Journée du patrimoine Site de St Georges de Camboulas
10:30am to 5pm: Discover St Georges, a 12th-century Romanesque church overlooking the gorges of the Viaur valley. Free admission.
12th-century Romanesque church with fortified arcaded bell tower. Above the portal is a fragment of a tympanum depicting Christ the Judge, which may have come from the former cathedral of Rodez.
Nearby is an oratory dating from the 16th century.
Legend: At the beginning of the Christian era, Saint George, pursued by the Saracens, ordered his horse to jump the Viaur valley in order to flee his pursuers. His horse's hooves left their mark on the rock beneath the church of Saint Georges. In the 12th century, Christians built a church very close to the spot where the miracle occurred. The fortified bell tower was built on an ancient oppidum.
Tympanum: According to a very plausible hypothesis, the tympanum of Saint Georges comes from the portal of the former cathedral of Rodez, thus saved from total ruin. The resemblance with the Christ of Conques is striking, even if the style here appears more archaic.
This sculptural ensemble is said to be one of the oldest monumental last judgments.
Nearby: Around the building, you can see sarcophagi carved into the rock (6th-10th centuries) and, nearby, an oratory built in 1545, whose pillars are adorned with the coat of arms of Raymond Fredaud (horse brakes), canon-worker at Rodez cathedral