Saint Benedict Abbey

Guided visit of this Basilica from the XIth and XIIth centuries.
This jewel of Romanesque architecture shelters Saint Benedict’s relics and presents a bell tower decorated with 12 Romanesque capitals, each telling a story. Around 630, monks from Orleans, created the Monastery of Fleury, in Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire.  It is one of the first in Gaul to live in accordance with Holy Benedict’s rule.
In the VIIth century, after asking the Pope officially, the monks of Fleury decided to go to look for their Master’s relics, abandoned in the ruins of the Monte Casino Monastery, in Italy.
They transferred Saint Benedict’s body to their monastery on the banks of the river Loire where he would protect them.
This is the origin of a cult that was to help spread the Benedictine Rule throughout the western world.