. The Benedictine abbey of Chaise-Dieu (Haute-Loire) was founded in 1044 by St. Robert of Turlande, a canon of Brioude, who retired to these forested heights to lead a life of prayer and penance. Chaise-Dieu reached its apogee in the 12th and 13th centuries, when it had over 200 monks and was at the head of a community of ten abbeys and some 300 priories. The new abbey church of Saint-Robert, begun in the early 14th century under Abbot Pierre-Roger de Beaufort (later Pope Clement VI), is in the severe Gothic style of southern France. The western fagade consists of two fortified towers joined by an arcade. The nave is unusually vast (241 feet by 79 feet by 59 feet) and flanked by side aisles of the same height. There is no transept or ambulatory, and the chevet ends with chapels opening directly onto the choir. The choir screen is 15th-century, as are the 144 carved oak choirstalls given by Abbot Andre de Chanac (r. 1378-1420). The 15th-century wall painting of the Dance of Death (6 feet by 86 feet) is an important representation of this popular Late Gothic theme. Its three panels show Death inviting the powerful, the bourgeois, and the peasantry to dance. Only two wings remain of the 14th-century Gothic cloister that abutted the south aisle of the church.
In the Middle Ages, Chaise-Dieu was a thriving artistic center that sent architects and sculptors far afield. The monastery was sacked by Huguenots in 1562 during the Wars of Religion, beginning a long period of decline, culminating in the desecrations of the Revolution.
William W. Kibler/William W. Clark
Erlande-Brandenberg, Alain. “L’abbatiale de la Chaise-Dieu.” Congres archeologique (Velay) 133 (1975):720-55.
World History
