Dr. Marie-France Hilgar

In 179 A.D. on a hill above the River Saone, where the town of Tournus now stands, the Christian martyr Valerian was beheaded. A memorial was erected at his grave and later an abbey was built there. After 40 years of wandering, the monks of Noirmoutier finally found a home here and built a worthy resting place for the bones of St. Philibert. In their flight from the Normans the monks had kept the bones with them at all times until King Charles the Bold assigned to them the abbey of Tournus on May 14, 875. This is the origin of what is probably the most unusual church in Burgundy.

Under the direction of abbot Etienne and the architect Gerlannus, construction work on the church started in 937, following an invasion by the Hungarians. Around 1007-1008, a terrible fire destroyed the abbey and its church. We are told that only the crypt withstood the flames and several precious objects were hastily thrown into it and were thus saved from destruction. The church was rebuilt and consecrated in 1019. The following year, after some important work had been done on the whole east part of the church, Pope Calixtus II consecrated it again. It was completed in the 12th century, but is not a typical Burgundian Romanesque church. Massive and monumental, and thoroughly Norman in its defensive strength, it is the impregnable fortress of God, the modest home of His frugal servants. It may well be that its sobriety and rigor, its eschewing of all pleasant adornment, are an expression of the hard life, marked by flight and persecution, of the men who built it.

A visit of the exterior starts on the west side, where one sees an old door with two flanking llth-century towers. The towers were made differently. The construction of the south tower hardly rises higher than the façade and abruptly stops with a saddle back roof. The core of the north tower was raised in the classical Romanesque period (12th century) by a square church tower whose profusion of decoration contrasts sharply with the bareness of the rest of the facade. Small, foliated archivolts mark the lowest part of the tower. A projected cornice separates it from two double openings whose arches look down on a cluster of small columns in the middle of each of the openings. Decorative columns with complicated fluting adorn the angles. The upper level has three large semicircular openings separated by fluted pilasters with sculptured capitals. The statue-columns in the angles reveal the rather late date of this construction: after 1130. A cornice with sculpted modillions accentuates the bottom of the slender pyramidal roof. The machicolations were added in the Gothic period. The church portal can be disregarded, as it resulted from the initiative of a 19th-century architect.

The Narthex

The north side of the church presents no particularities: no more arcatures, genuine buttresses on the upper wall of the central nave, or on the large reinforced panels of the wall between the windows of the aisles. One reaches the transept after having walked past the Gothic chapels from the 14th and 15th centuries (1330, 1413). The crossing of the transept and the nave is surmounted by an enormous square tower, which has all the characteristics of Romanesque art of the first quarter of the 12th century. A bay ornaments it on each side. Above, a blind story is decorated with bands and arcatures of three archivolts. A powerful cornice marks the floor of the next story of large, simple bays on the façade, with the semicircle of the arch slightly reduced by the molded archivolts springing from the small columns. A second cornice accentuates a decorative band (not very visible on the picture). On the top story we find the group of three windows again on each side, but more richly decorated: small applied columns, fluted corner pilasters, festooned arches. This splendid church tower was almost destroyed during the Revolution. The intervention of the Tournus masons saved it from demolition. The original plan of the chevet was an ambulatory and five secondary chapels, two of them built so close to the arms of the transept that at first sight, one can distinguish only the three chapels clearly jutting out from the semicircle of the sanctuary. On the south side, severe transformations have eliminated the chapel nearest to the transept arm. On the north side, the chapel still remains, attached to the semicircle of the apse. The chevet, with its west side half buried, emerges at the east side following the natural slope of the ground, so well that the crypt is not entirely underground. In the upper part of the ambulatory wall we see a cornice of two rows of projected stone supporting a serrated-edging on which the circular roof rests. The obvious complexity of the chevet, the numerous indications of transformations, the archaism, or clumsiness, have intrigued all the archaeologists who have tried to explain the chronological facts of the abbey. Their opinions differ greatly.

