"Location
The chapel is located at the foot of the volcanic peak on which is the church of Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe.
History
The chapel was built in the 12th century as the chapel of the Saint-Nicolas hospital founded by Bernard, guardian of the sanctuary in 1088. The building was classified as a historical monument in 1889.
Architecture
The chapel is built of volcanic ashlar and arkose, and is covered with slate. It has a centered octagonal plan extended by a semi-circular apse.
Each facade of the chapel is decorated with polychrome stone mosaics surmounting a projecting arch supported by two columns surmounted by highly stylized carved capitals. The arches of these arches are decorated with balls and polychrome keystones for some of them.
Some of them are adorned with a trefoil arch, the simplest type of polyfoil arch, characteristic of the Umayyad architecture of the Caliphate of Cordoba which spread into French Romanesque architecture through the influence of the pilgrims along the main French routes of the Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and, in particular, along the Via Podiensis which passes through Aiguilhe.
Dominique Kaeppelin, visual artist and sculptor from Puy-en-Velay, arranged the choir and made a cross."