Brioude - Saint-Julien

The Basilica Saint-Julien in Brioude was a collegiate church constructed between 1060 - 1200. The architectoral structure is influenced by great romanesque churches like "Notre-Dame-Du-Port" in Clermont-Ferrand (70kms north) or "Saint-Austremoine" in Issoire (30kms north), planned and constructed within the same century. Three or four very skilled architects worked here over the century, all witrh a different touch. So Saint-Julien is really special, as it differs from the other great churches of the Auvergne.

Brioude was a center of pilgrimage very early, as already within the 4th century a "martyrion" existed over the grave of St. Julien. This building was replaced by an early basilica, financed by Victorius, a "comes" (count), installed by the Visigothic king Eurich after he had seized the Auvergne. Gregory of Tours (538-594 visited and described it, when he about a pilgrimage to Saint-Julien undertaken yearly from Avernis (= Clermont-Ferrand) to Brioude. Within the 10th century William I, Duke of Aquitaine, (aka "Guillaume Le Pieux" - "William the Pious") funded the building of a larger church here. He got buried in this church in 917. Around 1060, works on the church still seen today started with the narthex. It took about 140 years, to complete it - and was a stopover at that time for many pilgrims to Santiago, only two days (60kms) away from Le Puy (Via Podensis).

There are about 125 capitals and carvings inside Saint-Julien and they all differ in artistic style and quality. Bernard Craplet has found six (!) different workshops, what is not that surprising taking in account that it took more than a century to finish this building. None of the capitals of the nave depicts a biblical theme.


Another "ape/man/rope" capital, but this differs from all the other seen so far within the Auvergne (Droiturier, Besse, Issoire, Thuret, Saint-Nectaire, Clermont-Ferrand, Mozac...). Not the ape on the rope, called "singe cordé" in French, is so much different, but everything around adds some new spice.

Left to the ape stands a man, described by B. Craplet having a "praying gesture". I think, this is a more like a greeting gesture ("Hi").
It is a rough carving, this person may be naked, his legs may be swollen, as if he would suffer from elephantiasis (not a medieval but a tropical disease). I see kind of a cripple, displayed in public (later done in "Freakshows"). I may be wrong, and B. Craplet is right, who wrote, that this capital is from mediocre workmanship.

Any way, there is the ape on the rope - and a "strange person" on the left. To the right a very decorative tree, but taking a closer look makes clear, these are two trees. Futher right the man holding the rope, probably the owner of the "beast" - and further right, the "show" goes on...