6. Auxerre to Ouanne

Saint Germain d'Auxerre, Bishop of Auxerre, was buried on October 1, 448 in the modest oratory he had founded in honour of Saint Maurice. Before the end of the same century, the oratory began to be called after the church of Saint Germain.
The real development of the abbey dates back to the 6th century, when it was rebuilt by Queen Clotilde, Clovis' second wife and Princess of Burgundia, who wanted to honour Saint Germain, and then in the 9th century during the reign of Charles the Bald. Benedictine monks are attested as early as 725. A new church of 100 metres in length was therefore built in 841-865.
The abbey is deeply transformed in the middle of the 12th century.
The abbey is vandalized and partly destroyed by the Huguenots in 1567 and the relics scattered or annihilated. The abbey is reformed by the congregation of the Benedictines of Saint-Maur in 1629. They carry out several reconstructions during two centuries of their presence.
Saint Colomban and his companions in 610 stopped to pray before the relics of Saint Germain. Where were they at that time?
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The crypt of Saint-Germain Abbey
The 9th century Carolingian crypts, built around the tomb of Saint-Germain (378 - 448) are decorated with murals that are remarkable for their preservation and their age, as they are the oldest in France. They represent in particular The Ecstasy and The Stoning of Saint Stephen.
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The Clock Tower is a clock tower from the 15th century. It was at this time that the Count of Auxerre granted the town the right to own a clock and a belfry. The tower was built on the square base of an ancient Gallo-Roman city gate, a vestige of the foundations of the castrum. The belfry and the clock symbolized the communal liberties. Previously this tower was used as a prison. Inscriptions in Hebrew would still be visible on some walls, which would indicate the existence of a Jewish community in the Middle Ages.
The special feature of the clock is its two hands. Distinguished from each other by the sun or the moon planted at their ends, they give the solar and lunar movements.

In Avigneau, once a place of pilgrimage to the Holy Queen, a virgin martyr in Burgundy in the 3rd century, this chapel has just been restored. Archaeological rescue excavations have been carried out.

Read Report on archaeological excavations

Now desecrated, it has become an exhibition hall for artists in summer.

Private property, the Renaissance castle, restored in the 17th century, cannot be visited, but a footpath that runs along it allows you to admire it.
The first mentions of this castle date back to the 14th century. By taking the private path, but accessible to walkers, you will follow the last moat spanned by a stone bridge, the main access to this building, two towers recall the limits of the old castle. The inner courtyard forms a quadrilateral with the outbuildings which have now partly disappeared. The elegance of this construction is in harmony with the rural setting of the place.
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The Notre-Dame d'Ouanne church, rebuilt between 1495 and 1520 thanks to the generosity of the families of the Ulmes and Beaujeu, illustrates quite well the influence of flamboyant Gothic in the Auxerrois region. It consists of a nave of three vessels, whose sides extend in a wander around a pentagonal choir. A seigneurial chapel, probably later, is grafted onto the northern ambulatory. The whole building is vaulted on cross-heads, with keys hanging in the choir.

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