Carennac - Saint-Pierre

Carennac is a very picturesque village perching above the banks of the Dordogne river. The village is one of "Les Plus Beaux Villages de Franc". Not much seems to have changed within the last centuries.

In 1047 a priory had been founded here, depending from the Benedictine abbey Saint-Pierre in Moissac and so woven into the "cluniac system".
Saint-Pierre, now the parish church of Carennac, was erected within the 11th/12th century. An impressive tympanum was created in the second half of the 12th century.

Here is the centre of that tympanum. Under the sun (?), Christ in Majesty sits enthroned in the centre of a large mandorla, one hand on the bible, the other in a blessing gestus. The Evangelists´ symbols flank the mandorla. The mandorla has many drilled holes, that may have been once bases for glass-stones, but that is unproven.