Souvigny Priory (french: Prieuré Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Souvigny, Prieuré Saint-Mayeul de Souvigny), in the commune of

Souvigny Souvigny () is a commune in the Allier department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France. Today the main town of a canton of the Allier department, Souvigny has long been one of the major towns in the Bourbonnais (of which it was once the ca ...

Allier Allier ( , , ; oc, Alèir) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region that borders Cher to the west, Nièvre to the north, Saône-et-Loire and Loire to the east, Puy-de-Dôme to the south, and Creuse to the south-west. Named afte ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, in the centre of the old province of the

Bourbonnais Bourbonnais () was a historic province in the centre of France that corresponds to the modern ''département'' of Allier, along with part of the ''département'' of Cher. Its capital was Moulins. History The title of the ruler of Bourbonnais ...

, was formerly a

Cluniac The Cluniac Reforms (also called the Benedictine Reform) were a series of changes within medieval monasticism of the Western Church focused on restoring the traditional monastic life, encouraging art, and caring for the poor. The movement began wit ...

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of mon ...

, of which the church remains in operation.

History

In the 10th century Aymar sire de Bourbon gave land in Souvigny to

Cluny Abbey Cluny Abbey (; , formerly also ''Cluni'' or ''Clugny''; ) is a former Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saint Peter. The abbey was constructed in the Romanesque architectural style, with three churches ...

for the construction of a monastery. Some years later, two distinguished abbots of Cluny, Mayeul of Cluny and

Odilo of Cluny Odilo of Cluny (c. 962 – 1 January 1049) was the fifth Benedictine Abbot of Cluny, holding the post for around 54 years. During his tenure Cluny became the most important monastery in western Europe. Odilo actively worked to reform the monastic ...

(Odilon de Mercoeur), came here to die, one after the other, and were buried here. This made the priory a place of

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

: even

Hugh Capet Hugh Capet (; french: Hugues Capet ; c. 939 – 14 October 996) was the King of the Franks from 987 to 996. He is the founder and first king from the House of Capet. The son of the powerful duke Hugh the Great and his wife Hedwige of Saxony, ...

, King of France, came here in 994 after the death of Mayeul. The church was rebuilt to accommodate the increasing numbers of worshippers, on the model of Cluny III, including two

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

s, a

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

with an

ambulatory The ambulatory ( la, ambulatorium, ‘walking place’) is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th ...

, and three towers. The

Dukes of Bourbon Duke of Bourbon (french: Duc de Bourbon) is a title in the peerage of France. It was created in the first half of the 14th century for the eldest son of Robert of France, Count of Clermont and Beatrice of Burgundy, heiress of the lordship of B ...

made it their place of burial. Many chapels were added, and the upper parts of the church were rebuilt, with

cross vault A groin vault or groined vault (also sometimes known as a double barrel vault or cross vault) is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. Honour, H. and J. Fleming, (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Lau ...

s. In 1097, Pope

Urban II Pope Urban II ( la, Urbanus II; – 29 July 1099), otherwise known as Odo of Châtillon or Otho de Lagery, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 March 1088 to his death. He is best known for convening th ...

passed through Souvigny and while he was there confirmed by a Papal bull the possession of the church of Marigny to Bernard, fourth prior. This possession was confirmed again by a bull of Pope

Eugene III Pope Eugene III ( la, Eugenius III; c. 1080 – 8 July 1153), born Bernardo Pignatelli, or possibly Paganelli, called Bernardo da Pisa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1145 to his death in 1153. He w ...

dated 29 February 1152. In 1393, the provincial visitors instructed the prior to oblige the chantry to instruct children. Souvigny, as one of the five oldest daughter houses of Cluny, owned many parishes and small priories, which made it wealthy. Its priories included those of Saint-Patrocle-de-Colombier, Chantenay-Saint-Imbert, Mars-sur-Allier and Montempuis (

Saint-Parize-en-Viry Saint-Parize-en-Viry () is a commune in the Nièvre department in central France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories ...

). The dedication varied between

Saint Peter Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...

Saint Mayeul Majolus of Cluny (Maieul, Mayeul, Mayeule) (c. 906 – May 11, 994) was the fourth abbot of Cluny. Majolus was very active in reforming individual communities of monks and canons; first, as a personal commission, requested and authorized by the E ...

and Saints Peter and

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

. The priory was closed down and largely dismantled in the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

, but the church survived and was reopened for worship in 1852. It was declared a ''

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

'' on 5 August 1919.

Architecture

Priory church

The imposing priory church is part Romanesque and part

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

. The structure is Romanesque but the vaulting is Gothic. The west front was reconstructed in the Gothic period while retaining the two Romanesque belltowers on top of it. This priory, because it was owned by the powerful Cluny Abbey, made it possible for the Burgundian style to develop in the numerous Romanesque churches of the Souvigny region. The church measures 84

metre The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...

s in length; the vaulted roof is 17 metres high at its highest point. A carved Romanesque pillar was discovered in the church depicting a calendar with the farming works of each month, known as the "Zodiac of Souvigny".Voir sur www.lieux-insolites.fr

Conventual buildings

The

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

chapter room A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole communi ...

and porter's lodge are the principal conventual buildings still extant. The cloister was refurbished in 1432. File:Souvigny orgue historique Clicquot (1783).JPG, File:Souvigny Porterie.jpg, File:Fr Souvigny Prieuré de Souvigny view from cloister.jpg, File:Souvigny Abteikirche Chapelle Neuve.jpg, File:Souvigny - église prieurial St Pierre et St Paul-4.jpg,

Monumental effigies

The church formerly contained many tombs of the seigneurial and later ducal family of Bourbon, some of which were destroyed in the Revolution. Those of Saints Mayeul and Odilo were rediscovered in the early 21st century. Souvigny bastard.jpg, Karel Anezka.jpg, TombeauCharlesIdeBourbon.jpg, Charles I, Duke of Bourbon File:Sauvigny.jpg, File:Tombeau Mayeul Odilon.jpg,

Bibliography

* François Deshoulières, ''Souvigny'', pp. 115–152, dans ''Congrès archéologique de France. 101st session. Dans l'Allier. 1938'',

Société Française d'Archéologie Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the se ...

, Paris, 193
Texte
* Pascale Chevalier, Sébastien Bully, Morana Causevic-Bully, Mathias Dupuis, Laurent Fiocchi et Audrey Baradat, « La priorale Saint-Pierre de Souvigny (Allier), étude archéologique de la nef, première tranche », ''Bulletin du centre d'études médiévales d'Auxerre/BUCEMA'', 11-2007. *
La priorale Saint-Pierre de Souvigny (Allier), étude archéologique de la nef, première tranche
; *
Deuxième tranche de travaux archéologiques à la priorale Saint-Pierre de Souvigny
* Bruno Phalip, Pascale Chevalier, Arlette Maquet, Delphine Renault-Jousseau, ''Souvigny : la priorale et le prieuré'' (Cahiers du Patrimoine, 101), Somogy, 2012, 216 p., 260 ill. * Pascale Chevalier, Arlette Maquet, �
Les fouilles des tombeaux des saints abbés de Cluny, Mayeul et Odilon et les pèlerinages à Souvigny
», '' Bulletin Monumental'', t. 162., n° 2, année 2004, pp. 87–100.

External links

Corpus architecturae religiosae europeae (CARE) - Souvigny: priorale Saint-Pierre

The Priory's Clicquot organ
List of cartularies attached to Souvigny Priory

Notes and references

{{coord, 46.5348, 3.1932, type:landmark_region:FR, display=title Cluniac monasteries in France Buildings and structures in Allier Burial sites of the House of Bourbon