Saint-Junien - Saint-Junien

Legends tell, that Saint Junien has lived here as a hermit for 40 years. After Junien´s death (540) Bishop Roric from nearby Limoges had an oratorium built over the tomb. The oratorium soon was a place of pilgrimage and got enlarged over the next decades

Gregory of Tours was impressed, when he visited the place in 593. This church got lost within the 9th century.

Two centuries later a collegiate church got erected. It got consecrated by Raynaud, Bishop of Périgueux in 1100. The church got altered and enlarged a couple of times, but the collegiate lost the importance it had during the time of pilgrimage.

It existed though upto the French Revolution, when it got looted. After that the church was used as "Temple of Reason", a prison and (like many churches) as a storage room for explosive saltpetre. The structure must have been in bad condition, as the crossing tower collapsed in 1816. It it got rebuilt from wood on a smaller scale. The collegiate church got restaurated in the second half of the 19th century, but in 1922 the wooden tower collapsed and caused lots of damage.

The relics of Saint Julien were kept in a sacrophag from the 6th century on. This got entombed in the 12th century in this large, precious shrine. The shrine was placed behind an altar. The left part of the shrine was integrated in that altar and so is artless.