Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay

The Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay crowns a dramatic hill above the Cure valley in the Yonne department of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and was one of the most important pilgrimage churches in medieval Europe. The basilica rose to prominence in the 11th century because it claimed to hold the relics of Mary Magdalene, attracting enormous pilgrim traffic and establishing Vézelay as one of the four principal departure points in France for the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route to Spain. Its importance extended beyond pilgrimage: in 1146 Bernard of Clairvaux preached the Second Crusade to Louis VII and Eleanor of Aquitaine from a field below the hill; in 1190 Philip II of France and Richard I of England met here to launch the Third Crusade; and Thomas à Becket preached here during his exile from England in the 1160s. The existing nave was largely constructed between 1120 and 1150, and the narthex dates from around 1130. The tympanum above the central narthex door is a masterpiece of Romanesque sculpture: a vast composition depicting Christ sending the Apostles to evangelise the world, surrounded by representations of distant peoples — dog-headed men, giant-eared figures, and other inhabitants of the medieval geographical imagination. The interior capitals of the nave are equally celebrated, each carved with scenes from scripture and hagiography with expressiveness unusual for 12th-century stonework. The basilica fell into severe disrepair during the Revolution and by the 19th century sections were near collapse. The restoration by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, begun in 1840 when he was 26 years old, was one of his earliest major projects and saved the structure from ruin. Vézelay was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979 alongside Fontenay Abbey. The hilltop village below the basilica retains its medieval street plan, and the views across the Morvan hills from the basilica terrace are among the most celebrated in Burgundy.