Souvigny, eldest daughter of Cluny

The Priory of Souvigny (11th, 15th and 18th centuries) offers one of the best preserved illustrations of the spiritual influence and artistic glory of the ancient monastic order of Cluny which numbered over 1,000 establishments in the 12th century. Amongst them, Souvigny ranked as one of the “Five Daughters” of the abbey of Cluny.

The monks settled there in the 10th century under the protection of the early lords of Bourbon. Hence the kernel of the Bourbonnais region began to take shape on the borders of Auvergne, Berry and Burgundy. Two holy abbots of Cluny, Mayeul and Odilon, died in Souvigny and were buried there. The reputation of their holiness drew millions of pilgrims to visit their graves from afar, among them kings and popes. A number of the Dukes of Bourbon chose the church as their place of burial. Today, the priory of Souvigny is the largest and most handsome religious edifice in the Bourbonnais area.

The romanesque church of St Pierre and St Paul, with a nave that was redesigned during the Gothic period, bears witness to this prestigious history: “St Mayeul’s tomb”, capitals with foliage, interlacing or historiated motifs, funerary chapels and carved effigies of the dukes of Bourbon, the amazing baroque sacristy discovered there, the cloister bays. Of the latter, only the five bays of the western gallery remain. The staggered arrangement of the base supports give the vaulting a highly original and unusual design, with triangular and diamond-shaped spans and the keystones alternating in a pleasing pattern.

The priory gardens are a reconstruction of 17th-18th century French-style gardens, arranged in large square plots of vegetables, ornamental and medicinal plants. Two barns adjoining the priory have been restored and converted into museums :

• the Grange Sud (south barn) is devoted mainly to the Zodiac Pillar, a sculptured pillar that is unique in the world, dating from the 12th century, a masterpiece of the romanesque art of the Cluny school. In addition to this esteemed possession, the Museum has a large romanesque and gothic lapidary collection, a treasure of coins and, last but not least, a reproduction of pages from the renowned Souvigny Bible that is kept in the multimedia library in Moulins.

• the Grange Nord (north barn) houses the Souvigny district museum on the second level,: scale models, collections and panels trace the different periods from prehistory down to the pre-industrial era, as well as the construction techniques employed in manors, keeps and rural buildings, on the theme of “Souvigny, where influences meet”

The first level of the museum is the venue of a new exhibition each year.

Visit of St Mayeul’s and St Odilon’s tomb
In November 2001, an archaeological dig took place which uncovered, in the central nave of the church, the vault where the two saints who died in Souvigny in the 10th and 11th centuries had been buried.
On 2 November 2001, day of the Feast of the Dead instituted by Odilon in 1033, excavations brought to light the burial place of the two abbotts. Both lay in a sarcophagus deposited in a vault in the central nave of the church. The burial vault had undergone various rearrangements over the years until finally a funerary monument was erected above it. This monument bears the gisants, polychrome effigies of the two abbotts with their mitres and croziers.
Further excavation in 2004 aimed to extend the research area to the interior of the priory church.

The Clicquot organ in Souvigny
Since its rediscovery by Henri Legros and Michel Chapuis during the 1950s, the Souvigny organ has been the focal point of an annual musical event in the Bourbonnais region.
It has often been said that this church organ, like many another, was saved by the poverty of the parish, which had inherited the vast priory church following the Revolution. But a more careful reading of the rare documents mentioning the organ testify today that it had always been valued as an instrument throughout the pre-revolutionary Ancien Regime, all through the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th century. Such a perfect accord between the church’s acoustics and frequencies emitted – as demonstrated in 1983 by the experiments of Emilie Leipp – cannot fail to make an impression. The greatest names in French classical organ music have performed in Souvigny.

Today, the baroque autumn music festival, "Les Journées Musicales d'Automne", is held each year during the last weekend of September.

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