benedictine and Cluniac monastery in Vézelay in the east-central French department of Yonne. It was constructed between 1120 and 1150. The Benedictine abbey church, now the Basilica of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (Saint Mary Magdalene), with its complex program of imagery in sculpted capitals and portals, is one of the great masterpieces of Burgundian Romanesque art and architecture. Sacked by the Huguenots in 1569, the building suffered neglect in the 17th and the 18th centuries and some further damage during the period of the French Revolution.
The church and hill at Vézelay were added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1979 because of their importance in medieval Christianity and outstanding architecture.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Vézelay Abbey” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.