ABBEY CHURCH SAINT-PIERRE-SAINT-PAUL
Church among the oldest and most remarkable churches in Limousin
One of the oldest and most remarkable Limousin churches. The abbey complex was founded by Saint Eloi in the 7th century. Of the whole, only the church remains today (built for the most part in the second quarter of the 12th century). But what a church! A majestic building which welcomes you as soon as you enter the village of Solignac with its impressive dimensions (70 meters long) and its magnificent apse. Destroyed several times, it was restored identically in the 17th and 18th centuries and has had a very tumultuous history since the Revolution (prison, boarding school, porcelain factory, place of retreat, refuge after the Second World War). It has a single nave about 15 metres wide, a sanctuary in the apse on which three apsidioles open without ambulatory, arcature decorations, domes on pendentives, numerous carved capitals and fifty-six stalls with a great variety of carved subjects, a mural painting of Saint Christopher (15th century), and especially the copper reliquary arm of Saint Eloi and the bust of Saint Théau. The abbey church is open all the time from 9 am to 6 pm except during religious services.
