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 Conques
Major classified site, a UNESCO world heritage site.
Created by the faith, the minds and the hands of monks during the
10th -12th centuries, the site of Conques, a major stage on the
road to Santiago de Compostella, is a masterpiece of Romanesque
art. The abbey and the cloisters rank among the most beautiful expressions
of ornamental sculpture from the Middle Ages.
Conques has guarded its fabulous collection of gold treasures for
12 centuries, among which the jewel in the crown is the the reliquary
statue of Sainte-Foy, quite simply a masterpiece, a unique example
of medieval art in the western world.
The village of Conques, with its narrow lanes and its old houses
with their sloping roofs, covered in 'lauzes', remains little changed
and retains its millenial purity.
The new windows in the abbey, created by Pierre Soulages, respect
and magnify the Romanesque austerity.
 Montpellier-le-Vieux
Aveyron boasts the largest collection of dolmens in France
(more than 800).
Unlike menhirs, whose purpose is not known for sure, dolmens are
funereal monuments whose origins in Rouergue date from between 3500-2200BC.
Normally erected on dominant sites by the rural communities, they
served as collective tombs. They are made out of giant blocks of
limestone, one lying horizontally across two verticals (orthostates),
together delimiting the burial ground (cella), closed to the west
and open to the east.
The Musée du Rouergue at Salles la Source offers a very
interesting permanent exhibition devoted to the megliths of the
Causse Comtal.
The menhir statues:
They remain one the great enigmas of the copper era in pre-history.
Aveyron knows a thing or two about them, as it is home to 60 of
the 111 examples found in the "groupe rouergat".
An appellation, like a label, shared with the Tarn and Hérault
where the other half of these mysterious figures reside.
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