Vezelay - Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine

The Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine is a jewel of Romanesque architecture. The nave was erected within 20 years, from 1120 on, after the preceding church burnt down, with a loss of more than 1000 lifes. The choir and the transept, seen here, were erected 1185 - 1215. They are completed already in gothic style.

The relics of Sainte Marie Madeleine, that had been here since around 1050, made Vezelay to a center of pilgrimage (and the starting point of the Via Lemovizensis).

But in 1279 dominican monks in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume claimed to have found the "real" sarcophagus of Sainte Marie Madeleine. Unfortunately the Dominicans found the patronage by Pope Boniface VIII and Charles d'Anjou - and so Vezelay lost it´s importance.
In 1559, during the Wars of Religion, Huguenots looted Vezelay und burnt the relics, that were still in Vezelay. Today there is a golden reliquary in the large, probably carolingian crypt, so obviously at least a part of the relics are still here.

Prosper Mérimée and Viollet-le-Duc saved the basilica, that was a ruin in the early 19th century. When Prosper Mérimée started the renovation of the basilica in 1840, he was 26 years old. This was the first task for the young architect..

There are three portals in Vezelay, protected by a large narthex. The carvings survived the vandalism of the centuries and are full of details. I have uploaded "totals" on previous visits.

Mathew 28, 19-20

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

All nations included the mythical "Cynocephali". Already the ancient Greek knew, that they lived on the edge of the world. Here they stand on the edge of the portal's outer archivolt.