8 March 2026
Saint Michel d'Aiguilhe – the Chapel Built atop a Volcanic Plug
Back in the year 951, a French bishop was celebrating his return from a major pilgrimage. It had taken Bishop Godescalc many weeks to go from his home of Le Puy-en-Velay in France to Santiago de Compostela, almost 500 miles away in Spain and on his return he decided to celebrate. On the route his pilgrimage took, he had visited many shrines and chapels and so he decided to build one himself so that future pilgrims could use it as their own starting point. As Le Puy had a remarkable geological feature – a volcanic plug 279 feet (85 metres) high, that must have seemed like a very good place indeed to build a chapel. Image Credit
In fact, Godescalc wasn’t quite the first person to come up with that idea. The Dean of the local cathedral, Truannas, had previously requested that a chapel be built atop the volcanic plug. Local chronicles show that at this time the town was being ravaged by plague, and the dean had vowed to Saint Michael the Archangel that he would build a chapel there if the plague ceased. It did and so, the vow was fulfilled. Whether Bishop Godescalc’s pilgrimage was also an attempt to alleviate the plague through prayer and penance on his journey has been lost to history, but it is these two men who we must thank for the chapel’s existence.
Why Saint Michael? In the Christian tradition, the warrior
of God is also the patron saint of mountaintops and high places in general. Aiguilhe translates as needle and this slim
but ancient plug must have seemed simply appropriate to dedicate the chapel to
this particular archangel. Hearts may
have risen when the top was reached, but many must have sunk at the prospect of
climbing to such a height. The 268
stairs, even today, remain the only way to gain access to the chapel.
Did I mention there were 268 stairs leading to the chapel? The climb is not for the faint-hearted.
You might not want to look down, either...
It is believed that the chapel was originally completed in 961
and there was great fanfare when it was dedicated and then consecrated. It took a while for pilgrims to arrive en
masse, as it were, but in the 11th century they started to come in
even greater numbers, so the building was enlarged to accommodate them. This included the addition of the bell tower
and the porch in front of he nave. The chapel was also raised to abbey status
at this time. In later years, buildings
were also built to house the serving priest, meaning that he could be resident
at the church rather than make the tiring journey up the steps painstakingly
carved into the rock of the volcanic plug.
The French are, unsurprisingly, proud of the chapel, It was included in the country’s very first
list of historical monuments in 1840. As
recently as 2022, it was voted the 4th favorite monument of the
French people in a poll. 1955 was also a
landmark year – as it heralded restoration work but also a fantastic
discovery. As the work progressed, the
marble facing the high altar had to be moved.
Below it, workers discovered a previous altar slab made from the local rock. When this, too, was removed it revealed a circular
cavity hewn into the volcanic rock – and inside it, a hoard was discovered.
The items found were from the 1000s or early 1100s and
included a silver cross, to be worn across the chest, a wooden crucifix in
Byzantine style, and an ivory casket containing another silver cross. These,
and the other finds, were left beneath the altar. Later, however, they were recovered once more
and put on display so that visitors could see the collection of pilgrimage
objects, perhaps just before they set off on their own trek.
But old that these discovered objects may be, the story of the rock on which it stands begins far earlier. Around two million years ago, the basin of Puy-en-Velay was covered by an immense lake. Beneath its waters, volcanic eruptions slowly shaped the landscape. As lava forced its way upward, it encountered large quantities of water near the surface. The contact triggered numerous small explosions that shattered the molten rock into fine fragments. These particles quickly fell back into the lake, where they accumulated in layers and gradually fused together.
Over time, this process created a type of rock known as
volcanic tuff. Each explosion also caused chunks of rock to collapse within the
volcanic chimney. As a result, the rock formation is made up of large slabs
that stand almost vertically today, a fragile pile-up of debris that once
filled the deep volcanic vent.
Little wonder, that two million years later, Bishop
Godescalc peered up at this incredible formation and decided something. If
Michael the Archangel, the patron saint of high places, needed a place to rest and to pray, then the
towering volcanic plug was the perfect spot.
