La Chaise-Dieu: Abbey, Town History and Hiking Trails

The abbey is the historic focal point of the medieval town of La Chaise-Dieu: the town gradually grew up around the monastery. There are also routes on a range of themes, from tapestries and music to local legends and traces of water use. If you are looking for a hotel, you can plan your travel dates around whether the abbey tour, the festival or a hiking trail is your main focus.

Abbey and Tapestries

The abbey was founded in the mid-11th century by Saint Robert de Turlande. Its museum tour is open from April to November. It includes the church, cloister, tapestry nave in the former Notre-Dame Chapel, exhibition rooms and the Hall of Echoes. Check seasonal visiting arrangements before your trip.

A themed guided tour focuses on the tapestries. It covers the history of their commission, weaving techniques, materials used and iconographic themes. The tour is offered seasonally. When planning your trip, you can decide whether to include the abbey tour alone or also the in-depth tapestry tour.

The Medieval Town and More of Its History

A free map of the medieval town is available on request from the tourist information office. It can help you discover houses with ornate façades and remains of the fortified town walls. This means the town can be explored not only through its origins around the abbey, but also through surviving traces of its earlier buildings and fortifications.

Another historic building is the Chapelle des Pénitents. It is located in a former monks’ refectory dating from the 15th century. In the early 19th century, the Brotherhood of the White Penitents converted the refectory into a chapel. The building’s present name and its former use belong to different periods in its history.

Festival and Music

The La Chaise-Dieu Festival takes place every year at the end of August. Its programme includes around thirty ticketed concerts, free serenades and musicology lectures. The festival was founded in 1966 by Hungarian pianist Georges Cziffra. If music is a focus of your trip, you can take this annual event into account when choosing your dates; check the exact dates in advance.

Hiking Trails and Their Themes

The La Chaise-Dieu–Le Puy-en-Velay route successively follows the GR® de Pays de Robe de Bure et Cotte de Mailles, the GR® 40 Tour des volcans du Velay and the GR® 765 Chemin de Saint-Jacques. Place des Moines car park is recommended for this route. As practical car park information may change, check the recommendation before you travel.

On PR620 Le Serpent d’or, information boards tell local legends. Along the route, springs, ponds, rivers, drainage ditches and irrigation systems follow one another. While the boards explore stories, the waterways and water management shape the sequence of landscape features. The route description thus offers different points of interest for hikers drawn both to local traditions and to the use of water.

When choosing your travel dates, you can distinguish between an abbey visit and the festival: the museum tour is open from April to November, while the festival takes place every year at the end of August. Check the exact visiting and event dates, as well as availability at your preferred hotel, before booking.

Discover more destinations: Bains, Chomelix, Saint-Vénérand, Solignac-Sous-Roche, Monistrol-D'allier, Varennes-Saint-Honorat, Saint-Didier-En-Velay, Lorlanges.

For the regional travel overview: Haute-Loire.