The Cloister

Continuing the tour of the church, one goes round the Chapter-house and up an alley to the old cloister on the south side of the church, alongside of which is the only preserved gallery of the cloister. Restored in 1950, it has today a beautiful simplicity in its 11th-century stonework, together with its corner capitals crowning the columns to the pillars separating the arcades. The abbot St. Ardain was interred in the cloister in 1056 and the construction of it was doubtless his work. From the cloister one enters the Warming Room built against the narthex. This room contains sarcophagi and various fragments of sculpture. Its vault, which seems to have been rebuilt in the Gothic period, is pierced with a circular orifice for the evacuation of smoke. The visitor can go up a few steps and find himself at the entrance of the ante-church or narthex. He can then begin the visit of the interior of the church.

When one enters the narthex of the church of St. Philibert, one is overwhelmed by the massiveness of the building. There is little light, the cylindrical pillars are enormous, and the whole thing gives an impression of awkwardness. And yet, as soon as one looks more closely, one sees that the builders were much wiser than at first appears. The ante-church has two stories and the entire ground floor has to support the upper parts of the building. For this to be achieved, total stability had to be assured by the thickness of the walls, the diameter of the pillars, and the coherence of the system of vaults. It is a construction whose foundations could not be more solidly assured to allow for a large gallery to be built later, on the next floor. Several other details are worth noting in this gloomy vestibule of St. Philibert: the engraved funerary stones-the oldest (12th and 13th centuries) being those of knights, with the design of their shield of armor and the representation of their sword placed in its sheath, with their shoulder belt symbolically untied to show that they lay in eternal rest–and the vestiges of frescoes visible on the vaults, arches, and vaults. Only very altered fragments remain: an enthroned Christ in the central nave (12th century), and a Gothic crucifix in the transversal vault of the last bay to the north.

The gallery, or High Chapel, a masterpiece of boldness and sense of balance in itself, is a survival of the Carolingian style of lay-out, which placed a secondary sanctuary at the west of the edifice opposite the main sanctuary always at the east, and which therefore had to be placed up a story to allow permanent access from the church itself to the nave by way of a vaulted vestibule. This sanctuary is traditionally dedicated to Saint Michael, victor of the dragon, guardian of the doors of the church. The High Chapel of the Tournus narthex is reached by a narrow spiral staircase at the south. In the past it could be reached by two lateral staircases going from the aisles of the nave of the church to two doors located at the east corners of the chapel. These staircases have been demolished but the openings at the top still remain. The general plan is the same as on the ground floor, but the impression one has is completely different from that below because of the height and illumination of the construction. The central arch, obstructed today by the organ case, is built in a kind of solid projected mass resting on two cubic blocks and set on columns with capitals and bases sculpted in a crude, almost barbaric manner: figures with rough traits looking as if they were the first attempts at sculpture after the eclipse of this art form in the 10th century. To the left, a full-face head with a beard and mustache, the ears sticking out, a narrow forehead with spiky hairs represented by grooves perpendicular to the eyebrow arches. To the right, the full-length profile of a figure whose right hand holds a dangling hammer and left hand is raised in a gesture of blessing. A branch can be seen behind the head. This High Chapel is one of the most amazing architectural works handed down to us from the llth century. One finds exceptional skill combined with daring, and its austere beauty lies solely in the quality of the proportions, in the clearness and fullness of the volumes. It is recommended to look through the lateral openings of the High Chapel in order to admire the perspective of the large church where the pink piers bathe in the soft light coming in from the high windows.

Returning to the ground floor, one enters the church from the narthex under three arches corresponding to the three naves. The central arch is surmounted by the great 17th-century organ. The contrast between the somber and overwhelming massiveness of the antechurch and then the brightness of the three naves is striking. The color of the pink stone caressed by the abundance of light coming in from the numerous and vast windows adds a powerful charm to this unparalleled architectural work. One sees no embellishments, no sculptures on the walls, in the naves or at the top of the round piers: only an extraordinary display of lines, slender stone masses, volumes and sober colors which unfold over the five bays.

