Crypte Saint-Martial

From the 9th century onwards, the Benedictine abbey of Saint Martial stood on the site of today's Place de la République. An important stopover and place of meditation on the Route Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, it was also an artistic and intellectual center for the entire medieval Christian West. Indeed, a scriptorium (workshop where manuscripts were produced) had developed in the abbey, and from the 10th to the 12th century, the art of illumination enjoyed its golden age here....