Sauve-Majeure Abbey Author:Jacques Houlet, Max Sarradet On a fold of ground, amid quiet roads, in the calm landscape of Guyenne known as Entre-deux-mers -- so rich in famous wines -- rise pronouncedly the sumptuous ruins of the former Abbey of La Sauve-Majeure. From afar, one sees first the Gothic bell-tower, both elegant and massive; it is still shaped by its Romanesque solidity, but its first-floor... more » windows flanked by small columns and the trefoiled second-floor windows, together with its open parapet, leave no doubt that it is indeed a Gothic monument. But the great splendour of La Sauve is Romanesque. This majestic ensemble, now cleared of brambles and ivy thanks to the efforts of the government department responsible for historical monuments, reveals, in spite of its terrible mutilations, one of the finest pieces of the architecture of Aquitaine. Twenty years of patient work have made it again possible to offer the visitor a serene stopping-place, and the speech of one of the great voices of silence.
The travelers who stop here at a bend in the rod to Spain are walking in the footsteps of the pilgrims who journeyed to Compostela.« less