Saint-Junien - Saint-Junien

Legends tell, that Saint Junien has lived here as a hermit for 40 years. After Junien´s death (540) Bishop Roric from nearby Limoges had an oratorium built over the tomb. The oratorium soon was a place of pilgrimage and got enlarged over the next decades

Gregory of Tours was impressed, when he visited the place in 593. This church got lost within the 9th century.

Two centuries later a collegiate church got erected. It got consecrated by Raynaud, Bishop of Périgueux in 1100. The church got altered and enlarged a couple of times, but the collegiate lost the importance it had during the time of pilgrimage.

It existed though upto the French Revolution, when it got looted. After that the church was used as "Temple of Reason", a prison and (like many churches) as a storage room for explosive saltpetre. The structure must have been in bad condition, as the crossing tower collapsed in 1816. It it got rebuilt from wood on a smaller scale. The collegiate church got restaurated in the second half of the 19th century, but in 1922 the wooden tower collapsed and caused lots of damage.

The relics of three venerable saints were kept here during the times of pilgrimage. Saint Julien, who had come to this place to become a disciple of an even older hermit known as Saint Amandus. Later relics of Saint Martial, who had been the first bishop of Limoges, were added.

Saint Martial´s relics may have been kept in this reliquary, seen on a rotating display behind the dusty security-glass of the treasury. Limoges was famous for this kind of work.