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Origin and history

The church Saint-Sébastien de Manglieu, located in the Puy-de-Dôme in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, is an abbey in the Auvergnat Romanesque style. Founded around 656 by Saint Genès, bishop of Clermont-Ferrand, it initially housed his tomb. The monastery, located near an ancient road linking Clermont to Nîmes, was one of the most influential in the Kingdom of Aquitaine under the Merovingians and Carolingians.

In the eighth century, the abbey was described as a closed complex with two churches (one dedicated to the Virgin, the other to the Apostles), a cloister and an orchard. The church of the Apostles, with a flat bedside, presents columns in cipolin marble of ancient inspiration, perhaps merovingian. Charlemagne placed it under his protection in 806 and Louis le Pieux rebuilt it in 819. The privileges of the abbey were confirmed by Pépin I of Aquitaine in 834, before its partial destruction during Norman invasions in the 9th century.

In 959, the church received relics from St Sebastian and adopted this term. In the 12th century, a rostrum-shaped narthex was added, characteristic of the large churches of Auvergne. The nave, rebuilt in the sixteenth century, preserves Romanesque walls pierced by Gothic windows. The square bell tower, mounted around 1610, crowns the narthex. The abbey, the chief order until 1716, was attached to Cluny to escape episcopal authority, before its abolition in 1777.

Ranked among the first French historical monuments in 1840, the church houses remarkable furniture: an 11th century coffin, Merovingian and Carolingian tumular plates, as well as baptismal fonts. The choir, on a simple plane (rectangular and square track), retains traces of a triangular brick pediment. The ancient columns of the triumphal arch, perhaps used again in the 15th century, highlight its pre-Roman heritage.

The remains of the cloister, north of the Abbey, testify to its medieval monastic organization. Transformed into a parish church after 1777, it now embodies nearly 1,400 years of religious and architectural history, from Merovingian origins to modern restorations.

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