Saint-Urcize is a common French, located in the department of the Cantal and the area Auvergne.

Geography

History

Administration

Demography

Places and monuments

the church The church of Saint-Urcize is under the invocation of Saint-Pierre. The current building dates from XIIe and 14th centuries, but it probably makes following an older construction since in 1074 Robert de Saint-Urcize gave the church of this place to the monastery of Saint-Victor of Marseilles.

This monument, the only one with déambulatoire which High Auvergne has, appears to be built by the monks of Chair-God, but of affinities are to be sought in Conques, the famous neighbor rouergate, like with Holy-Eulalie of Olt.

Outside, the apse surrounded of the three radiating chapels and the squat nave dominated by the bell-tower with comb give to the unit a certain elegance. The chorus built at the beginning of the 12th century is of Romance style. The circular wall of the bedside is bored of three bays and is decorated with nine blind arcades supported by posts; it dominates the revolving roof of the déambulatoire. A cornice with carved corbels supports the schist roof of the country which comes to crown the whole.

The semicircular absidioles are bored of a small Romance bay. Four more important bays separate the vaults and light the déambulatoire. The polychromy of the stones confers on the building an effect of happiest. Indeed, if the apparatus of construction of the church is generally out of gray granite, the stones of ornamentation of the chorus and the radiating chapels, either out of granite, or in reddish or brown tuff are methodically ordered.

The bell-tower with comb, bored of four bays, dominates the western wall. Destroyed in 1794, it was rebuilt after the Revolution. The smallest bell going back to 1583 carries the initial ones of founder F.P. and the inscription: " God veulhe to preserve Crestienté of all périlz and enemy ". It would be about one of the oldest bells of France.

Internally, the Gothic nave surprises by its reduced dimensions since it is broader than long (11 m out of 9 m) and comprises only two spans separated by an arc beam resting on a capital from columns. The vault is covered with skirting. Since 1991, new stained glasses representing of the biblical animals decorate Romance bays of the déambulatoire.

Two side chapels open in front of the déambulatoire. That of left, funerary vault dedicated to Saint-Michel is arched warheads. The repercussions of its arcs are pressed on two consoles appearing of the monks. On the wall, a fresco of the 15th century discovered at the time of the restoration of 1969, represents Saint-Michel embanking the dragon. In the keystone the weapons of Beaufort-Canilhac appeared formerly, lords of Saint-Urcize with whom this vault was used as burial. It is there that near its wife puts back Marquès of Beaufort-Canilhac, nephew of the pope Clément VI and half-brother of the last French pope Gregoire XI, who brought back the seat of the papacy from Avignon to Rome.

In the central radiating chapel, one can admire a Christ with the Tomb with Piéta, out of painted stone, of a remarkable naive realism which would come from the domery of Aubrac.

Among the carefully preserved treasures figure a chalice armorié out of money, which according to the tradition would have been used for to celebrate the last mass of Louis XVI with the Temple. Given to Pierre-Jean lpcher, priest of Saint-Urcize by the Saint-Pée abbot of Amon, it would come from the confessor of the king, Henry Edgeworth de Firmont, Irish priest who accompanied the sovereign with the scaffold on January 21st, 1793.

The shell appearing in the top of the main door of the church, under the porch, recalls that Saint-Urcize was with the Middle Ages a stage of the pilgrimage with Saint-Jacob de Compostelle. According to Mr. Raymond Oursel, a route of pilgrimage placed under the control of the abbey of Chair-God, Margeride passed to the Cross of Fau, then of Saint-Chély of Apcher, moved towards Saint-Urcize, Laguiole, the castle of Bousquet and Entraygues before joining Conques. For this author, the provisions of the church of Saint-Urcize, in particular the width of its bedside, are hardly explained but by this traffic. This oldest route of Aubrac would have been borrowed by Godescalc, Evêque of Puy, at the time of its pilgrimage carried out towards Saint-Jacob de Compostelle into 951.

Source: Site of Saint-Urcize: http://perso.orange.fr/saint-urcize/

Marcel Vigouroux " Saint-Urcize, village of Aubrac"

Personalities related to the commune

See too

• Common of the Cantal

External bonds

• Site of Saint-Urcize
• Saint-Urcize on the site of the national geographical Institute
• Saint-Urcize on the site of INSEE
• Saint-Urcize on the site of Quid
• Localization of Saint-Urcize on a chart of France and communes bordering
• Plane on Saint-Urcize on Mapquest

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