Abbaye de Gellone
The ancient Benedictine Abbaye de Gellone in Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert was founded c. 800 by (now) St Guillaume de Gellone. It became a tremendously important pilgrimage destination because it houses a piece of the true cross, given to the abbey by none other than Charlemagne (Charles the Great) himself. For those not aware of such things, we are told that every time a piece of the true cross was cut off, the cross healed itself; hence the impressive amount of holy cross timber now spread across Europe. Sadly, we did not get to see this relic, but across the crucial centuries, it attracted pilgrims and serious money, making this abbey a very wealthy establishment. As time passed, the abbey saw vast swings of the pendulum, going from great wealth in its early days to utter ruin by the Protestants (1568), then back into use until the Revolution of 1790, which saw some of the outer buildings be dismantled. The cloister's sculptures were (unbelievably) sold to a certai...