Everything about Puy-en-velay totally explained
Le Puy-en-Velay (
Lo Puèi de Velai in
Occitan, pronounced [lu/ləˈpœj də ˈvəlaj]) is a
commune of south-central
France and the
préfecture (capital) of the
Haute-Loire département. The population as of the
1999 census was 20,490. Its inhabitants are the
Ponots and the
Ponotes.
History
Le Puy-en-Velay was a major
bishopric in medieval France, founded early, though its early history is legendary. According to a
martyrology compiled by
Ado of Vienne and published in many copies in
858, which was supplemented in the mid-10th century by Gauzbert of Limoges, a certain priest named George accompanied a certain Front, the first
Bishop of Périgueux, when they were sent to proselytize in
Gaul. Front was added to the list of the to Gaul, traditionally sent out to reorganize Christians after the persecutions that are associated with
Decius and
Gratian, circa 250. As with others of the group, notably
Saint Martial of
Limoges, later
mythology pushed
Saint Front and the priest George back in time, and tells how George had been restored to life with a touch of
Saint Peter's staff. The expanding legend of this St. George, which, according to the Church historian
Duchesne isn't earlier than the eleventh century, then makes that saint one of the
Seventy Apostles of the
Gospel of Luke, and tells how he founded the church of the
[civitas] que dicitur Vetula in pago Vellavorum— as
Ruessium began to be called during the fourth century: the city "called Vetula in the
pays of the
Vellavi" a document of 1004 termed it.
Vetula means "the old woman": pagans were still making small images of her as late as the sixth century in Flanders, according to the
vita of Saint
Eligius. This was the first cathedral at Le Puy.
Following St. George the founder, later medieval local traditions evoke a legendary list of bishops at this chief town of the
pays of Le Velay: Macarius, Marcellinus, Roricius, Eusebius, Paulianus, and Vosy (Evodius), all of them canonized by local veneration. It will have been from Bishop Paulianus that the Gaulish settlement of Ruessium/Vellavorum received its Christianizing name, Saint-Paulien. A bishop Evodius attended the Council of Valence in 374.
Our Lady of Le Puy
The
Christianization legends of
Mons Anicius relate that at the request of Bishop
Martial of Limoges, Bishop Evodius/Vosy caused an altar to the Virgin Mary to be erected on the pinnacle that surmounts Mont Anis. Some such beginning of the shrine Christianized the pagan site that became the altar site of the
cathedral of Le Puy. It marked one starting-point for the pilgrim route to
Santiago de Compostela, a walk of some 1600 km, as it still does today. The old town of Le Puy gathered round the base of the cathedral.
The pilgrims came early to Le Puy, and no French pilgrimage was more frequented in the Middle Ages.
Charlemagne came twice, in 772 and 800; there's a legend that in 772 he established a foundation at the cathedral for ten poor canons (
chanoines de paupérie), and he chose Le Puy, with
Aachen and
Saint-Gilles, as a center for the collection of
Peter's Pence.
Charles the Bald visited Le Puy in 877,
Odo, count of Paris in 892,
Robert II in 1029,
Philip Augustus in 1183.
Louis IX met
James I of Aragon here in 1245; and in 1254 passing through Le Puy on his return from the Holy Land, he gave to the cathedral an ebony image of the Blessed Virgin clothed in gold brocade, one of the many dozens of venerable "
Black Virgins" of France: it was destroyed at the Revolution, but replaced at the Restauration with a copy that continues to be venerated. After him, Le Puy was visited by
Philip the Bold in 1282, by
Philip the Fair in 1285, by
Charles VI in 1394, by
Charles VII in 1420, and by
Isabelle Romée, the mother of
Joan of Arc in 1429.
Louis XI made the pilgrimage in 1436 and 1475, and in 1476 halted three leagues from the city and went to the cathedral barefooted.
Charles VIII visited it in 1495,
Francis I in 1533.
The legendary early shrine on the summit of
Mons Anicius that drew so many would seem to predate the founding of an early church of Our Lady of Le Puy at Anicium, which was attributed to Bishop Vosy, who transferred the episcopal see from Ruessium to Anicium. Crowning the hill there was a
megalithic
dolmen. A local tradition rededicated the curative virtue of the sacred site to Mary, who cured ailments by contact with the standing stone. When the founding bishop Vosy climbed the hill, he found that it was snow-covered in July; in the snowfall the tracks of a deer round the dolmen outlined the foundations of the future church. The Bishop was apprised in a vision that the angels themselves had dedicated the future cathedral to the Blessed Virgin, whence the epithet "Angelic" given to the cathedral of Le Puy. The great
dolmen was left standing in the center of the Christian sanctuary, which was constructed around it; the stone was re-consecrated as the Throne of Mary. By the eighth century, however, the stone, popularly known as the "stone of visions," was taken down and broken up. Its pieces were incorporated into the floor of a particular section of the church that came to be called the Chambre Angélique, or the "angels' chamber."
