Routes Santiago de Compostela - TOULOUSE, basilica Saint-Sernin

Reference : FR104

POSTCARD AVAILABLE FOR TRADE
Size : 10 x 15 cm

"TOULOUSE (Haute-Garonne) - La Basilique St-Sernin, XIème siècle"

Location of TOULOUSE in FRANCE :

The Way of St. James or St. James' Way (Spanish : El Camino de Santiago, French : Chemin de St-Jacques) is the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in northwestern Spain, where tradition has it that the remains of the apostle Saint James are buried.

The Way of St. James is said to have originated in France, where it is called Le Chemin de St. Jacques de Compostelle. This is the reason that the Spanish themselves refer to the Way of St. James as "the French road", since most of the pilgrims they saw were French. The origin of the pilgrimage is most often cited as the Codex Calixtinus, which is decidedly a French document. Though in the Codex everyone was called upon to join the pilgrimage, there were four main starting points in the Cathedral cities of Tours, Vézelay, Le Puy-en-Velay and Arles. They are today all routes of the Grande Randonnée network.

TOULOUSE

Toulouse is a city in southwest France on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Toulouse metropolitan area is the sixth-largest in France.
Toulouse was the capital of the former province of Languedoc (provinces were abolished during the French Revolution). It is now the Chef-lieu of the Midi-Pyrénées region, the largest region in metropolitan France. It is also the Chef-lieu of the Haute-Garonne department.

BASILICA SAINT-SERNIN

The Basilica of St. Sernin is a church in Toulouse, France, the former abbey church of the Abbey of St. Sernin or St. Saturnin. It was built in the Romanesque style between about 1080 and 1120. It is located on the site of a previous basilica of the 4th century which contained the body of Saint Saturnin or Sernin, the first bishop of Toulouse in c. 250.

The abbey of St. Sernin was an ancient foundation, but its importance increased enormously after Charlemagne donated a quantity of relics to it, as a result of which it became an important stop for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela, and a pilgrimage location in its own right. The current building was built to accommodate these pilgrims.

The plan of the abbey church here was also used in the construction of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, "begun in 1082, too direct a copy to have been done by any but St. Sernin's own architect or his favorite pupil", but finished much earlier.

The stone that killed Simon de Montfort in 1218, while he was besieging Toulouse, was thrown from the roof of St. Sernin's.

In 1860, Viollet-le-Duc restored the church, but his changes are currently being removed to restore the original appearance.

More on Basilica Saint-Sernin official website (in french)

THE ARLES WAY

The route from Italy, the Via Tolosana, becomes the Arles Way (French : La voie d'Arles or Chemin d'Arles) in southern France, named after that principal cathedral city. It goes through Montpellier, Toulouse and Oloron-Sainte-Marie before reaching the Spanish border at Col du Somport in the high Pyrenees. There it connects to the Aragonese Way, and as such is the only French route not to connect to the Camino Francés at Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port.

UNESCO w.h.s. :
Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France

Date of inscription : 1998

Santiago de Compostela was the supreme goal for countless thousands of pious pilgrims who converged there from all over Europe throughout the Middle Ages. To reach Spain pilgrims had to pass through France, and the group of important historical monuments included in this inscription marks out the four routes by which they did so.