St. Mary's Abbey, Arles-sur-Tech, France

Arles-sur-Tech is best known for its abbey, which allegedly holds the relics of Saints Abdon and Sennen in a sarcophagus called Sainte Tombe, traditionally believed to have been brought from Rome 10th century. Its waters are traditionally believed to hold miraculous healing properties.

The Benedictine abbey of Sainte-Marie was founded in 778 and is the oldest Carolingian abbey in Catalonia. The main square contains the houses which were the first to be built around the abbey. The Abbey Sainte-Marie has a beautiful gothic cloister built in the 13th century and a large and impressive 18th century organ. Its most curious item though is a 4th century sarcophagus which once contained the relics of Saints Abdon and Sennen.

References:

francethisway.com

User Reviews

Tony Vickers (12 months ago)
Very relaxing pleasant space to wile away a couple of hours

DD J (13 months ago)
Perfekt, add to must visit

Bob Wells (4 years ago)
Extremely interesting interior, with most interesting 12th Century frescoes. Exterior is less interesting, but still nice.

Claude Cevasco (4 years ago)
Must see ! Beauty

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Wieskirche

The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.

The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.

The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.

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