It is impossible to say whether this St. Evodius is the same who signed the decrees of the
Council of Valence in
374. Neither can it be affirmed that
St. Benignus, who in the seventh century founded a hospital at the gates of the basilica, and
St. Agrevius, the 7th-century martyr from whom the town of Saint-Agrève Chiniacum took its name, were really bishops. Duchesne thinks that the chronology of these early bishops rests on very little evidence and that very ill-supported by documents; before the 10th century only six individuals appear of whom it can be said with certainty that they were bishops of Le Puy. The first of these, Scutarius, the legendary architect of the first cathedral, dates, if we may trust the inscription which bears his name, from the end of the 4th century.
Adhemar, bishop of Le Puy was a central figure in the
First Crusade.
Pope Clement IV was also bishop of Le Puy.
Though the ancient
diocese was suppressed by the
Concordat of 1801, it was re-erected in
1823.
The architecture
The
cathedral of Notre-Dame dates chiefly from the first half of the 12th century. The
façade, striped in courses of white sandstone and black volcanic breccia, is reached by a flight of sixty steps, and consists of three orders: the lowest composed of three high arcades opening into the porch, which extends beneath the first
bays of the
nave; above are three central windows that light the nave; above are three gables one the gable-end of the nave, flanked by two openwork screening gables. The south
transept doorway is sheltered by a fine Romanesque porch. Behind the choir rises a separate Romanesque bell-tower in seven storeys.
The bays of the nave are roofed by octagonal cupolas, the cupola at the
crossing forming a lantern; the choir and transepts are
barrel vaulted. The striking parti-colored cloister is connected to remains of fortifications of the 13th century that separated the cathedral precincts separated from the rest of the city. Near the cathedral, the 11-century
baptistery of St John is built on Roman foundations.
Pilgrims starting their journey to Santiago de Compostela gather to be blessed each morning. The cathedral has been a
Unesco World Heritage Site since 1998, as part of the "
Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France".
Sights
Three miles from Le Puy are the ruins of the
Château de Polignac, one of the most important feudal strongholds.
Famous people born in Le Puy-en-Velay
- Peire Cardenal, (1180-1278), famous Occitan troubadour
- Marquis de La Fayette, 1757-1834, born at the Château de Chavagnac a few kilometers away from Le-Puy-en-Velay. He is known, among other things, for his action during the War of Independence of the United States of America.
- Pierre Julien, (1731-1804), French neoclassical sculptor.
- Charles Dupuy, (1851-1923), French politician, president of the Concil at several times during the Third Republic.
- Émile Reynaud, whose family comes from Le-Puy-en-Velay, settled there during many years and did lectures of scientific vulgarisation with projections in 1875 there which were very appreciated by the local population.
- Courtol, (1834-1902), hunter of vipers.
- Jules Vallès, (1832-1885), born in Le Puy. He was a writer and a journalist. His most famous book is L'Enfant.
- Grégory Coupet, football player, goalkeeper of the Olympique Lyonnais and of the French national team.
- Sidney Govou, football player at the Olympique Lyonnais and selected in the French national team.
- Jérémy Perbet, football player. Plays for the RC Strasbourg in the French Ligue 2.
- Julien Malzieu, rugbyman in the AS Monferrandaise and in the French national team.
- Bruno Julliard, chairman of the UNEF who was put in the spotlight during the national social movement of French students against the CPE law in 2006. The current mayor of Le Puy-en-Velay, Arlette Arnaud-Landau, is his mother.
- Marion Bartoli, tennis player, 2007 Wimbledon finalist and top 10 player.
Twin cities
Le-Puy-en-Velay is twined with these settlements :
- Meschede (Germany)
- Tonbridge (England, United Kingdom)
- Tortosa (Spain)
- Brugherio (Italy)
Miscellaneous
Le Puy is famous for a particular strain of green lentils, for its lace-making, and for its green liqueur "Verveine" flavored with verbena.
The lentils, grown on the thin soils of the area, are very small and almost black in colour. Their unique quality and flavour derive from their high protein and relatively low carbohydrate content. They are widely used in soups and also to accompany goose, duck and sausage dishes. Le Puy lentils (Lentilles du Puy) is an appellation recognised throughout the European Union.
The town holds a famous Jubilee in years when the feast of the Annunciation falls on Good Friday.
The Jubilee of Le Puy in French Wikipedia
. This occurred last in 2005, will occur next in 2016 but the subsequent occurrence won't be until 2157. The Jubilee of Le Puy is the oldest aside from those of Rome and Jerusalem, taking its original cue from the predictions of a monk Bernhard who predicted the end of the world in 992 when the feast of the Annunciation would fall on Good Friday. The number of pilgrims to Le Puy was so remarkable that, after the dread date had safely passed, Pope John XV declared that each such date would be marked by a Jubilee.The first such anniversary occurred in 1065. In the Jubilee of 1407, the press of the crowd was so great that two hundred pilgrims suffocated. Of three Jubilees in the twentieth century, the Jubilee of 1932 attracted over 300,00 pilgrims.
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