Conques Attractions

Conques (pop. 302) lies in the rocky Gorge de l'Ouche, its old houses huddled round the beautiful church of Ste-Foy (11th-12th C.), a well known place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages and still one of the most visited churches in France. Over the west doorway is a Last Judgment which is one of the great masterpieces of Romanesque sculpture. The interior is also very fine. The church treasury, in an adjoining building, contains a rich collection of sacred art of the ninth-16th centuries, notably the gold reliquary of Ste Foy. The abbey to which the church belonged was, between the 11th and 13th centuries, an important staging-post on the "Way of St James", the pilgrim road to Santiago de Compostela. After the destruction of the abbey by Protestants in 1561 the church, partly destroyed by fire, was neglected and fell into disrepair, until it was discovered by the writer Prosper Mérimée in the mid 19th C. and restored after he had drawn attention to its plight.
The defining feature of the town church is the octagonal crossing tower.