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.


Here is a very interesting combination of at least two medieval "icons", that are both common not only to the Auvergne.

One is shepherd, carrying a sheep on his shoulders. The shepherds mostly come in couples and they may connected to "pastor bonus". This icon can be seen twice in Brioude. The second is the donkey, playing a musical instrument. This instrument mostly is a harp, played by the donkey with its hoofs.

Depicted here are two men, carrying donkeys (instead of sheep). The donkeys either play a harp or - like Bernard Craplet suggests, play a panflute. B. Craplet connects the flute playing donkeys to the Phaedra, daugther of Minos in the Greek mythology.

On the ground, between the two harps or pan-flutes, is a head. A plant seems to grow out of the forhead. The moustache could well be some kind of liana.