Église de Saint-Nectaire

The church of St. Nectarios is a jewel of Romanesque Auvergne. It is classified a historical monument since 1840.

This Romanesque church was built in the mid-twelfth century in honor of St. Nectarios by the monks of La Chaise-Dieu. It was built on the site of the sanctuary high Nectaire Auvergne on Mount Cornadore. It features 103 magnificent capitals. The mid-nineteenth century, the church was still surrounded by walls, a cemetery, a castle and a small chapel. These items were destroyed shortly after, during a restoration of the church in a positivist perspective. The building was converted to become the archetype of the Romanesque church. Today, surrounded by forests, the church was in the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century, the heart of a densely populated region, where wood was scarce.