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18
Henri Plantagenêt
Louis le Jeune
Cluny II
Odon de Cluny
Odo of Cluny
Notre-Dame de Déols
Louis VII
Centre-Val de Loire
Curtmantle
Châteaumeillant
Henry II
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Cain and Abel
Saint-Genès
Cher
Genesis
France
Temple of Reason capital


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Châteaumeillant - Saint-Genès

Châteaumeillant - Saint-Genès
Saint-Genès, erected in the 11th and 12th century, was the church of the priory Saint-Etienne, dependent from the important Abbaye Notre-Dame in Déols. This abbey, now in ruins, had been founded in 917 and developed into one of the most powerful regional institutions. It was one of the first in the Cluniac network. Odo of Cluny (+ 942) was abbot of three monasteries: Cluny, Massy and Deols. This is important, as Saint-Genès has architectural parralells to Cluny II and Cluny III.

The building got severely damaged, when Louis VII (aka "Louis le Jeune", 1. husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine) burnt down the town in 1152 during a feud with Abbo II de Déols, a supporter of Henri Plantagenêt (aka Henry II, "Curtmantle", 2. husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine). In 1569 the Huguenots set fire here - and many restorations followed that. During the French Revolution the bell tower was destroyed and the church became a "Temple of Reason".

The carvings inside were created by (at least) two different workshops. There are rough and archaic capitals, that are probably older than the more elaborated, "sophisticared" ones. Some of the capitals depict scenes from the Genesis.

Seen here is Cain killing Abel. An angel is sent down to the murder scene, to take Abel´s soul and bring it to heaven.

Genesis 4.8

"Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let’s go out to the field." While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him."

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