In the Gothic period, several chapels were opened to the exterior of the north aisle. The first one when coming from the narthex dates from the beginning of the 14th century by Geoffrey de Berze. He is the one represented in the remains of the fresco on the right as one enters. On the left, a fresco of the same period represents the Last Judgment. Christ with a halo, surrounded by a mandorla, sits enthroned on a rainbow, His right hand in a gesture of blessing. On both sides, an angel holds the instruments of the Passion, the left one holds the spear and crown of thorns, the right one, the cross and sponge. Above, the saints kneel at the feet of Christ, escorted by angels sounding trumpets. The central range represents the Resurrection: the tombs open and the dead come out. Lastly, in the lower range, which unfortunately has suffered severe damage, one detects the images of Purgatory and Hell under a set of six arches. The arch, under which one enters the chapel, is adorned by 12 medallions framing the busts of the Apostles. The second chapel (Chapelle Sainte-Anne) was built around 1425. The third chapel, nearest to the transept, dates from 1428 and is the work of Louis de La Palu, abbot of Tournus. It is decorated with a large 17th-century retable in sculpted and painted wood: the thickly wreathed columns have grape and vine branches entwining their shafts, and two golden angels sit on the side of the entablature which crown them. In the south aisle, a 14th-century funerary niche, with frescoes of that same period representing the burying of the abbot and his celestial judgment, can still be seen, sheltering the tomb of Hughes of Fitigny. Today there is a beautiful Virgin called "Notre-Dame de Brune." This sculpture, in cedar wood, is similar to the 11th-century virgins of that region who show the infant on her lap holding the Book in His left hand and giving the blessing with His right. They sit on a small, columned throne whose back is decorated with archways. It is believed this Virgin and Child date from the second half of the 12th century.

Stone carvings in St. Michael's chapel

It is surprising to see a rather narrow and shallow transept and also a narrow sanctuary following a wide and tall nave. In fact, the design shows that the chevet (not including the radiating chapels) is the same width as the narthex. The chevet is very harmonious, with its semicircle surmounted by a clerestory of three arcades and covered with a domical vault. The three windows are framed by magnificent archivolts decorated with palmettes or acanthuses, and rest on a delicately sculpted molding. Between each opening, a pilaster, fluted or covered with foliage of grapes or roses, framed by two small columns, gives an air of charming elegance at the end of the perspective of the church. All the capitals of these upper parts are interesting. Many of them portray fantastic animals, diabolical monsters, and mysterious masks. One can notice an unsuccessful attempt to brighten this sanctuary by stained glass windows with bright red as the predominant color. In fact, the sanctuary is too white because of the chalky aspect of the stone.

The ambulatory follows round the sanctuary and apse. Three radiating chapels open on to the ambulatory and in the spaces between these chapels, four windows light up the apse. The fifth apsidal chapel has been altered to serve as sacristy. Each chapel is built on a rectangular design. Each one has light coming from three windows: one at the end and two on the sides. The axial chapel contains the shrine of St. Philibert. 

The plan of the crypt, built maybe around 875, obliged the sanctuary to have the same.

It consists of an ambulatory on which three radiating rectangular chapels open, and which encircle a "martyr" or "confession" where the relics of St. Valerian were originally kept. On the north side of the ambulatory is a door for access to two other chapels. The crypt, built on a slope, is not completely buried: it has light coming in from four slightly splayed, irregular windows. The central part is divided into three small naves by two rows of six columns. Capitals, some of which are very beautiful, support the ribs of the vault, which covers the room. The central nave has its last bay to the west, with a very deep well in the middle which goes down to the river Saone, assuring the supply of water in the event of a siege or danger from the outside. The south radiating chapel retains some elements of a fresco: God in all His Majesty and Virgin and Child.

Something which has not emerged from this necessarily dry description is the incomparable size of the church, the beauty of its noble proportions, the fullness and harmony of its volumes. The tall pink piers of Tournus, the diaphragm arches powerfully punctuating the perspective of the nave, are unique. Tournus is a triumph of wise simplicity. Romanesque art has not left us anything more perfect, more researched and more successful, even in its austerity.

In its unadorned sobriety the Abbey of St. Philibert is the embodiment of a monastic way of life, which was not influenced by the wealth of other Burgundian monasteries and sought no terrestrial power. It does not flatter or entice, and yet it possesses an extraordinary attraction. It has a simplicity which in all great buildings is sufficient in itself, and which is so superior to all worldly things that it can dispense with all decorative commentary.