PLACE SAINT-GERAUD

A Romanesque façade with arcades and colonnettes can be seen here, which certainly belonged to a hospice on the route of the Compostelle pilgrims. Next door is a late ^15th-century colonial house and, in the middle of the square, the ^12th-century fountain with its monolithic green serpentine vat. This fountain once stood in the abbey's cloister, and even today, its provenance and, above all, its transport remain a mystery. The Church of Saint-Géraud is a former abbey church that bears witness to a complex architectural evolution - see above. Also on view are the former Bourse du Travail and, just off the square, a number of half-timbered houses, including the ^15th-century Maison des Chanoines. This is where the canons of the Saint-Géraud chapter occasionally lived after the abbey's secularization in 1569 and the destruction of the monastic enclosure by Protestants in 1569.