Uzerche - Saint-Pierre

Uzerche has been a strategic place since the early times. The Visigoths looted the town in the 6th century, later it was besieged by Saracen troops. Pepin the Short, son of Charles Martel, father of Charlemagne) upgraded the fortification, so that in Carolingian times, there were 18 towers here, what did not help against the Normans, who looted Uzerche in 909.

The town recovered, a Benedictine monastery was founded within the 10th century. In 1095 Pope Urban II visited Uzerche on his way to Clermont-Ferrand, where he agitated for the first crusade. The abbey prospered and a large pilgrim-church was erected over a crypt, from the early 11th century on. Pilgrims arrived in great numbers, and as the Norman influence had grown in the area, even Henry I of England, son of William the Conqueror, and Richard I of England (aka "Lionheart", "Coeur de Lion") have been here.

The church got fortified during the Hundred Years War - and still has three fortification towers.

In the 18th the abbey got secularised and Saint-Pierre became a secular collegiate church. Meanwhile it serves as a parish church.

The crypt is huge, as it has the same dimensions as choir, ambulatory and radial chapel. The crypt was built 1020-1050. Choir, ambulatory and chapels were completed around 1070. The church was consecrated in 1097, when the first three spans of the nave were added.