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FLAVIGNY
. Although no longer a major provincial center, Flavigny-sur-Ozerain (Côte-d’Or) retains
fascinating medieval monuments and archaeological sites of artistic and historical
interest, including the abbey of Saint-Pierre de Flavigny. Established in 719 by
Wideradus, a nobleman of Burgundy, the Benedictine abbey was first dedicated to St.
Prix, bishop of Clermont and martyr, although St. Peter soon became the dominant
titular. Though no structures survive from this early period, as a prestigious monastery
Flavigny maintained an important scriptorium by the end of the 8th century. Despite the
turmoil of the 9th century, the community succeeded in translating the relics of St.
Regina from nearby Alise in 866 under the dynamic abbacy of Ergilo. Subsequent abbots
secured the continued prosperity and expansion of Flavigny, and as a town began to form
around the abbey from the 10th century onward parish churches and fortifications were
constructed. Following occupation by the English in the 14th century, the town was
refortified in the late 14th and 15th centuries. In 1644, the Benedictines of Saint-Maur
reformed the abbey and occupied it until its demise and sale in the 18th century.
The abbey church of Flavigny, largely ruined today, retains two 8th-century
Carolingian crypts, unusual and valuable survivals of early-medieval architecture. The
first occupies the lowest level and has been associated with the relics of St. Regina.
Originally semicircular in plan with four bays to the west, it was later altered to create a
hexagonal terminus. The second, often linked to the 878 dedication by Pope John VIII, is
constructed one level up and to the east with two bays, small aisles, and a hexagonal
apse. In addition to a Romanesque reworking of the church in the early 11th century, a
Gothic campaign of construction is dated 1180–1230. Within the remains of the church
and crypt, rare examples of pre-Romanesque and Romanesque sculpture of ornamental
vegetal forms on pilasters and capitals are still to be found. A cloister was added ca.
1125, with sculpture in the tradition of Cluny III and Moutiers-Saint-Jean.
The parish church of Saint-Genest, with its narrow nave and refined floral capitals,
offers a late example of Burgundian Gothic architecture. It also houses several
Burgundian sculptures of the 15th century. A number of medieval houses survive from
the 13th century through the 16th, with such architectural details as trilobed arches and
mullioned stone windows. Buret-Vitello, an exemplar of Flamboyant Gothic domestic
architecture from the late 15th century, includes ogive arches and a statuary niche.
During the late-medieval centuries of prosperity, Flavigny was also given the right of
fortification. Both the Porte du Val (13th c. and later) and the Porte du Bourg (mid-15th
c.) are valuable survivals of defensive structures.
Leslie Blake DiNella
The Encyclopedia 671