Saint Blaise Church

The Church of Saint-Blaise is a Romanesque church in the Auvergne region of France, located in La Godivelle. Saint-Blaise church stands at an altitude of 1,200 meters in the center of the village of La Godivelle, between Lac d’En-Haut (a volcanic crater lake) and Lac d’En-Bas (a glacial lake), in(…)

The Church of Saint-Blaise is a Romanesque church in the Auvergne region of France, located in La Godivelle. Saint-Blaise church stands at an altitude of 1,200 meters in the center of the village of La Godivelle, between Lac d’En-Haut (a volcanic crater lake) and Lac d’En-Bas (a glacial lake), in the heart of the Cézallier massif.

The nave and choir were built in the 11th and 12th centuries.

The bell tower, destroyed during the French Revolution, was rebuilt in the 19th century. The slate-roofed church at La Godivelle is built in large-scale ashlar.

It is best known for its fine 12th-century Romanesque chevet, consisting of a single semicircular apse adorned with short, prominent pilasters, each surmounted by a short column.

The chevet is surmounted by a widely overhanging cornice supported by six sculpted modillions representing six of the seven deadly sins: lust, pride, anger, sloth, envy and avarice.

The seventh capital sin, gluttony, is depicted just above the axial window in the chevet.

The church also features a portal framed by slender columns supporting an ogival archivolt.